Communities do their best to show off their amazing, ground-breaking amenities to any prospect walking in the door. Check out our business center with free faxes. Take a look at our Olympic-sized pool. Our car-care center will make your ride shine. So prospects get all excited about the perks and decide to move in. Then guess what? They don't use them! Of course, it varies widely from community to community, but often, residents who thought the putting green was the greatest thing ever hasn't set foot on it once to practice their swing. But the question is, should it really matter to you? Has it already done it's job? It got the prospect to sign on the line, so why do you care? Well, that's where it becomes a retention issue, of course. I know it sounds odd to "market" your amenities to your residents when they already live there, but it's really a matter of perception of the value they are getting. Their apartment is getting "older" every day they are living in it, they have forgotten about the amazing amenities available to them, so their overall view of the place is a bit run-down by the end of their lease. So it's important to remind them of how great they have it!

In the resident's mind, it's often a matter of where to place "blame". For example, if they forget about an amenity, then it is the fault of the community for not offering them great things. However, if you remind residents on what they have to use at your community, then it is their own fault for not taking advantage of it. I don't have the source article on me (please forward it to me if you do), but residents will be happy with an amenity just by knowing it is there, even if they do not use it. I've had plenty of people take me on tours of their apartment and list off all the great things at their community (they are usually a new move-in so they remember), even though they had probably not taken advantage of hardly any of these unbelievable items. They were just happy to have them there. This is true in many different programs, clubs, etc throughout life. They might not actually use all the services at their gym, but there's a sense of freedom knowing that it is there and they can use is it if they ever want to.

So be creative and use your touch points to really market what you already have - make them remember why they leased in the first place!!