…And what they tell you about MIH

We recently received an unpleasant Google review from a tenant from one of the residential blocks we manage. Not only is this upsetting for the staff concerned, but we work very hard to get things right, so every criticism is felt ‘like a dagger to the heart‘ – we are real people after all.

“We do care and we strive hard to deliver the best service possible.”

We take reviews seriously and make every effort to respond to Google reviews accordingly; we give thanks for praise, and we pose questions where we may have been found wanting. Should we receive a negative review, we will always investigate to look at what cause for concern was, what went wrong and what we could do better. We are absolutely interested in what we can do to improve our services and will act on constructive comments as far as is possible.

A few notes:
In the interest of transparency, we wanted to highlight that our Google reviews are genuine and unique, meaning that they come from actual known clients, and Google only permits one review per email address.

MIH Clients’ reviews are volunteered they are not in any way incentivised.
Our Google reviews include both positive and negative, they are genuine, not manufactured or manipulated by us.
Google does not permit multiple reviews from the same person, where it seems Trustpilot does. This could allow for unfair review ‘spamming’ which is why we choose not to engage with this platform.

5 -STAR PERFORMANCE

We are pleased to say that overall, our Google rankings are very high: 4.5 from 92 reviews.

“A high ranking on Google Reviews for a business is generally anything between 4.2 and 4.5 stars” ¹

Why not 5 you might ask? Any business that has been operational for over 10 years will tell you that it is not easy to maintain a 5-star record. We did have just that for quite a few years, but the longer you have been around, the more likely you are to meet a dissatisfied customer. That is just life unfortunately, with the best will in the world.

WHO CAN YOU TRUST?

Do you trust Checkatrade? Can you trust Trustpilot? Because this topic matters to us, we have put some time into really looking into not only customer satisfaction and how we manage that internally, but what the external reviews and in particular, negative reviews, mean to us and our business.

Let’s take Trustpilot for example, here’s what ChatGPT has to say:

“Trustpilot can be useful, but I would be cautious about treating its star rating as a reliable measure of the overall quality of a property-management company, particularly for a business managing large residential blocks. There is an important distinction between “how good a company is?” and “how likely is someone who has had a negative experience to go and review this company?”

In a residential property-management context there is a further selection issue: the people most motivated to leave a review are often the people who have had a dispute, unexpected charge, repair problem or other frustrating experience.

The hundreds of residents who are broadly satisfied may have little reason to seek out Trustpilot and write anything.

THE TRUSTPILOT SCENARIO

Firstly, a page is created for your business on their website whether you like it or not. Trustpilot itself acknowledges that a company’s profile can exist and accumulate reviews even if the company hasn’t claimed it. MIH, along with many other businesses was unaware that a Trustpilot ‘page’ existed for us until quite recently.

From our perspective, we engage with Google because:
a) it’s free so there is no potential for ‘paid’ bias
b) because it is likely the most viewed review platform in the UK

How do you know if an individual review is genuine?
Both Google and Trustpilot have systems designed to detect fake reviews, though neither are specifically ‘verified’.

Google says it uses automated spam detection and can remove reviews that are fake or violate its policies. ²
Trustpilot likewise says every review is checked by automated detection systems. ³

Verification can involve confirming that a reviewer has had a genuine interaction or transaction with the business via tracking mechanisms connected to the reviewing company. And that is not something that MIH does on principle – our reviews are volunteered.

Clearly, both platforms are aiming to weed out fake reviews, but this doesn’t prevent people from venting their spleen in an unmitigated fashion. (Well, not on Trustpilot anyway.)

THE DILEMMA MIH FACES

Where Trustpilot becomes particularly problematic for businesses like property management agencies is due to the number of tenants dwelling within a single building or block. A restaurant, hotel or online retailer has a relatively straightforward customer relationship: someone buys something and evaluates the product/service. A property-management company is different.

A managing agent may be dealing with:

hundreds of residents
leaseholders and tenants with different interests
service charges
major works
maintenance
contractors
insurance claims
communal repairs
disputes between residents
enforcement of building rules
things outside the managing agent’s control
decisions made on behalf of a residents’ management company/freeholder

Consequently, a single person’s dissatisfaction with an outcome isn’t necessarily evidence that the managing agent performed badly.

For example, a resident could be extremely unhappy about a £2,000 service-charge bill. That may produce a genuine and perfectly legitimate one-star review describing their experience. But the review doesn’t necessarily tell a prospective customer whether the managing agent administered the building competently.

ACCURATE EVALUATION

For a residential block-management company, conventional star ratings are arguably an imperfect measure of service quality, because residents can be dissatisfied with decisions or costs that the managing agent is responsible for administering rather than causing.

So how can you, an existing or prospective client, make a judgement?
Trustpilot can be useful as a source of individual customer experiences, but a small Trustpilot star rating should not be treated as a statistically reliable measure of a company’s overall performance.

Meanwhile, 4.5 from 92 Google reviews is widely considered evidence that a business is performing well. It isn’t that Google has some magical superior review system, but because 92 observations tell you considerably more than 12, particularly when you are dealing with a business serving several hundred people in each building.

THE REALITY: YOUR CAN’T PLEASE ALL THE PEOPLE ALL THE TIME

We do try to please everyone, but in block management that is a tall order where there are so many individuals involved, and we are governed by the terms of our management contract – and statutory legal requirements.

What we can state with total confidence, is that we do care and we strive hard to deliver the best service possible. We are not a huge corporate, but a smaller personalised service where the impact of our work is more important than generating big profits. We are known for being no-nonsense, down to earth and direct and our clients appreciate this approach. It is honest, they know where they stand and as our name states – we are here to Make It Happen – we get things done, right!

So, with that in mind, we trust that you will trust in us and we pledge to deliver the service we are widely known for: 4.5 out 5 (Google reviews) … or more.