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Stop Running All of Your Ads Now!

Stop Running All of Your Ads Now!

In preparation for some meetings, as well as for some ongoing client work, I've been eshopping properties for the last two weeks.

The results are in a word: horrendous.

Some companies took a full week to get back to me. Others relied on their auto responders that said, "Contact us if you have any additional questions."

Sadly, the majority of the ones I DID receive back were littered with poor grammar, misspelled words,  information on the wrong bedroom configuration and more. So here's my question:

If you're not going to train your people on how to answer the emails, why bother advertising?

After all, why spend the money if you're not going to utilize the results? So just stop running all of your ads now.

Ignoring your emails is like letting the phone ring and ring with no one to answer it. Or letting a prospect come into your office and simply stand there while you pretend they don't exist. Would you ever do either one of those things?

Training is ESSENTIAL. If you don't arm your teams with the proper instruction and procedure on how to answer their emails, you're bound to fail.

I will now step off of my soapbox and you can return to your day.

 
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site

Hi Elysa!

You know, the sad part is that I've been saying this for YEARS and it still doesn't seem to improve! Why is that?

Standards should be established and maintained. If your team has difficulty formatting their own emails, format them for them ahead of time. I think the worst part for me was when they didn't even address the questions that were asked (when they bothered to answer at all).

It was sad.

Thank you for weighing in, Elysa.

LT

  Lisa Trosien
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Well said, Lisa! Whenever I see something like this, the first thing that comes to mind is "now there's a training issue!" Because the real bottom line is that a lack of response or poor response is entirely indicative of the level of training as well as the level of accountability that has -- or hasn't -- been established at the site and throughout the organization. Even if managers are "confident" that their site staff has been trained to respond appropriately and in a timely manner, many don't "inspect what they expect" to make sure these trained behaviors took hold.

I must say I agree (and that's BIG, given that I'm with a marketing provider) -- if the follow up and follow through isn't going to happen, might as well save the dollars and yank the advertising! They'll need it on the bottom line to offset the losses of those empty units.

  Judy Bellack
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From having many meetings with training director's, I can really sympathize with most of the situations. Many are running around like chicken's with their heads chopped of. In all the comments I have read, training was one of the keywords. If a management company's mandate does not include the necessary structure to make sure their staff is properly trained, then the problem will never go away. If they keep spending the dollars on marketing and wonder why their ROI is horrible, perhaps its an opportunity for them to seriously start crunching numbers to see how funds spent on both ends can provide the desired results. Lisa--I agree -- stop the ads now if your people have no idea what to do with them.

  Jonathan Saar
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Hey Judy and Jonathon!

Thank you so much for commenting!

@Judy: As a marketer, your opinion on this matter is even more important! You must get extremely frustrated when you see this and advertisers aren't working their leads. One of my former companies I worked with required all managers to have a sign on their desk that read "Inspect What You Expect" and we all have to do that on a regular basis.

@Johnathon Thank you so much for proving your input on this! You definitely see the frustration that training mangers have to deal with - and you know how hard it is for them. The structure HAS to have a training component for this type of lead response.

It's such an important part of our industry's marketing success. We all need to realize this and act on it.

  Lisa Trosien
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Here, here! And sad, sad, sad. Not surprising, however. Excellent post that sheds some light on a subject that doesn't get enough "airtime". It is not enough to mandate that it is done...teams have to be shown how, and what is in it for them, to maximize effectiveness.
Lisa, you and I have been in this business for a long time, and it doesn't seem to change. It really is a shame.

  Lori Snider
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Hey Lori!

I think this problem is caused by a myriad of things but largely, these two:

1. Owners/upper management think that 'anyone' can do it without instruction. But clearly, that's not true.

2. It 'falls through the cracks' as there are always so many other things to do on site. Let's face it; a prospect in front of you and/or a ringing phone clearly has more 'visible' urgency.

It's no wonder than contact centers keep growing in popularity.

Thank you so much for weighing in!

LT

  Lisa Trosien
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It’s certainly true that responses to emails are often slow if it all and not what all of us would like to see. I think part of the problem is also the current balance between emails and phone calls. A couple years ago, every ILS had a ratio of about 1:1 for email leads to phone leads at the minimum. Most were at about 1:3 (one email lead for every three phone calls). Today, several of the ILS’s are at the exact opposite with 3 or 4 email leads to every phone call.

In addition to creating far more email leads to deal with than previous years, email leads also convert to leases at a much lower rate.

-Todd

  todd katler
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Hey Todd!

I was hoping you'd stop by. I have a question for you regarding your post. I know, and you know, that email leads have a lower conversion that phone calls. But do you think that is an active factor in the difficulty we have in getting them answered at the site level?

Inquiring minds want to know your opinon on that!

Thanks again, Todd. Always appreciate your input.

LT

  Lisa Trosien
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I think it’s a few things:

1)Lead handling has always been a problem. Only about 40% of email leads receive a response and the average response time is 48 hours. About 62% of prospect phone calls are not answered (of the 62%, about 15% originate after hours and 47% during office hours).

2)All leads convert to a lease between 3% and 7%. Email is at the bottom of that scale on average and I believe the onsite teams realize this (maybe not in these exact numbers, but you get a sense of how many people you email/call and how many actual show up – the number is small). My opinion is that a certain amount of complacency sets in when you realize that there is probably a 1 in 10 chance you will ever meet the person you are emailing and only a 1 in 30 chance they will lease.

3)The more email leads you get, the more #2 becomes a problem. It’s easier to assess the sincerity of a phone prospect and this influences behavior when it comes to emails.

Now having given all this data, there are tremendous benefits available to those who differentiate themselves. For example, some companies that have a great lead handling strategy have reported a much thinner disparity between conversion rates from emails to phone calls. When most renters are receiving no response, a late response or an unprofessional response, the properties that can respond timely and professionally are going to get more than their fair share of the pie.

-Todd

  todd katler
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I love the stats Todd! What is your source? I could use some of that in a presentation I'm working on.

  Charity Zierten
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