Rent Concessions

It is so fun reading the blogs from all the pros, and I am excited to add my two cents worth.  My speciality is, and always has been developing people skills.  It is so great to learn all the ways to get traffic in the door, and to track it accurately...especially loved Toni's pointers.   I stand my ground on this; too many front desk team members, those who answer the phone when all the technology makes it ring, who converse via email with our customers, just haven't been taught, or don't practice good people skills.  Making people like you, quickly, upfront is the answer.  For at least 30 years I have preaching this sermon...and still the customer is treated with nonchalance, or "we are too busy" or some other perceived indifference.  Studies indicate that 68% of our customers "go away, don't buy, don't renew,"  because of the way they are treated by the person they dealt with.  I am sometimes asked why I keep hammering on this....BECAUSE we still aren't doing it!!! So, I'm BAAAACCCKK!!  And I will keep talking about it until common courtesy and interest in the customer becomes the norm.  We spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on the technology, we track traffic, we count leases, we get frustrated with low occupancy, not to menton poor NOI...only to neglect, even disrespect, the current resident who is a pain in our rear.  This person pays their rent, and on time, but we just get sick of the complaints, the attitude...forgetting that this customer is our paycheck, just like the easy ones.  Then someone new walks in the door, or emails, or calls...and our behaviors have become such a habit we forget to be nice to them.  Just think on these things...people like us quickly based on:  1.  How we look and how we move...smiling, groomed, energetic would be nice! 2. What we say and how we say it...have product and area and industry knowledge...know the legal documents and be able to pleasantly explain them...communicate with excitement and interest in them 3. They like you based on how they feel in your presence...do they feel important, special, cared for?  Do they feel that you have time for them?  Simple common sense...your Mama probably told you "You catch more flies with honey than with vinegar!

Would it surprise you to learn that in a recent study across the country where apartment communities were contacted with requests for information via the internet that less than 10% of the communities contacted responded?  In our current economic climate where maintaining occupancy is a challenge in many of our metropolitan areas, would your communities be part of the 10% or would they be part of the 90%? 

As we begin 2009, I would challenge all multi-family professionals, whether onsite or at a corporate level, to make sure that your teams are doing the basics.  Studies have continually shown that internet traffic is qualified traffic and that the number of individuals that are looking for an apartment online continues to increase every day.  Are your properties capturing all of the internet leads that they are receiving?   Are they following up with all leads in the manner that the prospective resident requested?  Are the internet leads answered in a professional manner?  If you don't know what your people are doing when it comes to internet leads, I would strongly suggest that you find out - today.  The only thing you have to lose is qualified rentals!

 

So as many of you know, I was fortunate enough to go to Italy last week, which I might blog about later on. But for now, I want to focus on my trip home, which included a 9 hour flight to Newark, New Jersey and then another 3 hour flight to Houston. Unfortunately, there was bad weather in Newark (and more on the way), so we ended up being stuck on the tarmac for 3 extra hours. Terrible, huh? Surprisingly, not so much. Granted, I wasn't thrilled with the 3 hour delay stuck in the airplane, but it was strangely not nearly as bad as other delays I've gone through, solely because of the way the pilot handled the situation. Immediately when he found out that we were stuck, he took the time to tell us EXACTLY what was going on. He gave us the impression that we now knew every piece of information possible. Then he said he would keep us updated every 20 to 25 minutes, which he did consistently. One of the biggest frustrations in delays like this are the uncertainty. Are we going to be there for hours? What's the hangup? Is the flight going to be canceled? Are we going to be able to get a snack while we wait? Answering these questions didn't take away the frustration of having to wait for three hours, but it allowed us to sit back and relax, confident that we would had all the information possible.

 

 

My very lovely fiancee and were having an oh-so exciting talk about the mail we got a few days back when something out of the ordinary came up. She said that she received something in the mail from Publisher's Clearinghouse, cleverly disguised so she opened it up instead of immediately chunking it. But what really shocked her was that the letter was personally signed. She even took the time to examine it in order to see the pen indentation on the page. She was so amazed that she made a point of telling me how impressed she was. Now granted, it was probably just some lackey spending days on end signing these pages, or maybe even automated in some way, but the important thing was that it made an impact. It was no longer impersonal, there was actually someone that had touched that letter, and that made a difference.

 

 

This of course got me thinking about our own correspondence and how personalizing correspondence is all relative. Many communities send out signed renewal letters for something their resident spent over $10,000 for in just one year. Publishers Clearinghouse just wanted her to buy a few magazines and they were able to provide the same signed letter. When receiving junk mail, getting a signed letter was impressive, but when your resident spends thousands and thousands of dollars on your product, do you really think a signed letter is really enough?

In the many conversations at the few (although innovative) property management blogs, we've talked about using social media in different circumstances - in this case, using social media to monitor your company's reputation, reacting to those posts to provide excellent customer service, and even leading the conversation in a positive way when it comes to your company. This article is great about discussing two out of three of these uses: http://www.usatoday.com/tech/products/services/2008-05-20-online-reviews_N.htm