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Renewal Letters? Seriously?

Renewal Letters? Seriously?

Dear Abby:

I've lived at Happy Hills Apartments for almost one year now. I like it here. It's clean, the rents are a little pricey but I believe that you get what you pay for so I'm not complaining about that.

When I looked here a year ago, everyone couldn't have been nicer. They gave me a little 'thanks for looking' gift when I first came out, and they stayed in touch with me through my whole apartment search. They were so attentive that I felt I'd be well taken care of here. But that's changed. Actually, it changed right after I moved in.

It seemed like once I filled out the lease, they sort of forgot about me. I'd go in the office to drop off my check or give them a service request and they either didn't remember who I was or had to ask me my apartment number. I didn't like that. They also would interrupt talking with me to take phone calls for people who wanted information on the apartments. I think that's just rude.

A couple of times, I had a package notice and I asked them if they could put it in my apartment because I wasn't going to be home in time to pick it up. They said they would do it if they weren't too busy. Once, I got the package. Another time, I didn't.

It's been like this for a while now, but today was really the last straw. I got this letter from them that was CLEARLY a form letter. It started off: Dear Resident - like once again they don't know my name. The next line was, "Believe it or not, it's been almost a year since you made Happy Hills Apartments your new home". It wasn't even on real letterhead paper; it was a copy and it sort of slanted off the page. You know what I mean.

Oh, and it also had a RENT INCREASE in it.

I don't get it. They work their butts off to make me feel special and once I move in they are all form letters and 'who are you?'. They are taking me for granted and I just don't get it. I guess they just assume I'll renew. They need to rethink that.

Yours truly,

Used and Abused

 
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site

Hi Scott!

Thanks for stopping by with a comment.

I've never seen a model quite like that for multifamily but I think it's an interesting concept. One other item I'd like to throw out there is the idea of getting a CallSource or Who'sCalling number for your office. That way, you can listen to and review your conversations your team has with the residents - a very important part of your overall strategy.

Thanks again for commenting!

LT

  Lisa Trosien
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site

Great Read LT. I've always advocated an in-person visit to the residents at both 90 and 60 days out from renewal. A 5 minute pop in to say hello, thank them for making XYZ Apartments their home, and personally asking them to renew can be very adventagous. It's like we spend so much money attracting and closing on prospects, yet good paying residents don't see a dime or 5 minutes of time to secure a renewal.

  Danny Soule
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site

@Danny: Thanks for commenting. I like the idea of in person visits, too. All too often, our industry fails to treat the renewal as a separate sales transaction. How successful would any community be if they just mailed out letters all day long, asking people to lease? Why we continue to treat our wonderful asset of existing customers like this is suprising indeed.

@Elysa: I think you'd be surprised at how many PM's would take the time to listen to the calls. They listen to leasing calls now, so why not give the same (or more) attention to your existing customer base? It doesn't make sense that we wouldn't do that. But then again, sending a 'renewal letter' doesn't make sense either, and many, many companies only do just that.

Thank you both for weighing in!

LT

  Lisa Trosien
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Just chipping in my two cents' worth - a great read, and as an apartment resident myself, I'd be pretty miffed if I were in Used's shoes. It has never made sense to me to treat prospects as somehow better than your current clients. After all, isn't there a saying about a bird in the hand? I get that it's important to chase leads, but if you're not going to apply the same effort to retaining your existing customer base, why bother building that kind of loyalty to begin with? It'll just feel like betrayal to your resident down the line and nobody likes feeling betrayed.

  Sara Morrill
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Hey Sara! Nice to hear from you.

Great comment and I've got nothing to add but: I AGREE!

LT

  Lisa Trosien
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Great article LT. We do not send renewal letters since our lease is a self-renewing lease unless we are informed of an intent to vacate 30 days prior to the resident's lease term end date. I know that we are a small company but we at Urbane believe in personalized service with our residents and both Eric and I respond to resident issues directly as they arise. We know our resident's by name and address all correspondence with the resident's name and not "Dear Resident", which is offensive. We are far from perfect but it's also about the recovery when things don't go quite right. I think that resident's don't expect perfection but they do expect timely handling of issues and that will make the difference in their decision to renew or to move on.

  kim brown
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site

Hey Kim!

So nice to hear from you! I think it's great the way you have structured your organization. You bring up a great point about service recovery as well. And I agree; residents have an expectation of timely and quality service and they deserve to receive it.

I've worked with the self-renewing lease with the 30 day noice before, too. While it's not for everyone, if you can make it work, it's a great vehicle.

Thank you again for commenting!
LT

  Lisa Trosien
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Where I manage, leasing is drivene to get leases, as much as I wish they appreciated a resident to renew, they often see slow December without leases expiring, as a bad thing. So, to improve their perspective, I am working on modernizing our retention bonus structure. Instead of a lukewarm overall bonus based on a ratio for a given month, the reward is clearly per renewed lease. And much more lucrative than current plan. This will hopefully give our leasing staff more incentive to appreciate a renewal as much as - if not more than a new clean pretty vacant to lease.

  Jennie McCluskey
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site

Hi Jennie!

Congratulations on taking the initiative to get your company's priorities in order. Renewal bonuses should ALWAYS be higher than leasin bonuses.

Additionally, consider having a 'team renewal' bonus for the property's renewals. Maintenance and housekeeping have a HUGE part in keeping residents happy.

Thank you again for weighing in and good luck to you. Let us know how it works out for you, okay?

LT

  Lisa Trosien
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Lisa,

I couldn't help but laugh when I read this post... I was reminded of the half a dozen or so communities that I've lived in over the years. All except one sent me pretty much the same stock letter, and the one who didn't just called me on my renewal date and asked when they could expect me to come in and resign my lease?? Yeah how about never!

Perhaps it's my age or the fact that I spend most of my day on the internet but the whole "letter" idea seems archaic for any resident correspondence. Even if you ignored all of the automated email systems on the market, and refused to actually talk to your residents once they moved in, it seems you could still manage to use the phone and call them.

On our properties we’ve tried everything from Week Long Renewal Special Parties to Breakfast Deliveries for Renewals. So far the best plan was actually bringing our residents the lease renewal with a small gift of some sort and then just talking them through the lease again. We do it 90 days before and it’s generally very successful.

Still I’d love to get more ideas for what works on other properties.

  Page McDonald
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