Have you heard of nitro brew iced coffee? Apparently it’s a “thing” right now, which has taken the coffee world by storm. What is nitro brew coffee? It’s basically a cold-brewed coffee, infused with nitrogen bubbles, and poured “on tap” like beer. 

I discovered nitro brew randomly on a day when I really wanted an iced coffee while waiting for my flight. Unfortunately the barista told me they were out of regular iced coffee, but had their “Nitro Brew” available. I had no idea what nitro brew meant, but if it meant iced coffee, I was in.

I was a little taken aback because the nitro brew cost more than regular iced coffee and I am normally pretty frugal (cheap) with coffee. When I received my order the cup looked even smaller than I expected and I started to feel that this was going to be a gigantic rip-off. You know, “nitro brew” being fancy marketing speak that justifies the added expense over regular iced coffee.

But when I took my first sip I was pleasantly surprised. It was very good. It had a smooth texture and was not as acidic as most coffees. I really enjoyed it. A few days later I visited another coffee shop that had nitro brew coffee, so I ordered it again (still feeling the pain of the greater expense!) and it was, again, very good.

Higher Expectations

When the price is higher the demand is higher and you need to deliver. All of the fancy marketing buzz words don’t matter if the coffee doesn’t actually taste good; or if the coffee is “fine” but doesn’t meet the elevated expectations.

What am I saying? If you work in a luxury community, with luxury prices, you need to work harder than if you were in a different class of apartment community, because the expectations of your residents will be higher. The mistake so many people in luxury communities make is they take the attitude that the community will sell itself and/or they can feel that because the community hs so many “bells and whistles” that those amazing amenities should be enough.

It’s not.

The level of service you offer not only needs to match what your product physically offers, it needs to exceed it! Which means you may need to bend over backwards, make some exceptions, swallow your pride and ego, and develop a higher tolerance for demanding attitudes, while praying for supernatural patience and understanding.

If I paid 50 cents for a cup of coffee and it sucks, I’m okay with that. I get it. My expectations were not high to begin with. But man, if you charge me a lot of money for a small cup of coffee and then try to wow me with fancy words justifying the cost of the coffee, the coffee better be good.

The same thing is true with your residents!

Status Check

• Do you work in a luxury community?
• What’s the level of your personal service commitment to your residents?
• Does it match what you say you offer to them?
• If so, how can you continue to sustain that?
• If not, what can you do…what should you do to take your service to the next level?
• What can you do to EXCEED your customer's expectations everyday?