Feedback Fatigue: The Hybrid Approach to Multifamily Feedback ft. Janet Rosseth

Customer feedback isn’t just a nice-to-have—it’s critical for refining your marketing strategy and staying ahead. In Season 1 Episode 5 of Feedback Fatigue, Janet Rosseth, Founder and CMO of Cadence Marketing Solutions, discusses how she turns feedback into real business growth. Listen to the full episode below: 

More Than Data Points

With two decades of multifamily industry experience, Janet has learned one key lesson: feedback is only valuable if you know how to use it. Too many companies gather feedback without a clear plan for making it work for them. 

“There’s collecting feedback, and then there’s utilizing feedback,” Janet says. Most businesses today are great at collecting—through surveys, reviews, or internal feedback systems—but fail when it comes to taking that data and turning it into real business strategies. “Identifying how you’re going to use that feedback going forward, I think, is a little blind spot for some people,” Janet says. 

Janet views feedback as more than just information—it’s a guide to what’s working and where things are going off track. But there’s a challenge: feedback comes at you fast, from all angles. Between customer reviews, employee surveys, and vendor input, businesses often find themselves flooded with opinions and insights. 

The trick, according to Janet, is to break feedback down. “Feedback comes at you from every direction. It’s about breaking it out into what’s actionable and what you can use to guide your business,” she says. 

The ability to sift through and decide what matters most separates businesses that succeed from those that flounder. Feedback should be a proactive tool, not a reactive one. Use it to shape your goals, refine your customer experience, and keep your operations in line with what your audience needs.

Janet’s Strategy 

Whether from customers, employees, or partners, feedback shapes your marketing plan. Janet’s strategy is all about structure, clarity, and making feedback (both the collection and management) a collaborative team effort. Here are some of her standout tactics:

• Diagnostic Audits: Janet’s approach starts with a deep dive into how companies handle feedback. She doesn’t come in pointing fingers. Instead, her team runs diagnostic audits that let businesses self-assess. “We go through a series of line items, kind of like an audit, on all the potential areas that marketing touches,” Janet says. This helps companies figure out where they’re performing well and where they need a little help, making it easier to prioritize action.
• Pacing for Impact: “You can’t turn a ship overnight,” Janet says. Change takes time. Her team works with companies to set realistic goals and timelines for improvement, especially when multiple areas need attention. Pacing changes allows businesses to grow without getting overwhelmed and is more sustainable.
• Aligning Feedback with Strategy: Feedback isn’t just about putting out fires—it’s about making sure your goals align with your audience’s needs. Janet says, “We do business in terms of our strategic goals, but also based on feedback posted online, in ratings, and reviews.” This ensures that the company’s vision stays in sync with customer expectations.
• Empowering Teams with Feedback: A big part of Janet’s success comes from ensuring feedback reaches the right people. “Too often, feedback comes into a centralized location, and the teams that need it—maintenance, leasing—aren’t aware of the great things being said about them,” she says. By connecting feedback to the right hands, Janet helps businesses close the loop between customer comments and real-world action. 

Tech and Feedback

In the multifamily marketing space, tech plays a massive role in how businesses operate. Janet warns against falling into the trap of relying on tech without properly integrating it into workflows. “There are a lot of breakdowns in the connections across PropTech and the human handoff,” she explains. Technology can smooth operations, but if it’s not used effectively it creates more problems than it solves.

Her solution? An audit of the company’s existing tech tools and how they’re being used. By identifying gaps and areas for improvement, Janet helps clients use tech to work smarter. But she’s quick to add that tech should never replace human interaction: “Sometimes, the human being who is actually answering the phone and physically present on the property is going to win the day,” she says. 

Striking the Balance

Janet is a firm believer in the hybrid approach—blending tech with human interaction for a seamless customer experience. While automation can handle the basics, it’s the human touch that keeps customers loyal. “Our business is very focused on human beings,” she says, pointing out that customer service and operations are still driven by personal connections. 

This hybrid model allows businesses to provide efficiency without losing the personal touch that keeps customers coming back. Janet sums it up: “When we need a human being, there’s nothing more frustrating than multiple phone prompts that never lead you to a real person.”

Making Feedback Work for You

The key to Janet’s feedback strategy is starting small and making gradual improvements. Instead of getting bogged down by all the feedback coming in, she encourages businesses to focus on one area at a time. “It’s really about taking bite-size pieces of feedback so that it’s not completely overwhelming,” she says. 

One of her top recommendations is to focus on response times. “Response time is high on the priority list,” Janet says. Whether it’s automating replies to customer inquiries or setting up better communication workflows, speeding up response times can make a big difference in customer satisfaction. 

Closing the Loop: Turning Feedback into Growth

For Janet and her team, feedback isn’t just a way to improve—it’s a roadmap to growth. “We rely on feedback data to identify whether or not we are on the right track delivering our business vision,” she says. By consistently collecting, analyzing, and acting on feedback, businesses can stay aligned with their customers and stay ahead of the competition. 

Janet’s approach shows that when multifamily marketers harness the power of feedback, they don’t just react to problems, they create better strategies and stronger teams; all of which lead to happier residents. 

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