Apartment Prospects

Prospects and residents are human beings and or people first. Think of it this way, treat them as prospects or consumers and you are treating them according to your needs. Turn that around and treat them as people or humans and you are treating them according to their needs. Up to this point a prospect has been thought of as a head on a bed, a occupancy basis point or a check in the bank – a person on the otherhand is thought of as someone who dreams of a place to call home; a place that he/she can be proud to tell their friends about and someone you can have a long term relationship with.

Who are you serving today? You or other people?

No less than three days later I sipped coffee and listened as three Barista’s took turns making fun of various customers that had made their way in over the course of the day. As each story ended and the next began, the Baristas seemed to take on an almost perversive sense of pride in their topping of one another. It ended only when a customer entered the door and made their way to the counter to make an order. It really took me aback and in the same respect, it gave me recall to times when I sat on-site and poked fun at residents. Many times with frustration over events that just transpired.

The worst instance happened while working in San Francisco back in the early 2000′s. It was right around the time that the dot.com bubble burst. The fall out drove two bedroom apartment rents from $4100 a month to $1750 nearly overnight. It was mayhem. My days consisted of back to back one to two hour meetings with existing lease holders who were locked in to twelve month leases paying top market rate. All looking to negotiate a rate reflective of the street. Or, in many cases looking to get out altogether. Somewhere in month three I encountered a resident who not only tested my every nerve with personal jabs and barbs but managed to get me over the edge. I stood my ground, prevailed and puffed my chest as she stormed out of the office in defeat. I turned to make my way back to my office and piped up with “that resident in 205 is a real…,” – the about the time I was going to drop the adjective of all adjectives, I hear [in a voice so familiar it make the hair on the back of my neck stand to attention] – “careful.”

It was the resident. She made her way back into the office to, of all things, apologize for her behavior. I will say, if not by her grace or the one who governs the universe, I would have been toast that day. And, these were the days prior to Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin…

Takeaway: Influence has a new name: Always On! Be Mindful of your surroundings as you are always influencing [Starbucks Barista's - if I didn't like the coffee so much, I would move to Panera] – if you would not want it repeated as front page news – it’s likely best left unsaid.

I really have a disdain for the phrase – keep-it-simple-stupid [K.I.S.S] – not because I don’t think the concept is true, I just don’t like the saying. And, in the same respect it seems appropriate for this post. Read with that in mind.

What can a baby bird teach apartment peeps about serving the customer

The baby bird analogy that Charlie uses, as it relates to making it simple for the customer, is perfect for any industry across the world. For those of us in the apartment space, it will become more and more incumbent upon owners, executives and front line service providers to bring ease to both the leasing and living experience in 2010. That being said, much speak as of late has been dominated by words like experience marketing, engagement and entertainment. While I think those things are true and will become more embedded in the way we do business going forward – I encourage us not to forget about making it simple and don’t forget about the fundamentals.

Make sure the fundamentals come first

A few of our quests, as apartment operators, are to provide a great experience, strike true engagement and provide some emotionally loaded entertainment that provides for powerful brand association. What we have to remember is that the basics give us every opportunity to do everyone of these things and more. We don’t necessarily have to come up with a new silver bullet each and every year. Charlie, in his post, provides a insanely simple example by way of this receipt [below] from Ted’s Montana Grill. At Ted’s they split each patrons order into a total on the receipt so no attention has to be given to it on the part of the patron. It’s simple – it’s easy and in some subtle way – it’s simply remarkable.

At very least it gives us all something to think about as we move forward in 2010 -

Do you teach them that an email or social media contact is not unlike a live prospect that walks in your front door? Are they taught to serve them with the same urgency?

Technorati Tags: Web 2.0 for apartments, apartment leadership, apartment training

I am attending a team meeting at one of my properties today and having just watched this video slide show, I think will look at it in a whole new way.

I hope you enjoy it.
Technorati Tags: body language in sales, property management

Are You/Your Property/Your Company in tune and alignment with what You portray? Are You/Your Property/Your Company behaving as such. We need to breath our Brand. Act as If doesn’t work, You are what Are, and if you listen to your customer, they WILL help you align, they will tell you when you are drifting and they will define the Brand, just be open to the feedback, the ridicule when you aren’t behaving appropriately, the slamming when you drop the ball, but also, the basking in the success when you embrace the customer and you are in alignment.

Becky Carroll from Customers Rock, (if you don’t follow Becky, here is her link, she has great marketing and customer service ideas, check her out hereà  http://customersrock.wordpress.com/ ) recently did some posts on Five Star Service. Five Star Service is not expensive, luxurious, or lush. From my corporate days, I would fly weekly from Detroit to Chicago via Southwest every Tuesday morning, conduct business that day in Chicago, then fly Northwest from Chicago to Minneapolis. Southwest has the cattle call lines, no assigned seats, no frills, sometimes even a middle row seat. Northwest has First Class, almost every flight, however, I liked, I enjoyed, I laughed with, I had a favorable experience with, Southwest, Southwest made me Feel Good. Herb Kelleher somehow figured out how to deliver a consistent, value driven experience, and permitted his employees to fix it when it wasn’t. That is amazing, and, they are highly profitable. This isn’t new news, and lots has been written about the Southwest greatness, but, there are lots of folks who would never fly Southwest, so the point is “Client service excellence, just as with beauty, is in the eye of the beholder”!

Your thoughts and comments, Do You Feel You have control over how Your Residents Feel?

The real reason I post about it is three part. 1. It is happening more and more that residents are approaching us with the idea of finding a replacement resident to take over their existing lease term. The driving reason being to avoid the lease break fees. 2. We are letting them do it. 3. I would love to know your thoughts on the subject.

In the month of May alone we did four transactions where residents posted Craigslist ads, found a prospect and brought them to us. We ran the credit, collected the fees, signed the appropriate paperwork and off they went.

We started charging a $300 fee for such an action and it has not slowed the number of people doing it. Given the alternative equates to nearly 4 months rent, I would do it too.

What thoughts do you have about such a service? I call it that because that is what I think it is.

Oh yeah, CellSwapper looks cool too.

Oh yeah, yeah, Bzzagent is very cool too.

M

Break from the Pack of Apartment Commodity by implementing a Text Messaging System and Direct E Mail System set up by property, or by building at your property where you can shoot out a Text Message from your laptop about alerting your resident of the problem and what action is taking place. The whole Text Messaging thing is huge and we are not taking well enough advantage of it in our beloved industry. If you are using a 24/7 Call Center, (if you aren’t yet, please take a look, they are economical and advantageous) you could add a script for them for such circumstance as arise, and they could do the Text Message blast.

Wouldn’t your Resident Feel Better if they received a text or message alerting them of the problem, before they even discovered it, and then another update when the problem is handled?

Becky Carroll from Customers Rock, (if you don’t follow Becky, here is her link, she has great marketing and customer service ideas, check her out hereà  http://customersrock.wordpress.com/ ) and I were tweeting (not tweeting yet either, start today, it is a great) yesterday about what does Five Star Service mean, and my reaction is this, Five Star Service is an Unparallel Experience that you feel good about, even entertained and you find value in the service or product rendered. So, if we can help our Resident Feel Good, by over communicating, won’t the Resident Retention rise?

As I finish this blog post, this is an actual e mail response from one of our residents where we, yep, had a hot water tank go out this morning on a holiday weekend, but each resident was notified directly with an e mail and text message before most of them woke up; quote from one resident; “No big deal. I do not get frustrated. I am grateful to have water coming out of a faucet!  Even if it is cold!  Thanks so much. “The point here is, this stuff works, and we just got a Thank You from someone who has no hot water this morning!

So, Try It, See if it Works for you, I think it will, and it may just help you Break from the Pack of Apartment Commodity. Enjoy the Holiday Weekend, now, off to get that hot water tank fixed!

Here is an sound bite;

“Businesses are losing business they can’t afford to lose,” she
said, pointing to the results of a 2007 Harris Poll, which reported
80 percent of customers saying they will never return to a business
after a negative customer-service experience. That’s up from 68
percent in 2006.

“We’ve lost touch with the personal side of customer service,”
Paine said, “primarily because of technology.” [read the rest here]

I am not talking about monumental changes.

How many of you think packages are a pain in the ass?

How can we change a simple state of mind like that? Instead of thinking, "why do people think it is OK to ship their packages to our business office?" Think, "this is an incredible service we offer to our busy residents, how can we make it better?" "How do we take it a step further?"

Thoughts?

Technorati Tags: change, apartment service, customer service, mike brewer

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