Topic: The Ugly Baby

Tim Grace recently posted a response in regard to a recent discussion pertaining to 25% penetration rates in social media. It was so compelling that I thought it needed serious review and discussions FROM ALL in the industry. His argument is that we are guiltily carrying an Ugly Baby. No one wants to tell the parent of this baby, "gee--you sure have an ugly baby", but the truth is our industry, in fact, is carrying an ugly baby.

For Tim, that ugly baby is fear of innovation with "extreme barriers" because "C-levels are finding it difficult to look past old style metrics". This is 100% correct.

So...to help stop the bleeding and to move our beautiful industry (currently the ugly baby) into an age of growth, I have listed out a few ugly babies we're carrying that need cuddling (for lack of better words).

1. new tools to engage with customers (i.e. dump your old referral cards, balloons, etc and start looking for social tools, mobile tools, CRMs, cross promotional tools, outreach tools). Get creative, think of how prospects are living their daily lives and find a company that specializes in developing tools that integrate into that daily life.

2. new training tools to help teams stay up to date on ways to market and lease. Those old dusty books in your community office? Good bye...out the door. Throw them out. Focus on your teams and find ways to lease better, lease faster and lease with integrity and respect to the customer. Hire fresh innovative trainers to train your teams to think in this new manner (they exist, I know they do).

3. models/merchandise that is new and fresh and ahead of the curve. Who cares if you have a community cafe biz center? That's done. Start offering wi-fi throughout your community for example. Start dressing your models in a manner that people live not how the same age lived ten years ago. If you're an A-class or above community in an urban setting, you better start thinking of zip car spots for your residents for example. start updating your parking lots for electric cars is another big push in urban cities.

4. shake-up management. BETA test...BETA test...BETA test. Seriously, nothing hurts trying innovation at a handful of communities. It keeps your teams fresh and wanting to learn more, it drives innovation and it spurs growth.

Those are just four things that came to mind.

What I hope you all will do, either by responding to this discussion, or internally with your teams, is to think of your community, your company and our industry's ugly baby issue. What are they and what can you do TODAY to start fixing this issue?

I can only hope that in the very near future Tim, and others like Tim, will have the satisfaction of knowing that our industry has enlightened itself.

Thanks! :)

I LOVE these types of conversations! I think overall, there is often a lazy "we need this type of product/service/etc, so let's just pick one." As I'm knee deep in resident event conversations, the traditional summer party is a perfect example of that. Instead of thinking of goals and strategy, it just gets shuffled onto the to-do list without much thought.

I'm of the opinion that everything in multifamily needs to be reconsidered. Nothing is sacred. Maybe that even means stop doing comps. Stop looking at your competitors as if that will somehow guide a community to the next level. Throw away every tried and true industry policy and start fresh.

What do you think about each month having an "Ugly Baby" focus, so by the end of the year, we will have debated, hashed-out, discussed, and torn down 12 fundamental aspects of multifamily. Good idea?

Thanks for the discussion, Carmen!