Apartment Review Sites; Friend or Foe, it's up to you

Consumer Online Reviews Strongly Influence Purchase Decisions

According to a recent survey by Deloitte's Consumer Products group, consumers are turning to online reviews in large numbers, and those reviews are having a considerable impact on purchase decisions. 62 percent of consumers read consumer-written product reviews on the Internet, says the report, and of these, more than eight in 10 say their purchase decisions have been directly influenced by the reviews, either influencing them to buy a different product than the one they had originally been thinking about purchasing, or confirming the original purchase intention. [Read More Here]

If your still of the school of thought that dismisses the value of sites like apartmentratings.com, listen up. The feedback outlined in the brief above should move you to action as soon as possible. I truly think we all should open up our company websites to include a consumer and resident feedback mechanism. Instead of internal score keeping, make it completely transparent and thus authentic in nature. I would suggest that you have an editor just for the sake of carving out names and character attacks as we know they will come despite our best efforts. That in mind you have to be courageous enough to leave the meat.

I would speculate that over time the likes of For Rent and Apartment Guide will have a feedback component. Sound crazy? At the end of the day, traffic is king and if traffic goes to the consumer feedback site more often then something will have to change. I think the likes of For Rent and Apartment Guide will have no choice but to become even more "potential renter-centric" than they are now. I would love to be a fly on the wall in those strategic planning sessions.

I will be keeping an eye on this topic. Have an amazing Monday. M