"I'm sorry, there's nothing I can do."

Grrr.

As a customer, there's nothing worse than those words. As a customer, I don't want to hear about what you Can Not do for me. I want to hear what you Can do for me.

And yet, as service providers, we are often asked to do more with less. Less capital, less staff, less flexibility in work hours or time off, and more. So how do we find a way to say , "yes" to our resident concerns and requests, when all we are hearing from our budgets is "no?"

It's time to Accentuate the Positive! It's easy to say no. With our hands tied regarding some of the bigger capital needs of our communities for the time being, it gets exhausting trying to explain the situation over and over to different residents who are looking for an improvement. The important thing is to find a way to say "yes" to something. There's not enough in the budget to replace this long-term resident's carpet? Can we offer to steam clean? Not all the elevators can be replaced this year, but can we replace some of the hardware to make them look a little better until the capital can be approved? 

According to our research, in the top five satisfaction topics that have the greatest impact on the resident likelihood to renew, "office staff responsiveness and dependability" rank as #3, and "office staff courtesy and professionalism" rank as #4. How residents perceive our willingness to assist them has a very significant impact on how  they feel about their choice in home.

As a customer, it's easier to swallow the bitter pill of "No" if there's a spoonful of sugar to go with it. Find the yes, no matter how small!

Accen-tuate the positive

Elim-inate the negative

Latch on to the affirmative

Don't mess with Mr. In-Between