The following post is the third in a four-part series discussing the implications of online user reviews and ratings for senior housing communities. These 5 suggestions are designed to help senior housing providers more effectively maintain their reputation online.
1. Be attentive –
In order to maintain your online reputation, you need to know when and where it’s being called into question. This means keeping an ear to the ground on the web, which can be done fairly easily.
Free services such as Google Alerts – which sends you an e-mail whenever it finds your selected keywords in a search – make it easy to see when your brand is being mentioned on the internet.
During the SNAPforSeniors beta for user comments, we offered the option to “subscribe” to a community listing. This sent the subscriber an automated e-mail whenever a comment was posted about that community. Most sites with comments or reviews offer similar functionality.
2. Don’t lose your cool –
Unless a post violates a website’s terms of use or you have incontrovertible evidence of its fallacy, it’s very unlikely you’ll compel them to remove it.
It’s not that these sites aren’t worried about false claims, they simply have a healthier fear of something else: damage to their own reputation.
If a site built on facilitating an open exchange of reviews and commentary gets a reputation for censorship, users will simply go elsewhere.
This is why complaining about a post or threatening legal action won’t get you anywhere (well, that and the 1st Amendment). More importantly, such brinkmanship will confirm that the behavior of the offending party has had its intended effect, encouraging more attacks.
Chances are you’ll run into someone who’s less than thrilled with your community; such is life! It can be frustrating, and while there isn’t much you can do to stop them, there are a few things you can do to mitigate the impact of their spite.
3. Engage in the conversation –
There is no reason to allow someone making a negative post about your facility to have the last word. By making comments of your own which refute the allegations (without calling the person a liar) you make it a two-way conversation.
Point to objective measures if possible, such as inspection reports. If this isn’t an option, simply lay out a case for why you are a great senior housing provider. Giving your side of the story will help humanize your community and show that you care about how you are perceived.
Remember that the goal is never to convince the person attacking your reputation that they’re wrong. Approach the situation as if you are simply trying to inoculate other potential residents against their negative messages.
4. Don’t be deceptive –
I looked at nearly every post about senior housing communities during the beta period for comments on SNAPforSeniors, and a few things became apparent.
A) When someone maliciously attacked a community, it was fairly obvious that they had ulterior motives, and thus was easy to take with a grain of salt.
B) When a facility posted a fake testimonial from a “resident”, it was pretty obvious that they also had ulterior motives, causing a similar dismissal.
Online peer reviews seem to hold nearly as much weight as their traditional word-of-mouth counterparts. However, the anonymity inherent to the medium has turned many online consumers (myself included) into ardent skeptics.
People generally don’t heap out gushing, superlative-laden praise in online reviews and comments. And while a loving senior housing provider certainly deserves to be applauded, fake testimonials almost always feel wrong.
Transparency is vital. Be sure to identify yourself as a representative of the community, and invite feedback. Exhibiting an earnest desire to improve will go a long way towards winning people over.
Fake comments wear thin and detract from the credibility of real testimonials from residents or family members who have had a great experience with your community. This brings us to:
5. Be proactive –
You do have residents or family members that have had a great experience with your community, right? Well if so, encourage them to spread the word!
As I mentioned, I read nearly every comment during the beta period. For every negative comment there were five from (real) people who were genuinely impressed with the way their family members were treated.
Comments from real residents and family members have a palpable authenticity, and can help make up a prospective resident’s mind. They also take the wind out of a negative comment’s sails and can help bury them down on the page.
Try sending an e-mail to the family members of residents whom you know are happy with your performance encouraging them to post a comment. Include a link directly to the page, making it as simple for them as possible.
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As a senior housing provider, have you ever dealt with a troublesome individual online before? How did you handle the situation?
While the suggestions above are a great start, it certainly isn’t an exhaustive list of methods for maintaining your reputation on the internet. If you have any suggestions that I’ve missed, I’d love to hear them.
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About the author: Grant Milne is a communications specialist with SNAPforSeniors and the managing editor of Senior Housing Insights. He can be reached at grant.milne@snapforseniors.com.