Amy Kosnikowski's Blog

Are you an effective communicator? If the purpose of communication is to get your message across to others -- envision how often you communicate effectively with people during one day. You may answer the uncounted times over the telephone, writing emails, in meetings, participating in conference calls, creating reports, debating with colleagues…the list goes on and on. We all communicate in countless ways every day to residents, future customer, colleagues, suppliers and even the corporate office.  The better our communication skills are the better we can serve and be more productive. Use the 5 Cs of Communication to communicate in the clearest, most effective way possible:

1. Clear

When I was growing up in Ohio, we had a corner drug store called Revco, which was based out of Twinsburg, OH. I can still visualize their store signs in mind that highlighting the Revco Service Standards, “Every Customer, Every Time”. In researching this company as an example of developing service standards, I found details of how the service slogan and focus came to be. It all started with a simple question: “What do we want to happen to every customer every time in order to promote good customer service?”  It was broken down to 3 behaviors or actions:

1. Greet customers every time they enter the store
2. Every time a sales person sees a customer searching for a product – the employee will ask the customer if they need assistance
3. Make eye contact with customers every time you speak to them

They then developed a training guide with typical interactions and expectations and sent it out to store managers with directive to lead a team meeting to review the new standards. Each store manager was responsible for conveying the information, observing and coaching the best practice of the service standards. The next step was to send out Mystery Shoppers to assess performance of the 3 “behaviors”. The results were positive at 90% plus the number of complaints began to decrease as well as the percentage of positive feedback was on the rise!

There is a proverb that states that “every cloud has a silver lining”. This saying can be a hopeful or comforting prospect in the midst of difficulty. 

Due to economic recession in our country, as well as in the global market, all of us are affected personally and professionally. No one is immune to the challenging reality that we are all facing. The conditions are now reflective in the bottom line of our businesses as well on the face of every resident and associate. We are seeing the effects of the economy such a flow of folks coming from foreclosure homes, resident scaling back to smaller apartments and increased move-outs to loss of jobs.

Typically, in times of stress and challenge, one may be able to see that this may also be a time of great change and opportunity.  Many are stunned and nearly paralyzed of how to handle all that is coming at us. However even with the daily concerns and struggles, we can choose to find the silver lining of lessons that can benefit us in the future, even as the economy turns the corner.  These incredible lessons can be gained with solid answers and solutions right here in front of us. Several themes in the lessons continue to ring true which may have helpful effects on the multifamily industry: creativity, frugality, resident retention and new beginnings. 

1. Time is your most valuable resource. Don’t give time away easily or throw it away. Once it is gone—it is gone forever. Maximize every minute by setting goals and moving forward with results-oriented activities.  At the end of the day – Ask not what did I do today BUT what did I accomplish?  

2. Set your personal priorities by asking: Why am I on the payroll? What are my highest value activities? What is the most valuable use of my time? Make a list based on these priorities, stay focused and go conquer the day! 

3.   Start with the end in mind. Know what you want to achieve before you start an activity. Define the purpose of each meeting, interaction, service request or prospect follow up to keep you on target. A clear vision of what you want to achieve in the end will move you closer to achieve your priorities. 

As certain fortunate markets begin to see the light in higher demands and ease of concessions, this may be a good time to re-evaluate our business. As we have been fighting the economy, the home market and dreaded concessions, we have gotten away from the primary focus of attempting to become and survive as something other than what we really are: A home for residents offering carefree lifestyle with convenient services and amenities.

After running across the book, Get Back in the Box: Innovation From the Inside Out, by Douglas Rushkoff, I found that many of us in the “battle mode” have panicked trying to create business and improve numbers by being so creative that we may have lost track of the our core essential of our business. Rushkoff states, “Hardee’s thought a half-naked Paris Hilton would help sell burgers. What it really needed was a better burger.”

A good point and even better question: Can you confidently say that your community is the best “burger” maximizing every opportunity and dollar? Maybe what we need to do is re-focus on becoming better managers, marketers and service providers. Sometimes we make it much more difficult than it needs to be.

[This is Part II of the Maximize Marketing Dollars series.  The first part reviewed the “Power of the P’s” in marketing: Price, Product, Promotion, People, Position, Process and Passion.  Part II discusses how to evaluate your marketing programs and making any changes!]

Solution Two: Honest Evaluation

Endless amounts of resources are at your fingertips to assist in evaluating marketing efforts. The key is to develop a system of evaluation that becomes a part of your routine. By looking at the reports and other key indicators, ask yourself, “What does this say about this marketing source or what about this effort was successful?” When you come to conclusions, record and track them for future reference.

When evaluating whether the P’s and other marketing efforts are really paying off for you, it is essential that you have the correct information. Assuming you are stellar trackers of all marketing sources—where are you getting the biggest bang for your buck? If you are not seeing a substantial Return on Investment (ROI), then pull that money and place it where it is working. Also evaluate if the rent rates are set appropriately, or are you under-valuing your property by offering concessions or offering deals when they are not needed? Look closely if a particular apartment home type is highly desirable then raise the rates. It is a simple supply and demand philosophy.

Although they vary by company to company even industry, we have all heard of the fundamental P’s of Marketing: Price, Product, Promotion, People, Position, Process and Passion. The question is do we take the time to evaluate these essential elements as we market multi-million dollar real estate investments?

It is common for us to start off strong when it comes to our marketing efforts, but as time goes on we have the tendency to let the efforts ride without checking for accuracy or even effectiveness. We assume that all is well and working unless we hear otherwise.  Then we react in a panic when our numbers begin to trend downward.

Well, today is your wake-up call. Your property deserves more attention than that – so take off your blinders and see all the marketing opportunities around you!