What is the ORA™ Score?
Your ORA™ score (Online Reputation Assessment) is a numerical value between 0 and 100 that measures the strength of your property’s online reputation. It’s calculated by averaging the positive weight of all your reviews across various platforms. The higher your score, the stronger your reputation, with 100 being the highest possible score. This score considers both the quality (star rating) and quantity (review volume) of reviews pulled from a variety of review sites.
Which Review Platforms Affect ORA™?
ORA™ pulls reviews from several key review platforms, including the following (but they say it’s over 20+ review sites in total): Google, Facebook, Yelp, Apartments.com, and Apartment Guide.
However, not all platforms have the same impact on your score. Some review sites, such as Yelp and Modern Message, are weighted less because they’re more prone to biased reviews. The more well-rounded your reviews are across all platforms, the stronger your ORA score will be. This means that while Google reviews are understandably crucial, diversifying your review sources is requisite to achieve your highest score potential.
We don’t mean to brag, but this is where Opiniion has successfully increased the ORA score of our clients because of the way we gather reviews. If you’re looking to improve your ORA, consider scheduling a demo with us.
Steps to Improve Your ORA™ Score
Improving your ORA score doesn’t happen overnight (and if it did, you’d probably be out of review compliance. Don’t do that.) Instead, let’s offer you a clear strategy for your goals. Here are the essential steps to move the needle:
1. Have Good, Honest People
The foundation of your property’s reputation starts with the people who interact with your residents: property managers, leasing agents, maintenance technicians, etc. They are the first touch point that, for better or worse, creates your physical reputation, that then translates to your online reputation. A skilled, friendly, and customer-focused team can help drive positive experiences, which ultimately lead to more favorable reviews.
When staff members engage residents with care and professionalism, it’s reflected in online feedback that we can track. Make sure your team is well-trained in handling resident concerns and maintaining a positive attitude, and then let your review generation software do the rest. (Don’t have one? We’ve got you covered.)
2. Proactively Generate Resident Feedback
Proactively collecting your resident’s feedback is the most important step to understanding their overall satisfaction. Platforms like ours, can help automate this process, making it easier for your residents to leave honest, authentic reviews.
But, the reality of review generation is that they have to be well-rounded. You can’t front load reviews to exclusively google, and expect an improved ORA even if your Google star rating improves. Why? Because, you’re not gathering feedback consistently and across all review platforms—not just Google, but also Facebook, Yelp, and others that contribute to your ORA score.
(Psst…Opiniion allows you to direct where your reviews get sent to help round out your portfolio of reviews. That means you can send 50% to google, 25% to facebook, 25% to yelp, or whatever breakdown your heart desires. We know it’s pretty great. Yeah, we’d love to talk with you too.
3. Act on Your Feedback Proactively
Once you have feedback from your residents, the natural next step is to do something with it. That means if you’re getting dinged on google for having a dirty walking path on your tours, then grab a broom and sweep it off. If residents highlight a pain point or concern, address them as soon as you can. Whether you’re improving maintenance response times or enhancing existing community amenities, making improvements based on resident feedback not only boosts resident satisfaction but also positively influences current and future reviews.
Once a resident leaves a review, those reviews can be updated at any time. We prompt all reviewers to update or edit their reviews at specific touch points in their lifecycle. So even if you disappointed a resident once, you have the chance to turn that 1 star review into a 5 star by showing residents that you listen and act on their feedback. Taking action builds trust and loyalty, resulting in better reviews and an improved ORA score.
4. Respond to Reviews Within 24 Hours
Best Practice: Respond to any review (positive or negative) within 24 hours of receiving it.
Responding to online reviews, both positive and negative, is a vital part of managing your reputation. The timely response shows that you care about your residents’ opinions and are committed to making improvements to their experience.
You can do this easily with our Review Response Tool, which helps to automate the process as much as we can so that you can spend more of your time on the day-to-day operations of your property, and less on the minutiae.
Everyone loves to be listened to. So, when you address issues promptly and thank your residents for positive feedback, it reinforces that strong, positive relationship with your community. Positive reviews are a direct translation to helping improve your ORA score.
Boost Your ORA™ Score with Opiniion
We make improving your property’s reputation easy. That should be your focus as a property manager. A happy byproduct of that is our natural ability to boost your ORA score. And we know how important that is to you, so we’re happy to help!
With our suite of tools, you can streamline feedback collection, respond to negative reviews and identify key areas for improvement, and take action to boost your resident satisfaction. And by following the steps above, you can build a stronger online reputation, improve your ORA score, and attract more potential residents–the ultimate goal!
When you need help with reviews or your ORA, we’re just a click away.