The Lone Star Podcast: Recent Episodes
Mark
It's time for one-star reviews to have their heyday. Join Mark Renkens and a special guest for a short-and-sweet chat about online reputation and all the baggage that comes with it. If you've ever had to answer for a frustrated customer, this is the podcast for you!
The Lifecycle of Turn Season
Turn season – one of the most important times of the year for anyone in the student housing industry. The amount of time and preparation that goes into making a resident’s new home away from home a seamless experience is one that no one takes lightly. The many layers of customer service, camaraderie, and strategy that go into the process requires the whole team to stand together to give resident’s the best move in experience possible. But what more can be done for both residents and staff alike during turn season to ensure a smooth transition for all? Our host, Mark Renkens, shares his insight in the last episode of the season.
In this episode, Mark and Good Mood Marketing host Thomas walk through five of the most popular online review platforms within the real estate industry: Google, Yelp, Facebook, Apartments.com, and Apartmentratings.com. It’s sites like these that can make or break a business or community’s brand. But can each review always be trusted? Or should you believe one site more than the other? Find out more about Thomas and Mark’s insights of each platform by listening today.
Thomas Demiranda
Thomas brings a decade of experience tailoring solutions to his clients’ specific business challenges. For the past five years, he has focused his strategic and creative thinking on the multifamily, student housing, senior living, commercial, and residential real estate marketing industry. Thomas is a subject matter expert in branding and identity, traditional marketing, digital marketing and advertising, and emerging marketing trends.
In this episode, Mark and Good Mood Marketing host Katie sit down for a special topic of discussion: Rapid-fire reviews! Listen as these two talk through multiple reviews as quickly as possible while providing both informational and comedic insight.
Katie Degutis
As Vice President of Operations, Katie brings more than a decade of experience in student and multifamily housing to her role. Hired to Catalyst in May 2014, Katie has held numerous roles, including Copywriter, Senior Project Manager, and Director of Operations. Listen today to find out more about Katie’s expertise.
Every community does their absolute best to represent the premiere experience of living within their amenities, floor plans, walkable locations nearby... the list goes on. Many prospects lock in a lease because they're immediately drawn to a resort-style pool or a nice granite countertop with open space. But some will take this representation to heart when it comes to the colorful and fun experience before moving in, and the frustrating one that follows.
We are bringing TWO one-star reviews to the table today with Heather Jo Gorius, the national sales director with The Black Sheep. Our conversation talks through every element of what a great marketing strategy can look like, and what happens when the authenticity, communication and consistency aren't completely parallel to that plan. If you're listening for some key takeaways to bring to your communities, look no further.
An unfortunate scenario you can run into is a review left by someone who isn't even interacting with your business anymore. Whether they were burned by a final account statement, drove by the complex and thought of their experience, or held a four-year grudge with the managers, it can all pop right back up for us to handle in public. Our typical tactics don't really work when it comes to the on- or off-line approach.
Stephany Crow, a General Manager with Campus Life and Style, has been overseeing The Domain at Columbia, MO for almost six years, and has PLENTY to discuss when it comes to approaching difficult reviews from all angles. It's in your best interest to not just hear her out, but also SEEK her out. Her community currently holds a 4.6 with 598 reviews! Unbelievable numbers, and even better takeaways in this one - don't miss it.
Sometimes we come across a one-star review that’s ambivalent. There is likely a strong negative connotation, but perhaps in the in-betweens, we see the reviewer say what they DO in fact like about their experience. This presents a pretty advantageous opportunity to turn a review around without having to start from square one.
Press play on our newest episode of the 2023 season where we join Christian Diez, the Director of Marketing with Brohn Homes. Christian has past experience with Catalyst, and brings a decade’s span of industry experience as it pertains to dealing with customer interaction. He also happens to be one of Mark’s favorite people ever, so this one runs a tad long as a result. :)
Receptionists. They see and hear the good, the bad and the ugly. It’s typically a role that we can forget about in the ecosystem of a workplace because they tend to field so much feedback and are empowered to solve issues before they hit your inbox. It is a crucial element of what we talk about every time we see a 1-star review, primarily because they may have already interacted with the person fielding complaints for your office or business.
Lane Hahn joins us on the Lone Star Podcast this season to chat through their experience as Campus Advantage’s (AWARD-WINNING) Front Desk Coordinator, and what they bring to situations every day through phone calls, emails, and the like. The review in question details a LOT of communication fatigue, so speaking with Lane brings forth multiple takeaways and ideas for how we can bridge the gap of a miscommunication, or a lack of communication altogether. We also bond pretty heavily over some almost-traumatic experiences in our yesteryears!
It's no surprise that the person who foots the bill for an apartment would want their concerns handled swiftly and efficiently. Since the dawn of the internet, cellphones and email messaging, we see less and less of these financial decisions happening in-person. We want the simplicity of our payment process to mimic using our credit card at a grocery store. And while many communities will utilize a third-party vendor for things like this, it can still be a sticky situation when trying to help residents/guarantors navigate something.
Our guest Katie Singleton from Realync brings great solutions to third-party issues that show up in reviews year-round. With her background onsite and on the corporate side, she walks us through what the best thing to say looks like, how to ensure it goes beyond JUST saying the right thing, and lastly how to repair a relationship that was in good standing beforehand.
It's our first episode of 2023, and we're sure you're going to love it. :)
We've all felt that notion of being helpless when dealing with apartment living. Whether it's getting an update on your maintenance work order, holding out for a concession because of faulty appliances, or just a complete lack of communication from your property team, a review is often born out of the misery these occasions present.
Today's guest is Dan Oltersdorf, the Chief People Officer with Campus Advantage when accurately describes his role as "dealing with everything 'people.'" Bringing almost twnety years of experience in the student housing space, Dan helps us deduce what the bare essentials of solving a problem looks like. What are you trying to get to the heart of when you're talking about an experience you may have negatively impacted? Can you turn it around?
If you've ever left a review as your last resort, this may be the podcast for you.
A tool many city dwellers often turn to when finding their first/next home is an apartment locator. These companies are incredible, and expertly designed to assist with the heavy lifting of finding your dream location, floor-plan, amenity selection, etc. So what happens when the expectation set by the locator doesn't meet the reality of the property itself?
Our honored guest this episode is Meg Kerr, a General Manager with Smart City handling the Austin and San Antonio regions. Her expertise of how these situations are handled (especially when a review is involved) guides our entire chat, and we're sure your takeaways will be plentiful. Meg brings plenty of real-world experience, as well as literate reference to players in the industry like Horst Schulze and Dale Carnegie. Don't know 'em? Google 'em.
If you've worked in the student housing space in the last decade, there's a chance you've crossed paths with our special guest. Gino Blanco is a Group Account Director with Catalyst, and someone who has worked diligently in the arenas of digital marketing, corporate leasing as well as being on property.
This episode's review challenges the perspective of what's online vs. what's onsite, and how a resident can use short, impactful statements to speak their mind.
Can you turn around a sentiment like this, or use it as an accountability measure for your communities?
Honesty tends to be delivered in truly raw form when it comes to a one-star review. It's very stream of consciousness, invoking every element of an experience - no matter how big or small. Sometimes, it's written moments after the situation occurred. When this happens, that honesty can be very easy to read - lack of grammar/punctuation, USING ALL CAPS, an explosive amount of exclamations, "this place deserves zero stars," and so on. So how do we walk it back while also validating their feelings?
This one's good, y'all. Jasmine brings everything to this conversation, and analyzes exactly how to approach this sort of review in a very logical, compassionate environment. I mean, just look at this gold she dropped mid-podcast!
"Digital is the brain, social media is the face, PR/outreach is your voice, and reputation is the heart." - Jasmine Toney
Campus Advantage's very own Senior Vice President of Leasing and Marketing Lindsay Brown joins our chat today to discuss the kind of review we tend to overlook: the nondescript, barely written one star review. Can we paste a templated reply on there, or do we need to dig deeper? Lindsay brings 20+ years of experience to our chat (and Mark brings whatever else).
It's no shocker that amenities are a crucial element of apartment marketing, and the best or newest kind can be the very thing that helps a lease get signed. So what happens when they become the number one complaint that trends in your reviews? After all, reviews can't be the first place we learn about malfunctioning amenities... right?
Join our chat with Maximus Real Estate Partners' team members Avneesh and Stevie as we diagnose what to take from a review that directly places the responsibility of these factors on management, and what service culture can do to help.
Human resources and reputation have a very clear overlap, but do they have the same approach to solving the problems? Join our chat with Kaitlyn Vicars, the Human Resources Manager for Campus Advantage as she educates us on what best to consider with a review that reads like a laundry list of bad experiences. Who knows, maybe you'll hear an after-hours HR story! Probably not, though.
The Lone Star Podcast is a conversation catered towards discussions around one star reviews that may be familiar, funny, fake, fearful, or fantastical. You’ll join Mark Renkens, the Client Experience Manager with Catalyst Marketing in Austin, Texas. Each episode you’ll be joined by a special guest who will impart their reputation wisdom, speak on their own experience and insight, and hopefully come away with an action item or two. If you've ever encountered a negative review, this is the place for you.