Have Your Team Members Earned The Right To Wear This Badge?

When I first posed this question to myself I came up with a plethora of answers.  My prediction was cheap rent and great amenities would rank at the top of the expectations list.  These predictions were fueled by my knowledge of markets handing out concessions and developers putting in over-the-top amenity packages.  As I actually started my survey with residents, it became obvious that neither I nor the market had paid our Dionne Warwick Psychic Network dues, because our predictions were wrong.

During tours of A, B and C level assets I would meet prospective residents and existing residents and ask the question, "What are the three most important things you look for in an apartment community"?  While this informal survey was not based on thousands of residents, it was definitely based on more than a hundred.  Inevitably, no matter what the asset level, three answers always seemed to be at the top of the list:  1) safety, 2) cleanliness & 3) good customer service.

Having been subjected to the consistency of these answers, I could not help but draw the conclusion that these three items should become every owner and management team's guiding principles for running their business.  GIVE THE CUSTOMER WHAT THEY WANT!

While we cannot guarantee any one persons safety, we can certainly implement and maintain tools that assist in this endeavor.  I often tour assets with controlled access gates and magnetic sidewalk pedestrian gates.  It is not uncommon for these to not be in working order.  When staff is quizzed regarding their repair, it is typical to receive a response of, "The repair is not in the budget".  If we adopt safety as one of our guiding principles for our business, this is no longer optional.  It needs to be treated like a leaking roof that is damaging our asset until repaired.  These unrepaired items cause our residents and prospective residents to feel unsafe, therefore failing to meet their first expectation.  Many other variables can be managed to help our customers feel comfortable, such as;  burnt out exterior property lighting, broken down perimeter fencing, tall landscaping providing hiding spots, etc. 

Cleanliness can be one of the easiest guiding business principles to implement and maintain.  Initial investments may need to be made for such items as additional trash receptacles, power washers and grounds clean-up in order to meet this customer expectation.  The true challenge is motivating the management team to realize, this needs to be top priority.  Additionally, I find that management teams tend to ignore cleanliness related to seasonal amenities, such as swimming pools during off season.  Pool decks are still visible during tours and to the residents.  These areas need to be maintained daily and most importantly not become storage areas during the winter months.  One company I worked for went so far as to design small garbage bags displaying their logo and both maintenance and office employees looped them through their belts as part of their uniform program.  While on property they used the bags to pick up random trash.  They received great feedback from prospective residents and residents alike regarding this very visible effort to maintain the cleanliness of their communities.

Good customer service seems like such a basic and implied expectation, yet I totally relate to why this has made the top three on the importance list.  For years now I have witnessed customer service dwindle in every industry throughout our country.  I believe much of this is due to automation.  Our young people have not had the modeling of Tom, the customer service focused professional bank teller, due to ATM machines.  They have not had the customer service modeling of Esther the sweet grocery store clerk, due to self check-out.  They have not had the customer service focused attention of Francis the efficient smiling gas station attendant, due to self serve.  The list goes on forever.  Automation has made us a society of expediency.  This expediency has robbed us of the opportunity to develop a customer service focused relationship.  Instead it has sentenced us to a life with an auto responding voice messaging system.  It has replaced warm handshakes with pushing numbers on a phone key pad.  It has replaced once flexible decision making of humans, with rigid and limited phone options and responses.  It has made it nearly impossible to speak with an empathic person within the company, instead sending us to a third world customer service representatives that hides their disgust for our first world spoiled expectations as they deal with us.  None-the-less, we need to recommit ourselves with strong team dedication to provide consistent stellar customer service.

We need to think of this as an open book test.  There will be three questions and we have been provided with the three answers – safety, cleanliness and customer service.  As we take this test each day, it will require us to adjust budgets, realign focuses and train the young.  But, if we consistently use these three expectations as our guiding business principles, we will surely experience higher renewal rates and increased closing ratios – and that is the key to SUCCESS!

Is Your Corporate Cart Overloaded With Program Initatives?

The multi-family housing industry has become the perfect canvas for entrepreneurial vendors to paint on.  Once an industry technologically ignored by most program developers, it has now gained the magnetic focus of many.

New programs regarding advanced automated accounting, lead tracking, analytics, automated rent collection, automated leasing tools, social media management, video marketing, on-line learning, automated bill approval/pay systems, revenue management, lease expiration management, automated marketing updating, on-line resident screening, etc.  are now readily available in an infinite inventory.

These programs are endlessly presented to the top corporate decision makers and appear as new shiny toys  promising to increase revenue, decrease expenses and expedite management efforts.  And in fact, most could probably do just that.  Unfortunately, many companies are unable to prioritize their needs, understand the demands of implementation and follow through on utilizing the implemented tools effectively.  But, they continue to buy and implement new shiny toys, becoming hoarders of under utilized programs.

Much like the popular television reality TV show, "Buried Alive", industry leaders continue to buy.  The major difference is that the items purchased are typically stored at the property level.  Again, much like the television series, just as the family members dealing with their loved ones obsession for collecting grow frustrated, depressed and overwhelmed - so do our property level employees.

Learning new programs require a time investment.  This length of time is often dictated by the technological savvy of the property staff.  Additionally, one must typically calculate in both a financial and customer dedication loss due to errors made during the learning curve.  Most unfortunately we have to add in a decreased employee productivity factor.  Typically, learning the program falls on the shoulders of the community manager, causing them to take their eye off of the business at hand temporarily.  Once having mastered the program, they then have to take their eye off of the business at hand yet again, to teach their team members the program.  Once everyone has conquered the skill set and are functioning at optimum level (3 - 6 months), the next new shiny toy is announced.  And the frustrating game of chasing our implementation tail repeats.

As a trainer, I relate to the extremely justified levels of frustration and hopelessness that the property teams experience.  Without receiving additional help, adequate continued training/support or approval for overtime - these individuals are expected to maintain their productivity level while conquering this monumental often self educating implementation task.

At the corporate level, I am even more frustrated.  As I interview the initial decision makers, I often find that they are not consistently reviewing the reporting tools, and if they are, they are requesting the property level people to run/scan/email the reports to them.  ARE YOU KIDDING ME?  Do you have your assistant spoon feed you your damn coffee in the morning?  You wanted the technology, learn your log in, remember your password and retrieve your own reports!  The community people should not be distracted in their continued frustrated efforts to try to make you and your company successful while in a state of program implementation overload.

So, the questions is Cutting Edge or just Cutting?  Is your goal to pave the way for your competitors while cutting your staffs focus on the business at hand?   If it is cutting edge, it is not just the program you must invest in.  You must invest in substantial training and implementation man power in order to not distract your existing property management team's focus from the important business at hand.  And probably the hardest sacrifice, are you as a corporate executive ready to give up a huge chunk of time to be trained and consistently utilize the reporting tools that your investment provides?

My advice, stop the insanity of program hoarding, there will always be more shiny toys to look at tomorrow.  Take the time to identify the top two areas calling for improvement within your company.  Then start your research on programs that can help to improve those areas.  Make a commitment to your employees to implement no more than two programs a year.  And above all, do not make the implementation fall on the property based employees!  Invest in an implementation/training team.

Always keep your property team focused on the business at hand.  Remember, the reports you receive are a reflection of their focus.  Often, if the numbers are low, it is because we have distracted our teams focus.

As my mother always said, "The Fish Stinks From The Head Down"!

What's In A Greetiing? Everything!

Each day our office phones ring for a multitude of reasons.  Residents with service requests, prospective residents seeking rental information, corporate calling regarding reports and family wanting to know whats for dinner tonight.  All of these are extremely important people to us.  People to provide us with job security and people who we want to have job security for.  Yet, on a daily basis, we answer the phone as though it is a uneventful routine requirement.  It is uneventful, because we have allowed ourselves to forget our tone and energy will dictate how the conversation will continue.  That's right, if we pick up with low energy we will have a low energy conversation, if we pick up with a serious attitude the conversation will turn serious, if we pick up in a hurry the conversation will end quickly.  If our phone energy is negative we will contaminate the energy of the caller.  If we pick up with a positive high energy we will elevate the energy of the caller.

"Good morning, thank you for calling Just The Same Everywhere, how can I help you"?  Why do so many people insist on using this greeting?  It is so boring and insincere.  We all understand the rules of supply and demand, if there is infinite supply then the item is cheaper.  Well, there is a ton of this greeting in all industries throughout the United States.  It is a cheap and insincere greeting, one might say last years unwanted overstocked design that is now available at the local dollar store.  Yes, I called, and the local dollar store actually answered there phone that way.

You only have a few seconds to impact the energy of the conversation, so use those beginning seconds wisely.  Pick a sincere greeting like:  "I'm glad you've called Great Estates".  Pick a marketing greeting like:  "It's a Rental Round Up at Sonata Ranch".  Pick a fun greeting like:  "You've just reached Pennington Park, where residents are always cool by the pool and having fun in the sun".  Of course, pick an appropriate greeting that fits your asset and clientele - but just make sure it is different and catches their attention while setting an upbeat positive energy and tone.

Now the hard part, YOU.  It is easy to get caught up in the rat race of office demands.  Unexpected residents visiting, walk-in traffic, surprise reports due, vendor visits, unannounced inspections, etc.  Often we find ourselves picking up the phone on the fly, not giving it the attention deserved.  We have to step back, breathe, and remember - this is a potential commission or renewal calling, the very item that insures our success and employment.  The phone is like a courtesy alarm, reminding us that on the other end is opportunity, a destiny of success or failure that we are able to control.

Change is good, focus is good, success is good - so mix it up a little today, promote your phone to the top of you and your teams priority list and keep it there.  I guarantee, it will ring in continued great rewards!

Are Your Leasing Consultants Motivated? If Not, It Is Your Fault!

Leasing Consultants are an interesting breed.  They are a roller coaster of sales motivation, when they are up they are up, but when they are down ... it is the fault of the market or product.

"This is a bad market, our rents are way to high for everyone."

"I can't rent that unit because it has dark brown carpet in it."

Have you ever heard any of the above excuses?  Yet the interesting part is, if you check their guest cards you will find them in complete disorder with limited to no follow up documented.  If you ask to see their outreach log, you will find it empty.

Many people feel that these individuals are lazy and are just looking for excuses.  Well the fact of the matter is, they are financially bored.  The key to keeping a leasing team on track, motivated and successful is to consistently mix up the financial pay offs for them.

As soon as you put an additional $100 commission on that over priced apartment with ugly brown carpet it will be rented within a matter of hours.  Oddly enough, it has sat vacant for 90 days costing us well over $2400 - why did we not offer the bonus spiff?  Probably because we think it is their job and it shouldn't be required.  Well, fact of the matter is, the same program day in and day out is like eating mac and cheese every night for dinner, you just get tired of it and desire something new and different.

It does not always have to be as costly as $100.  It just has to be something new and exciting.  Please see examples below.

• Apartment Mystery Board - Put up a board with envelopes for each vacant unit, unit number on the front.  Inside the sealed envelopes have gift cards, cash, a free day off pass, etc.  When they rent an apartment and the applicant has been approved, they get to open the envelope and claim their prize.
• Rental Wheel of Fortune.  Again have sealed envelopes with letters in them that complete a mystery phrase.  Each envelope could have differing amounts of letters.  When they rent an apartment and the applicant is approved they get to choose an envelope.  Whoever solves the phrase gets a prize.  Everyone keeps trying for more letters even once the first puzzle is solved.  At the end of the month you have a super phrase that they can use their prior earned letters on to win a super prize.  Each person gets to put up one letter and try to guess. Then move to the next contestant.  When you run out of letters you have run out of guesses and are out of the game.
• Who Wants To Be A Commissionaire - Set up small sealed boxes on a table, one for each vacant apartment.  Each time someone rents an apartment and the applicant is approved, they are able to open the box and see their commission.  Commission amounts should range from their standard commission to higher commissions.
• Mystery Gifts - Buy items at your local Target such as CD's, candles, DVD's, T-shirts, etc. and wrap them up beautifully.  One gift for every vacant apartment.  When they rent the apartment and the applicant has been approved they get to choose a gift.

Remember, most of the time it is not the rental amount or the market ... it is the motivation of the sales team.  A great sales person can sell a drowning man a bucket of water if they are motivated.  It just requires some pre-planning and dedication on the managers part to keep them on the right sales path.

Enjoy your journey to the land of higher occupancy!