Apartment Leasing
TYE – Mr. Apartment Resident; That’s Goes Against Our Policy
TYE is is short for The Thank You Economy
No – That’s Our Policy
Gary starts the book by telling a story about a guy who comes into his father’s wine store to redeem a coupon after the fact. The manager in the story quotes a strict interpretation of the coupon policy and sends the guy away empty handed. Gary recalls feeling, in his gut, that the guy was never going to come back to the store and let’s the manager know as much. He goes on to suggest that his gut was wrong about the guy returning but right about another thing.
Apartment Company Policy
The topic has been written about over and over, many times in our business we push our prospects and residents away over policy and procedure. I don’t have enough fingers and toes [even if I count my Facebook acquaintances] to count the number of times I have witnessed it over the past fifteen or so years I have been in the business. I can’t honor that, I can’t waive this, I can’t waive that. I know it’s your first month being late after twenty-three years of living here but late is late is late [Read with a good cheer in your voice]. The really good ones displace it on corporate; it’s a corporate thing! I wish I could help but corporate won’t let us do that.
Apartment Company Policy of tomorrow [Read: Today]
Understanding that Fair Housing plays a necessary and important role in our industry; the world of business has changed. Getting back to Gary’s Gut; the guy returned to the store to let them know he would never buy another thing from them – ever! We know the rest of the story [pre-social media and smart phones]; the man likely told ten of his best friends about his experience. And, so on and so forth.
Business has changed and we not only have to adapt but rather stay ahead of the competition and the human beings we do business with. One of the ways I try and stay ahead is reading books of all kinds and participating in our industries social spaces. And, believe me; I learn something everyday. The preface of Gary’s book reminded me of how being rigid and using strict interpretation turns customers away and unlike the guy in the story, many never return. And, today they pull out the social media bullets to get you back. Trust me, many of us, sad to say, deserve it…
I can’t wait to read the rest of the book and share some more thoughts. In the mean time; what have you learned in the short year of 11′ that speaks to the point of rigid policy and or procedure that turn customers away?
Mills Apartments Charts Social Media Course
It’s official, Mills Apartments is slowing making it’s way into the world of social media. While the process of participation has been slow to evolve, we have not been completely idle. Over the past two years we have listened and interacted here and there, dipping our toe in on experimental basis only. We are now going from dipping our toe to a full swan dive by creating an overall marketing strategy that integrates social media into the mix.
The following are the areas we are choosing to focus our time and attention;
- New website [not something that we would have elected to do [nor see as an absolute necessity] except that we collectively did not like our current one]
- Prospect Portals
- Resident Portals
- Ten blogs, eight of which will serve the various neighborhoods and regions where we have a presence. The other two will be penned from our home office, one from the various team members that make up this family called Mills and the other by our President – Kirk Mills.
- One Twitter Account Click Here
- One Facebook Like page for each of our 47 [as of today] properties Park Clayton Apartments
- YouTube Channel
Now we have no illusions that we can pull this off with out the help of a professional and after a bit of a beauty contest we elected to work with Mike Whaling over at 30lines. He along with a few others [hopefully, soon to be announced] are building the lion’s share of the infrastructure. Up to this point, he has proven to be a very valuable partner and resource and as such we are very excited about the future.
The post today is really just a tease in the way getting our story out there in the crowded sea of multifamily social media starts. I have been given full permission to document the good, the bad and the ugly along the way in building this out. And, in doing so I would be remiss not to mention the many fine trailblazers that we have borrowed [wink wink] ideas from. Many of the things you will see in the coming months will echo the efforts of others and many will take on little tweaks and nuances. And, I will do my best to site the sources of inspiration and feel free to call me on the carpet if I miss anyone.
With all that being said, I wanted to share the first of a number of internal dialogs that relate to our get social initiative. This gem is from our Communication Strategist and Brand Manager – Melissa Presusser. It relates to our blog initiative and went out to a select group of managers who have been charged with beginning to create compelling, over the top and very cool content. While they will by no means be alone in this – we thought it right to have them highly involved in the process. We are certain that it will be a work in progress and we will learn a lot along the way.
As a premise, we are encouraging all of our bloggers’ to read the introduction of Brains on Fire. We are going to use their passion for ignition in hopes of putting a real dent in the city of STL.
With that – here we go!
YOU HAVE BEEN SELECTED!!
Mills Properties will begin a blogging frenzy in the next few months with 9 blogs going at one time. We have chosen all of you to help get this super important piece of our web presence started!! You have all shown a very strong ability and passion for writing and using social media and we think you will be perfect to join our team! This is an excellent, rockin opportunity for you to really build your skills and help make really great things happen – bigger than big!
Here is what will be required, if you choose to accept…
- Accept our offer to be a Fabulous Mills Blogger
- Purchase, with petty cash, the book Brains on Fire: Igniting Powerful, Sustainable, Word of Mouth Movements
or pick it up – I believe it can also be purchased in store at Barnes & Noble or Borders - Read the introduction of the book mentioned above by October 26th
- 4. Attend the Mills Blogger Training Class on Tuesday, October 26th at 9:00 at the corporate office (we should conclude at or around 12:00)
- Get started with your crazy cool content to make things happen at Mills
We can’t wait to hear from you! Please call me if you have questions!
Let us know what you think and a big thank you to all that have inspired us along the way…
Apartment Marketing Invasion
When does just doing a superior job at the fundamentals yield you enough WOM to stop the madness?
When does creating an apartment living experience predicated on those superior fundamentals give people a reason to cherish and rave about your community?
I caught this over on gracehill today –
This decal lasts for two years – you can get the details from the GraceHill chat log dated June 30, 2010. You apparently paste various versions of the amenity marketing madness on your sidewalks throughout the community. The thought – as I understood it on GraceHill – is to give color and vibrancy to older unrehabbed communities. It just seems crazy invasive to me.
I just can’t bring myself to link to it here as I see this as over the top interruption marketing. I’m curious how this adds value or enhances the apartment living experience? Maybe it works – and I will cede to the fact that that is what matters.
In the spirit of – maybe I am missing the point – I put the question to our readers?
Do you see value in this? Do you see it as an interruption? Tacky? Cute? Ugly? Don’t care?
Apartment Leasing: The Friendly Factor
Short and sweet post today – could have been a tweet but really looking for a comment or two on the subject.
So here it is –
How much is unfriendly costing you?
I wish I could suggest that this post was inspired by an experience of mine outside this industry but it was not. It was inspired by a couple of emails I received this week suggesting as much about our firm. Yikes! But but but… In my position – it is sometimes hard to separate the juiced up aggressive nature of a hostile prospect or resident who just had a bad day and or the position of the – more times than not -pushed to the limits on-site leasing and management heros. My bias always leans to the on-site team and in the same breath I would say – I have read some compelling prospect and resident statements that made me wonder. That said, it all comes down to delivery – in my opinion.
More times than not – the statement: they are not friendly – comes up.
So, I wonder – How much is unfriendly costing you?
And, have a very friendly day –
Also, a quick shout out to the NAA bound folks from the Multi-family world. Have a great week in NOLA –
Apartment Leasing: Selling benefits to overcome fear
Would you agree that sales is part and parcel showcasing just enough benefit to overcome another’s fear
of making a decision? I mean people by nature are afraid to make decisions and
many go so far as to put the burden on others. How many times have you made your potential resident’s mind for them? I think it was Tony Robbins that said you will make a decision when the
pain of not making it outweighs the pain of making it: the pleasure and
pain principle. That said, it is incumbent upon us to bridge that gap between fear and comfort in the leasing process.
I am interested in hearing your strategies for getting prospects over that hump in the apartment leasing process. I am especially interested in hearing the strategies for getting Mr. and Mrs. Silent to speak up. You know the prospects I am speaking of; the ones that are so scared out of their mind that they can’t even mumble word. I never did learn how to do that.
Drop us a comment as I think it will benefit the entire community of readers, especially given the current economic environment. You better believe that people all over the country are becoming more hyper-sensitive in their decision making processes. You better believe fear is going to be the biggest factor you sale against in 2009 and the better part of 2010.
In the mean time check out this great post by Seth Godin.
