Topic: When they say, "I'd like your corporate office and supervisor's contact information" - what's your answer to that?

When a resident is dissatisfied with an answer you provide them that you know is in alignment with how your company would want that situation handled whether it be a lease break option you don't typically offer, a rent concession for an inconvenience the resident had to endure, or something else that simply doesn't feel fair to them, and they say, "I'd like your corporate office and supervisor's contact information" - what's your answer to that?
I'm firm on "we don't refer residents to a portfolio supervisor when a resident is not in agreement with a policy." But curious on how you handle.

I’ll give them my bosses (regionals) email if I simply can not handle it but I always try to. She’s typically going to say the same thing I do.

Crystal Buchanan Interesting. Our regional is a hard "no" on giving her contact info out as she oversees a lot of sites and understandably doesn't have time to correspond with residents. She also doesn't want to set the tone with residents that they can come running to corporate for a different answer when they don't like the answer they get from the on-site team. Which I support but how to express it diplomatically is tricky.

Alex it doesn’t happen often and I do my best to avoid it but sometimes it is unavoidable - they’d just contact our corporate office and get her that way.

Alex Mann that really sounds like the regional is overloaded and unable to do their actual job. Which includes escalated resident situations.

Alex Mann all she has to do to avoid setting that tone is not do it. She can back your answer and make the customer feel heard, yet they will know that they won’t get a different answer by calling her. Supporting the team and stepping in to help whenever needed is an important part of being an RPM.

Lindsay Kabler Pease true!

I always offer my regional's email, and let them know they are welcome to email them. if rhey are mad enough sometimes they find the corporate phone number themselves and leave a message, which is then passed down to my regional to deal with. They basically always agree with me, and back me up.

Interesting. My regional does not allow us to give our her email. Understandable too given her workload. We also don't want to set the tone that there's another avenue they can try when they don't like what the office tells them.

Alex Mann I don't usually have to go that route, but there have been a few that repeatedly didn't like my responses to their behaviors, so I was told to give them their emails by the regional themselves. never phone numbers, only emails, and like I said, for those residents thar are super stubborn, they find corporate phone number themselves and call

Alex Mann and honestly, I don't feel like it's setting a precedent of "you can always call higher up" as long as the issues aren't being discussed amongst residents

Laura Ambre Jordan I hear you. Our residents talk to each other a ton! That’s why I’m a stickler about being consistent. Hasn’t been that way at every property I’ve worked at but where I am now, you make one exception for a resident they tell all their neighbors.

Alex Mann I guess I'm lucky because most of the time, when a resident has a complaint that they want higher up input, it's usually when they are in the wrong and not me, so my regional doesn't have to do much but reiterate what I said, they just want to hear it from someone above me so they don't think I'm just making shit uo

Laura Ambre Jordan a few years ago I had a resident insist on regional contact info over a broken elevator. We gave it to him. From there he proceeded to CC the regional on all correspondences for the rest of his residency with the team - especially if something happened like he couldn’t find a package….. gotta love those.

Alex Mann luckily my residents aren't that petty to include regional in anything after the original event, but if they did, mine would probably just ask me if everything was OK, and if I needed help, would offer it, but otherwise, allow me to handle

My CM’s give my contact but if they contact me, I send it back to my CM’s to handle. They also tell them “here’s her info but she’s just going to send it back to me to handle”.

Love that! I had an owner who did that with a resident who was a personal friend. They wanted to be able to tour an occupied apartment when we don't do that, they emailed him thinking he'd make an exception. He referred them right back to the on-site team.

Shelly Griggs I am in a corporate and we do the same. Corporate sets the policies so of course we agree with enforcing them

Shelly Griggs we refer to corp.. corp refers to Regional… They hate when they are complaining about a manager when that manager is also the regional… it’s happens… Our Regionals really back up the managers…

Shelly Griggs that is exactly how it should happen. You have to have their backs. Now if they breaking policy still do it, but educate staff. That is what makes a team.

Shelly Griggs exactly.

It depends on how your company wants it handled. You should refer to your company's communication structure and core values. I would personally say something like, "Our company expects the onsite management team to act in accordance to company policy and inline with our core values, and in this situation that is exactly what we have done. I can assure you that my supervisor will agree. While I am nit authorized to give.you their direct number, I will be happy to forward them your information along with the details of lease and the circumstances we have discussed, and ask them to give you a call. What is the best number to reach you at?"Then I would email everything to my supervisor and let them know the resident would like to speak to them.

Hand over my Bosses corporate phone number

I give them the number and warn my boss. He tells them exactly what I said and refers them back to me! But not before telling them I'm the best, and they should listen to me!

Penny King this! I give regional all the info, including emails or screen shots so they are fully prepared to do their job.

Brandon Payton, me too. The residents need to know we are all on the same page.

Penny King and the regional backing up your decision cements the authority of the property manager.

Brandon Payton, absolutely correct!!!

We have a resident hotline. When I was onsite, I would email the corporate office to give the history of the call so they would be expecting. Now that I’m in a supervisor role, I call the CM to get the details.

At my place. I'm it. No Regional. No one else. Just the boss who is pretty much MIA. On vacation in Florida. I think he just has faith that I'm doing my job, which I am!

I used to tell them I'd be happy to give them the Regionals number.....as they will be happy to hear I'm doing my job. Of course after 37 years in the industry, I'm happily retired.

I'm happy to discuss this with my RM and give him your contact information. You are also welcome to contact Resident Services, however, both of those contacts will refer you back to the community to resolve the issue. Unfortunately, the answer will most likely be the same.

I give them the information and let them know that I will most likely resolve the situation for them.

Give it to them.

I always provide the information, looks sketchy if we don't, but I ensure them that the answer from my supervisor will be the same. My supervisor then refers them back to me to have the situation handled.

Don't do the company thing. ALWAYS DO THE RIGHT THING.

I’m glad our company isn’t afraid to be contacted. Higher ups should return calls, even if it’s just to say, “the PM is absolutely correct, blah blah”

As the supervisor, I get the details from my manager and then get on a 3-way call with the resident and the manager. This way, the resident can’t bs me about the facts. I reiterate our policy and have my manager’s back, but at the same time make sure the resident feels heard.

Arlene Chasen Smadja I like this method, Best I've heard of and shows really good team work and synergy with the resident! Good practice!!

Little known law in Texas just in case you're located there and didn't know. There is a legal requirement to provide owner info at request. Most owners have a CT Corp account or similar set up where mail can be directed. Also, IMO, a great boss would want you to pass them on so they could back you up and reaffirm the answer. Or on rare occasion make exception if it was a good business decision.

Melody - I'm in CA but I've had residents say the same thing about ownership. Exactly what info do you have to give out in TX about ownership if its requested?

Melody Garcia Also, isn't that handled upfront in the lease agreement/move-in materials?

Alex Mann in Texas, you have to provide a name and address if requested. And no, address is not usually in the lease contract (I'm sure some may include somewhere, but i would say that's not typical). Legal entity name should be the landlord on lease, so yes, name is already provided.

Melody Garcia Home address (of owner) or business address?

Alex Mann an address where "owner" can receive mail. I suppose the answer to your question depends on ownership structure. The tenant has a right to send written communication directly to the owner (or as I mentioned, many times an institutional type owner will have a registered agent service , "CT corp" to receive correspondence). You just can't withhold that info if requested.

We are owner operated so we have a customer service email and phone number for residents. There's a few situations where we've needed to use this. Sometimes it helps to diffuse the situation to have them speak with another person.

That’s what the manager is for! If you need to go above, then write a letter. You will get a written response within 48 hours. The owners will only respond in writing.

Darla - I like this. You mean a written letter to corporate office? I like that!

Alex Mann …yes! It works great!!!

I tell them the policy. If they want to speak with the regional to plead their case, it’s ok with me. I let the regional know they are going to call and what the situation is. By the time my regional is done with them, they wish they had never called. I love my regional.

Canada or California because oh my glob. When did you take your last Fair Housing training or when was it last offered to you? What type of support do you have because if it’s California, I hope you know your employers failed you. If you can hold the liability of the insurance should this escalate based on your answers, stand by them. You cannot provide alignment on your assumption because it seems like your company didn’t properly train you on Fair Housing, your perception of fair and unfair gets murky when it’s yours and you made the decision of your interpretation. “Doesn’t seem fair to them” is very concerning, you not disclosing information that should be readily available and disclosed in your offices. (I have a manager, it’s a secret, I can’t tell you) you wouldn’t like that. I hope you see it’s unfair and your perspective of fair and unfair seems flawed. I always carry enough liability insurance and hope in your fair housing trainings that is suggested as well.

I’m not a fan of denying their request to be heard, even if it is ridiculous. They will likely find the information on their own and be more angry for their trouble. We are still very much in a service industry, I prefer to try to deescalate than aggravate. Once the complaint is made, the Regional should back the team for upholding policy. This may help prevent future unnecessary calls from that resident.

sometimes it's necessary....

I always let them know our corporate contact information is located on our management website, should they want to obtain it. Usually if they had to find it for themselves, we never heard from them again.

I give it to them and shoot a quick heads up to the regional. Depending on the situation, I *may* let then know the call/email will be routed back to me anyway...

I appreciate this post so much! This industry needs more managers and on site staff like you. As in so many other things, many have become soft. No one wants to be the bad guy. So instead of reiterating policy, the corporate number is given out too often. Stand your ground. Tell them you are sorry that they don't agree. Give them a copy of their lease and send them on their way.

Andrea Holaday Bradham Thank you. I’m such a believer in resident issues following a chain of command. They can start with whoever’s front of house (leasing, customer service rep, concierge). If they can’t resolve, it goes to the APM. If the APM can’t resolve, then it escalates to the PM. There’s very little after that which should go to corporate if the team is well trained. And if the team is giving them an answer that’s coming from corporate… end of discussion. A classic example at my property is the team towing guests of residents who help themselves to assigned resident parking spots (and there’s signage everywhere + it violates their parking addendum) after of course putting a memo on the car, and the resident thinks that’s harsh and so we should pay for the tow. I’m not taking precious time from a Regional who has work he/she needs to complete for ownership or support to give to other on site teams who have bigger issues, for something like that.

Alex Mann as a Director of Operations, I Thank You!

What I would do in that type of situation:You do provide the RM email info and corp number, it should be on Google anyways. Secondly, I would let them know that it is your job to make sure they feel valued, therefore, I would explain to them that you’d do everything in your power to make sure the situation gets resolved. (Not the “issue” but the situation) Show them that you truly care and you’re genuinely concerned for them. Then, speak to your supervisor and find a way to make it right.If it’s something they did wrong, explain it to them privately. Before they leave your office offer them to do something for their apt, a WO that would be helpful such as, change the air filter, weather strip replacement, replace their trash can, something that’s simple to do, follow up with them by email to ensure they feel appreciated. “In my opinion” if a RM knows that you don’t have this type of issues often… she/he should be supportive and offer to help you handle the issue together! That’s what they are for! That’s just my opinion

My supervisor can be reached at....

That's definitely a no-go at my company. We can relay the resident's request, frustration, etc upwards and then get back to them with corporate office's response. But we don't just hand out our supervisor's contact info. If we gave every resident's her contact info, she wouldn't be able to do her job. We do have a resident support email (goes to corporate) we give out, when warranted, if the situation truly does need to be escalated. But we don't give out our supervisor's direct contact information.

Alex Mann obviously we try to avoid this but we are transparent at how to get in touch.

Alex Mann our company has a customer service email address and phone number we can give to residents. If I know what's up ahead of time I like to shoot them an email so they are aware of the situation.

Give it to them!