Rick Hevier's Blog

Web surfers like to “click” their mouse almost as much as they like to “click” their television’s remote control.  But, sometimes even web surfers want to talk to a real person.  The problem is what to do if you prefer to shop for an apartment over the internet?  The answer is simple – “click” and call directly from an apartment property website to speak to a real person (or your answering service, if that is the case).

How to accomplish this feat has been simplified with the advent of Google Voice, Google’s recent free service offering that has many telecoms shaking in their boots.  Given GV’s potential, is it any wonder that Apple, tethered to AT&T, has been stalling and blocking the Google Voice App for the iPhone, leading to an investigation by the FCC?

Large apartment property organizations have IT departments that small apartment owners can only dream of.  Recently, I wrote about 10 steps to slow down the apartment turnover “revolving door” through exceptional customer service.  Improving customer service requires being aware of customer service issues.

If you use an office answering service that can email voice messages in the MP3 format and have an iPhone, Blackberry or Android cell phone, here’s a way that property management can directly track customer service requests, as they are called in.  Using this system, I can view a text transcript of each customer service call, within about 10 minutes of the call being made.  Then, I can discuss selected customer service calls with the maintenance staff before they begin their work day’s tasks or throughout the day.  Not only does this allow me to keep mental track of anomalous service issues, but it also affords me the opportunity to discuss dealing with specific customer service issues in a quick training mode.  You can set up your own customer service monitoring system with these tools:

In a tough economy the focus shifts to increasing leasing traffic through concessions.  Yet, improving customer retention, the other side of the leasing "coin", often receives little more than lip service.  The NAA reports that the national average for annual apartment turnover is about 60%.  How can anyone make money with such a level of turnover?  Reduce that revolving door with these 10 steps:

• 1.      Invest in people.  “Bricks and mortar” can’t retain customers – only people can develop effective customer relationships.  Pay a premium rate for exceptional office and maintenance staff.  Too many investors in the apartment business economize with cut-throat pay scales for their multi-million dollar investments.
• 2.      Change the paradigm.  As much as possible expunge “landlord”, “tenant”, and “resident” from your business approach and consider your “tenants”/”residents” as “customers”.  Like the Magna Carta, this can be extremely liberating and fosters a “customer relationship” mindset.  Without that changed mindset, customer retention is difficult to improve.
• 3.      Everything is marketing.  Create a mindset with the maintenance staff that everything we do is marketing and that they are, in reality, leasing agents.  In Syracuse NY we can get as much as 18 feet of snow, which is why we see winter as a great opportunity for us to prove our value to our customers, and why we obsess over winter snow removal.  It’s also more effective than Google Adwords.
• 4.      Obsess over customer service.  We have 346 apartments and a maintenance staff of 5, including a working supervisor.  During the work week one maintenance person's virtually sole job is performing customer service requests.  Are our customers surprised when someone shows up at their door ten minutes after they call for service?  So much so, they tell their friends and family.
• 5.      Get rid of emergency service.  Provide full maintenance service 24/7/365.  Are customers surprised when someone shows up at their door at 8 p.m. on Christmas Day to replace mini-blinds?  So much so, they tell their friends and family.  What is that worth?  Well, 1 of every 4 new leases for us comes from word-of-mouth.
• 6.      Proactively ask for service.  We end every conversation with a customer with this: “Is there anything we can take care of for you in your apartment?”  We do 2,500 service requests a year partly because we ASK for service requests.  Why not take care of that thing that irritates a customer and that he or she forgets to call about?
• 7.      Embrace a customer-centric business vision.  Our vision – to build customer-for-life relationships.  Our mission – to so overwhelm our customers with service that they will tell everyone they know.  Our values - the Golden Rule, treating our customers in the way that we would want to be treated.
• 8.      Be consistent.  Treat all customers in the same way- most of them will appreciate it.  Besides being the right to do, it is the beauty and genius of the Fair Housing Act.
• 9.      Avoid desperation leasing.  This is a tough message in this desperate economy.  But, I would rather leave an apartment empty than fill it with someone who marginal – we’re not helping them or us.  Desperation leasing is like using crack cocaine - a quick, but short high followed by a big crash.
• 10.   Avoid gimmicks.  Let’s face it, parties, events, lease renewal carrots (e.g., renew your lease and get free carpet cleaning) can’t affect customer retention in the way that exceptional customer service can.

Improving customer retention begins before the lease is even inked, i.e., at the point of application approval. Here are just a few of the approaches we take toward the goal of quality leasing: