Transform your "department" into a Professional Service Firm whose trademarks are passion and innovation! –Tom Peters
So many implications for the property management space. The quote made me think of Eric’s recent post, Who will remember you? We live in an attention economy where everyone and anyone is jockeying for a sliver of your time. Knowing that gives cause for being truly remarkable. And get this, it’s not that hard. You want to know why? Not very many people will spend the time and energy to be truly remarkable.
More times than not I hear, "I just can’t think of anything." To which I say, "hooey, start a blog." "Start a Myspace page." "But, that has been done before." "Ah, but not by YOU!"
Everyone has some unique to offer this world and there are plenty of people out there willing to pay attention if you have take the time to say it.
So let’s dedicate this day to thinking of something and anything that will set you apart and help you compete in the attention economy.
Some very talented people read this blog, including you, and I want to hear your thoughts…
Share one thing in the comment section that anyone on this blog can make application of today. Anything and everything is open game. And, thank you in advance for participating.
0 Responses
I think it’s important to first figure out who are your customers. Sounds obvious, right? Well, many communities misunderstand this very basic question and mistakenly think that prospects that come through their doors are their “customers”. Although I do not have hard figures, my experience indicates that communities spend several times more resources (money, time, etc) on prospects when they should be focusing on those actually paying the bills.
When you redefine who your customers are, then many communities will realize that most of their operations are counter to what their actual customers are looking for. This can be very simple, such as answering the phone, “Thank you for calling XYZ community, I can find you an apartment today!” Your customer will almost always think, “but I already have an apartment in the community.” You are sending a message that noncustomers are more important than customers.
So my suggestion would be to look at your budget and make sure that your spending and allocation of resources accurately reflects the importance of your customers over non-paying prospects.
Now, I understand that isn’t an “idea” for what you can do to actively engage your customer base and provide them an incredible experience, but having a little more funds should definitely give you some latitude in the process.
If you do want an idea, I highly recommend AptConnect, not that I’m biased or anything… 🙂