Topic: SERIOUS question. Why do people HATE market survey calls SO much.

We are all in the same industry, we all have to do them. Some more often than others, but seriously.
For the people who are rude to other people when asking 4-6 basic property questions, why are you so mad? I want real honest answers.
Thanks in advance! (As I wait on hold for 20+ minutes for a leasing agent to gather this information for me.) In which I say THANK YOU every time she picks up and "take your time".
UPDATE: Trying to set up a new Survey for a Transition / New Owner. Not local.

Seems kinda silly but what we started doing just to make things a litter easier is faxing them over a few days before. That way they can fill it out on their time and if they’re super busy at work they don’t have to stop what they’re doing.

I agree, let's make each other's time easier. My local property does a group e-blast. It's awesome, but trying to set up a new Market Set for a new build/takeover for an owner, a phone call is a must.

Oh yeah I can totally understand that. I’m very blunt so at that point I’d ask them is there anything we can do to make this easier? What would you prefer? Maybe email? Is there a certain time I can call when I do my surveys?
In the end sometimes people are just assholes ???? you can only do so much

My last property I got the email of all the comps and emailed it over on 2nd and 4th Monday of each month. That way it was on my terms and I didn’t have the phone calls. They would all respond with stats.

It's a dinosaur practice! 1, because there are MUCH better ways to get the data that would be more accurate and 2, because why would any business share there data directly with a competitor? If my competitor is asking me for my rent so they can set their rates then my answer is going to be higher so they raise their rents and I win!!!! That simple!

I fully agree! I never understood the point of doing these. You can get all the information from our web site. I am busy enough doing what needs to be done in one day besides helping my competition.

I never mind when it’s another property calling for info. However on some days we have marketing and research companies that call and sometimes we get quite a few in a day. It just becomes too much with them because they are usually more extensive that just occupancy and pricing

I have never had a problem with it but our owners don’t want us giving out info. I tell people to call me back as if they are looking for an apartment and I can help them. But in the past I always did them.

The only ones I can't stand are the ones from marketing and research folks like Real Page for instance. We use all Real Page products, so how do you not have access to our pricing? It's also on our website, and yet you are asking me to go through all 30 of our floor plans? Such a time suck.

Timing of your rental survey is key. Never, Never, Never during rent week, or end of the month when we are closing our month out.

Our comps have put together a google doc sent out to each property to update on their own time. This has been the easiest way I've found to get it done in the 10 years that I've been in the industry.

On a Monday morning when I have 8000 things to do and have already sent out an email with the survey info to anyone who could possibly call about it... and they still call.

We started faxing the questions so staff at competitors could do it in their own time

Hate them with a passion...most of the time I am deep into something when I get those calls....why does it matter how many vacancies I have....with that being said I do nicely answer the questions

I don't mind the quick ones at all! Happy to help! It's the ones with a thousand questions that irritate me. You get occupancy, current pricing and any specials from me. Much more than that I'm going to politely end the call. Those are mostly the national market survey people, not my local comps.

And if you call 10 times back to back and I'm final able to answer and it's a market survey, I'm not going to be too happy.

Have you asked if there is an easier/preferred way? Everyone does 1 email string 2. Google doc everyone has access to?

Everyone should use radix. You update your property and the comps update theirs. No more phone calls!
It’s just useless when no one else uses it though.
I had one property tell us “We don’t help the enemy” and then hand up.

THIS I AGREE WITH 100%. I love that company. Wish I had them now.

Yeah I try the email chain thing as well but I’m basically sending out my numbers and never get responses from my comps. So I stopped email and call or wait for them to call. Only way I get my numbers. Agree though, we’re all in this together. Don’t understand the secrecy with some comps.

I am fine with market surveys but refuse to do so at the first of the month. This should be a professional courtesy as we all know how crazy busy we get. Come on now!!

I only hate them first thing on a Monday morning, the there are a couple comps that call back to back to back. And they aren’t even my comps! Totally different product type, class and location

This only bothers me when people call pretending to be prospects but are so obviously trying to do a market survey. Like just tell me you’re doing a survey and I’ll give you all the info you need!

I don’t think it’s intentional most of the time. Monday’s are my busiest day and I may not have the info right in front me at the time, but I’m never rude about it.

They’re annoying! All the comps just need to get on an email chain and send them first thing in the morning.

They do come sometimes at the most inopportune times. But I still do them with a smile. However when I need mine done, i fax them over and get a better response.

Its been a mystery forever. So ridiculous. Most of what you need to know is online anyway. Probably more accurate, too.

I did the market survey for your comp set for 1.5 years. They frustrated me every single month.

I don’t have the time, period.

When the person calls and they sound so miserable and confused it is frustrating. If they sounded like they knew what was going on in our offices/industry I think it would help.

When you manage not just one property but TWO by yourself. I do. Not. Have. The. Time. I’m busy answering emails. Phones. And it’s budget season. Not one but 2 to do. Call me and I don’t have to be nice. Yes we’re in the same industry. Not everyone has multiple people in the Office.

I always have a good time with mine. Especially during this pandemic, we can discuss the crazy things that we're experiencing and even offer some advice. Idk why some can be so standoffish on the matter.

We email market surveys so they can fill it out when they have time. We also attach a market survey about our property. Other managers like this because they don’t have to try and contact us. I know filling out a market survey takes a whole 30 seconds but I just feel it shows other managers that we respect their time.

I KNOW!! Drives me crazy!! So rude. At least tell me if you’re busy right now. I can e-mail you. But the lies, too! No, you are not 100% occupied and leased. You’re advertising 2 mo the free. I’m not stupid. Why lie?

When a new Leasing Agent or Property Manager starts at a property they should visit all of the comparable sites on the market survey and introduce themselves. Bring them a goodie basket. We all ❤️ a basket of goodies delivered ????. That builds the relationship and they will remember you when you call for monthly updates.

I ALWAYS would provide information to the other properties unless I was ACTUALLY busy. Then I would call them back. I had one property on our survey that REFUSED to give us stats. So, me(?) I think it is totally unprofessional NOT to answer the few questions that only takes, what...maybe 30 secs!!??

I’ve never understood why we don’t share honest info. I learned a long time ago in a market where everyone overstated their numbers and then out of state developers flooded the market. Locals were pissed at what it did to the market but my comment was “what do you expect, we all lied about occupancy and rents.”
All that being said, market surveys IMO are for followers and CYA. We prefer to be market leaders and hope that competitors will catch on.

I dont understand why companies don't allow their properties to participate. Yes we can get their prices but not occupancy, visits, leases etc. We are all here to help each other...

I use this as a metric for customer service for new leasing. I will call from a random number and test them. If they don't treat their colleagues well it does not bode well for their future in my office - or it becomes an amazing teaching moment about networking...

We get calls from Real Page and I can’t think of the name of the other, but it’s never another property themselves. The call center type ones can be rude. I was trying to explain the difference in pricing and how I had to answer by rooms not square footage for that reason and he replied in a sassy tone “is there anyone there that actually knows what they’re doing that can answer these for me?” ????

It's the dumbest thing; I always encourage our teams to visit their comps, take them treats, refer traffic to them. I have always found that the properties with the best market knowledge and best relationships with their neighborhood properties do the best. If the person has to take a few minutes to gather occ/leased (and that info is literally staring you in the face all day long....), that is pretty weak. Good luck. And of course, be respectful and don't stop in or call on Monday....do something like 10:45 am on Tuesday and take them a light lunch or snack. Keep on tryin' - and you can probably do most of your work on the Internet now (with so much real-time availability being pushed through).

We had one comp that would call us at 9 am on the nose Monday morning. Only one person in the office on Mondays and we were closed Sunday. It was hugely inconvenient. We asked them to call later and the just kept it up. Would redial over and over until we picked up. Their survey was very detailed. We had 17 floor plans... no one has time fir that at 9 am Monday morning.

If you don't mind... can I answer your question with a few of my own?

1. It sounds like you're doing market surveys by phone call. What days/times are you calling? Is there an off-peak time that might work better for the community you're trying to reach? In my experience, first thing Monday mornings should be totally off-limits... as well as late Friday afternoon, for starters.
2. Can your market survey be done by email? This way it's not intrusive, and the manager you need info from can answer at their convenience.

They always call on the busiest days of the week, when I am in the middle of doing something.

I'm not usually rude as I usually see it as a great time to exchange info but for the last 10 months I've been the only person in a 2 person office. I'm so backed-up on work and my phone is ringing crazy that I honestly don't have time. I'm working 54 hours weeks to try to keep up and I'm so far behind on stuff I don't have the two minutes to spare.

I think its because people frequently do their market survey early in the morning and at the first of the month when rent is pouring in along with all the resident complaints.
Maybe do the survey in the middle or end on the month on a Wednesday after 10AM. That way everyone has their priorities done and there coffee down. Just a suggestion. Its a great question!

Ok, now I have a questions Amanda Truax for your follow up question:

Why would a manager need to answer those questions. Anybody working in the office that can read a report should be able to answer those questions. These are very basic questions that honestly, any leasing agent or managers should be able to just rattle off if they pay attention to their property. It's silly that people get mad. Plain and simple. I work near a property that refuses to answer market surveys. Regardless to what you are doing at that moment we are paid to do this job so just answer the call and the questions regardless.

For me it's not about giving information for the market survey so much as the companies who have their people pose as actual prospects. I spend about 10-15 minutes on the phone with actual prospects. Please don't waste my time when all you need is 30 seconds of information and I can give it to you in a way that I don't bore you with my "sales pitch". Very annoying!

Because they flyered every door on our property trying to poach residents. I happened to be walking a unit around 11 am and found the flyers so we saw and removed them quickly after they were put up. I was nice to that property before, and now I tell them that we won't release any data to them. I will share numbers with anyone but that property. We also faxed the flyer over to the other properties in the area so they would know to check their doors regularly.

This is a great observation! You should check out this blog post:

views.paperflite.com/assets/5fbd501639d0e833f5e543ab

The short of it--Market Survey Tools exist that take out the headache and anxiety of calling comps. Good market survey tools allow you and your comps to:

- Share data with the click of a button
- View reporting on all previous data
- Automate the process

This gives agents and regionals their Mondays back and removes the stress.

It’s very simple to understand why people hate receiving market survey calls
It’s for the same reason people hate receiving sales calls or calls asking you to donate to something.
In all of those cases the caller is making an assumption: That it is ok to imterrupt the person receiving the call,
and take “just a few minutes” of their time. This is a very rude assumption. it assumes that
1) whatever the person being called is doing is not important and can be interrupted.
2) their time is not valuable.

if you need some one to give you time and information,
please realize that your desire for the information does NOT obligate anyone
to give you their time or the information.
Your priority is NOT their priority.
If they are kind enough to give you their time, realize that they are doing you a favor.

Voice calls are the most disruptive amd annoyimg. Texts are nearly as bad.
Email is best, because allows the person to get to it when they have time (not when you have time to call them)
You will get a smaller percentage of replies to email requests. Some people will just delete the message and ignore you.
But, the responses you do get are likely to be less annoyed, and more useful.

in your email, try to explain (very brielfy) why you want the information,
and offer to share the results of your survey to anyone who contributes a response.

BTW, there is a setting on iphones to send calls from unrecognized numbers directly to voicemail.
I never get interrupted by unsolicited phone ringing when I’m sleeping, or any other time :-)

Interesting question, it is odd that people get so worked up about surveys. I personally don't mind doing surveys for anyone who's brave enough to ask me to do them, but I'm in sales so that's not surprising.

Here's my take on why people get so mad:

Quite often people get the wrong idea of what a survey is for, what purpose it serves. For those who get angry or mad, I think they think they are helping you do your job and they don't like that idea. They don't realize that surveys actually are a way to gather important information that otherwise would be next to impossible to obtain.

So that might be a way to approach asking for the surveys. Let the person know they are helping not only yourself, but other folks in the same position as themselves. It's almost a public service. Maybe that'll soften the blow a bit.

Just my thoughts.

We have solved this issue with our Automation.