When to Use Reviews vs. Surveys for Resident Feedback

At Widewail, the focus is on the power of online reviews—how they elevate a business’s online reputation and provide critical insights into customer sentiment. However, there are countless other ways to gauge customer sentiment, surveys being one of the most effective.

In this post, we’ll explore the unique strengths of reviews and surveys, and how leveraging them together can elevate your property’s reputation and the resident experience.

Surveys

An online survey is a digital questionnaire used to collect feedback, opinions, or data from respondents over the internet. It typically consists of multiple-choice, open-ended, or scaled questions, allowing organizations to gather insights efficiently. 

For property managers, surveys are typically used to gather valuable feedback from residents about their living experience, maintenance services, and community amenities. They help assess resident satisfaction, identify areas for improvement, and even guide future property upgrades. Regularly timed surveys ensure you stay connected and in tune with resident needs.  While different for every property, we recommend sending a detailed survey to residents annually or semi-annually. This helps build stronger relationships and maintain a positive living environment.

Pros: 

• Quick data collection: Surveys are a great way to get more detailed information about a specific topic. Want to know what kind of exercise equipment your residents want before a big gym renovation? Or, perhaps you need insight into how they feel about the parking situation? A survey will get you the information you need without needing to wait for loose data to accumulate and paint the picture for you over months/years. 
• Cost-effective: Surveys are a low-cost way to engage directly with your residents. They allow you to ask consistent questions across the board, helping you gather insights that can enhance your services, offerings, and overall resident experience.
• Easy data analysis: No fancy AI software is needed to break down survey data. You can efficiently review and apply survey insights, avoiding the complexity and effort required to analyze more intricate data from other sources.

Cons: 

• Low response rates: Surveys often suffer from low response rates due to survey fatigue, lack of incentives, privacy concerns, and, most notably, people simply don't enjoy filling them out. When a resident leaves a review on Google, they want to share a personal experience. In contrast, surveys can seem impersonal and easy to overlook.
• Poor data: A poorly written survey will yield results that are, frankly, unusable. Even a well-written survey might reveal more questions than answers. This ties into survey fatigue: sending too many surveys, especially when they cover the same topic, can bring exponentially worse response rates, so make sure to limit survey sending to key moments in the resident lifecycle (move-in, move-out) and special events (management changes, property renovations.)
• No impact on online reputation: Surveys are private, so they don’t boost your online reputation. If your residents have positive feedback, reviews are the best way to share it with the public and increase your visibility.

Reviews

Two birds, one stone: reviews are key to understanding resident sentiment, improving your online reputation, and boosting SEO. 

Pros:

• Genuine customer feedback: Reviews are real, unfiltered feedback from your residents. They’ll tell you what residents love and what still needs some work.
• New or unknown information: Unlike surveys, which target specific previously selected topics, reviews reflect uninfluenced thoughts of your residents. These insights will often reveal issues that would otherwise go unnoticed by management, especially if more than one or two residents have the same experience.
• Improve visibility and SEO: Reviews are public and often positive, making them valuable for attracting prospective residents. When your review page is active, meaning you have a high volume of recent reviews and are committed to responding, it can boost your Google Business Profile's ranking. This increased visibility gives you a competitive edge.

Cons:

• Not targeted to specific issues: If you want to narrow the scope of feedback to just a single topic, reviews are not an efficient tool. Review campaigns give you more freedom here, but typically surveys are better at capturing specific feedback.
• Take time to accumulate: Unlike the immediate results of a survey, reviews take time to accrue and present actionable insights. Finding unique and engaging ways to ask for reviews is a great way to speed things up. Check out our review request guide for inspiration.
• Difficult to interpret: Review data builds up over an indefinite period and has a wide variety of feedback to offer property managers. Partnering with a reputation management team can alleviate the hassle of breaking down such complex data and make it easy for PMs to understand and use.

Reviews vs. Surveys in Practice: Which is better?

Addressing Rent and Surcharge Concerns: 

Reviews are often more effective for addressing rent and surcharge concerns. They provide real-time, candid feedback and can signal pricing dissatisfaction immediately. However, surveys still are of value when it comes to pricing issues. They offer a more targeted approach, allowing you to ask specific questions related to rent and ensuring more comprehensive (and perhaps less emotionally charged) feedback.

Maintenance and Repair Feedback: 

For detailed insights into maintenance and repairs surveys are more reliable. They allow residents to provide specific feedback on response times, quality of work, and overall satisfaction. Reviews may highlight major issues but often lack detailed information for actionable improvements.

Gathering Input on Community Amenities:

Surveys are ideal for evaluating community amenities. They let managers collect feedback across a range of features and prioritize improvements. While reviews can highlight key issues, they often miss the full scope of resident preferences. Plus, surveys focus on feedback from those who have used the amenities, rather than prospects touring the community.

Evaluating Move-In/Move-Out Experiences:

Reviews offer an unfiltered, emotional perspective on residents’ feelings during these transitions, giving a raw snapshot of their experience. Surveys, however, allow managers to ask targeted questions, making it easier to pinpoint and address specific concerns. Combining both can give a well-rounded view of what’s working and what needs improvement.

Assessing Staff Performance: 

During the move-in phase, onsite teams are highlighted in 74.4% of positive reviews. Reviews provide valuable public feedback on staff interactions, helping gauge performance and shape your property’s reputation. Surveys, on the other hand, offer private, detailed insights, making it easier to identify areas for staff training and development. By using both reviews and surveys, you get a full picture of public perception and internal performance.

When it comes to gathering resident feedback, both reviews and surveys play unique and crucial roles. Reviews offer genuine, public insights that enhance your property’s reputation and provide unfiltered feedback. Surveys allow for more targeted, private responses, offering detailed information that can guide internal improvements.

By leveraging both tools, property managers can gain a more comprehensive understanding of resident sentiment, from the emotional, real-time reactions found in reviews to the specific, actionable insights gathered from surveys. This dual approach improves resident satisfaction while strengthening your property’s performance and online visibility, helping you stay ahead in a competitive market.