Complete Guide: Online Business Listings for Property Management
When it comes to smart digital marketing, it is more vital than ever that property management companies take their online business listings seriously. Everything from keeping available properties up to date and tracking customer reviews comes down to how well property managers regularly maintain their online listings.
A Property Management Company’s Online Presence
Some property managers do not maintain a company website, and that is not necessarily a bad thing. Often, these property managers are small and focused on keeping their tenants and property owners happy.
However, property managers should do their best to invest in a tasteful website – complete with recent professional photos and helpful content.
Regardless, property management companies must market their available properties using business listings and online directories.
Exhaustive List of Online Business Listings for Property Management
Property Listings on Directories & Apps
A crucial part to setting up online business listings for property managers is listing available properties on the most popular sites/boards. It is vital that you (or someone working for you) maintain your property listings daily.
Note: while some of the sites below have “apartment” in their name, most still allow you to list homes/duplexes/etc. for rent.
Online Business Listings/Directories
Additionally, there are online directories where you should list your company. Many of them allow you to your business up for free. But because setting up and maintaining online directories can be tedious, many business owners use directory services such as Moz or Yext to take care of their directories for them.
For those that allow you to set up the directory listing yourself, I’ve linked back to the directory sign-up page.
Waze
Yahoo Local
2findlocal.com
Kudzu.com
Merchant Circle
Super Pages
Managing Property Listing Scams on Craigslist
You’ll probably notice that we did not list Craigslist as a viable online listing site. Depending upon where you rent, it may or may not be a good idea.
For some cities, residents use Craigslist so widely that it hardly makes sense to avoid it. However, Craigslist often becomes a hotbed for scam property listings.
As such, whoever maintains your online listings should also regularly scout Craigslist for scammers that grabbed your property details and photos and posted fraudulently. Otherwise, you may find that your phone rings from people with strange, inaccurate information.
Dealing with Poor Reviews Online
While setting up and maintaining your online listings will do a great deal to boost your digital marketing, you are also vulnerable to bad reviews.
Unfortunately, bad reviews are unavoidable. And the best prescription for bad reviews is to amass great reviews from customers. That’s why it’s so important you intentionally ask your happy tenants to leave your property management company good reviews.
However, should you get a poor review, the first thing you should do is investigate the reason for the poor review. If there is a way for you to resolve the issue with the customer, then the poor review can actually turn into great exposure for how well you troubleshoot problems with your customers.
Therefore, engage poor reviews with questions. Do not get defensive. Instead, glean as much information as you can from the customer. If you can, offer a “peace offering” and a promise that the issue will not arise again.
But if you are unable to appease the angry customer, simply apologize and let them know that you care about their experience. You can use the poor review as a way to publicly announce an improvement to your process or your willingness to let disgruntled customers to be heard. Ultimately, you will appear level-headed while the customer may show his/her true colors as the unreasonable one.
In summation, don’t try to delete or take poor reviews offline. Showcase your customer service in the face of adversity and be transparent. Most importantly, solicit those positive reviews.