Customer engagement
Tell Them How Much You are Moved by the Neighborhood
Don’t tell prospects and residents how much your apartments are – tell them how much you are moved by the neighborhood.
Tell them about waking up on a crisp fall morning and taking a run in Forest Park just one block over from your apartment. Tell them about stopping back by Velocity Coffee Shop to have a cup of coffee – served by a friendly Barista named Tracy who rarely smiles but wants to. Tell them about the free copies of the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and the St. Louis Dispatch. Tell them about the free wifi. And, oh – it’s a bike shop too with cool bike motif everywhere. The bathroom even has a cool chalkboard where you once drew a giant dragon that looked as if it were eating the giant flower someone else drew.
Tell them about Papa John’s pizza and Subway at the end of the block where Tony and Charles remember your name and serve you with a smile. Tell them about Atlas Restaurant located in the heart of the neighborhood and the amazing food and desserts that they serve. Tell them about The Loop and The Central West End [very cool Saint Louis neighborhood hangouts] being just one mile away and don’t forget to mention the friendly cab driver resident who will drive you over while entertaining you with great conversation. Tell them about all the fun nights you had in those neighborhoods.
Tell them about Mr. and Mrs. Wang who own the dry cleaners right next door to Papa John’s and how they wash and fold clothes for $0.75 a pound. Tell them how much you love the fact that each Christmas they give your children big canisters of candy as a thank you for your business.
Tell them about the dog park even if you are not a pet lover – not even in the least.
If you haven’t figured it out yet, this is the neighborhood that I fell in love with in Saint Louis. Oh yeah, and I lived in a great apartment that overlooked a tree lined street that looks amazing in the fall.
Tell them with conviction how much you love the neighborhood the rest will fall right into place.
Apartment Marketing Idea: You are not Your Apartment Prospect
I think one of the easiest traps to fall into when marketing to apartment prospects or residents is to think that they want what you want and they will like what you like. It is really easy when you don’t take the time to understand who your customer is and what they value. In order to that you have to be willing to spend time asking questions, trying new things, testing new theories, crushing sacred cows and refining your successes. All in the name of your client’s changing tastes.
Always done it that way
We have all heard the statement that if you keep doing what you have always done expecting a different result – you get the definition of insanity. It’s as true in our space as it is in different industries across America. We keep at it year after year because it’s easy. It’s really hard to go against the grain. It’s really hard to convince the powers that be that giving up tried and true processes is a good thing. Problem with this is that change, if not embraced, will free up your future sooner or later.
The ABC’s of change
In selling ABC stands for Always Be Closing, in understanding that you are not your apartment customer it stands for Always Be Changing. With the advent of the internet came the rapid acceleration of change. In one fell swoop we had every piece of information we could every want at our finger tips. That is not to suggest that it has not taken time to morph our imbued information gathering habits but it is to say it’s not your older brothers world anymore. If you don’t like change you will like irrelevance even less and that is your prize for standing still today.
How do you keep up with your customer
Tom Peter’s popularized the phrase Management by Walking Around [MBWA], defined by BusinessDictionary.com this way;
Unstructured approach to hands-on, direct participation by the managers in the work-related affairs of their subordinates, in contrast to rigid and distant management. In MBWA practice, managers spend a significant amount of their time making informal visits to work area and listening to the employees. The purpose of this exercise is to collect qualitative information, listen to suggestions and complaints, and keep a finger on the pulse of the organization. Also called management by wandering around.
I think it is a fair way think about how to keep up with your customer. We should be interacting with them both on and offline. Here are just a couple of ideas on how to do that;
- Ask for their opinion any time you see them
- Hang out where they hang out
- Eat where they eat
- Read the magazines, blogs and tweets they read
- Read the books, ebooks and ezines they read
- Ask permission to enlist them on your Facebook, MySpace and Tweet pages
- Participate on their Facebook, MySpace and Tweet pages
- Shop where they shop
- Read what they review
- Ride the buses they ride
- Frequent the places they work
- Experience the products and services they like
- Work out where they work out
- Ask what keywords they used to find you
How about we call this Creating Experience by Walking Around [CEWA]. The real key to remember here is that you are not your customer and in order to understand your customer you must engage and participate with them. And, make it easy for them to do the same with you.
Twitter – the missing discussion
I saw this on Twitter this afternoon and it just seemed like a conversation that needs to take place.
What do you think?
@justinfarris: Managment who takes the personalization out of leasing is “REALLY” missing the boat! Fri 28 Nov 14:09 via TweetDeck
Which seemed to be a clear response to:
@Eric_Urbane: Meet one of our new Leasing Consultants, Sassy Miss Avatar. ApartmentVeteran Fri 28 Nov 13:14 via web
I think there is merit in both positions and I am very interested to see how this plays out for Eric and his team. I see the cleverness in the experience one might have with the medium but would have a hard time retorting against the position Justin has taken. I see people getting engaged in the avatar and not to digress but I see Sassy ending up MIA only to be found upon a move out inspection at some point in the future. Eric, you might want to anchor her down in some way.
I look forward to some worthy discussion on this one. M
Loyalty – 09′
We are all vulnerable to the current effects of the economic meltdown. Apartment communities across the nation will face some level of fallout from the situation, like it or not. From uber premium to boutique apartment communities, everyone will feel it. That is except for those who take real notice of the impending crises. Those who do will move to create an insanely and over the top focus on creating loyalty. And, not just any loyalty. It will be loyalty that rings to the core of the consumer you are trying to engage. My message here is this; you must act in the manner you wish to see in return. Loyalty is not about a card or even an incentive to pay your rent on time like I suggested a couple of posts ago. Loyalty is us, the operator, being loyal to our word as demonstated through our actions.
Inconsistency, lack of commitment or response are not an option in anything we do. We can’t waste our energies on fruitless activities or busy work. In the past we would could sit back and take orders as they came in the door. There was no need to give concern to the back door as our marketing efforts were producing enough volume for replacement. Advice: don’t be seduced by the idea that you can create enough volume to cover yourself. The world will deal you a very tough blow in 09′ if you believe that self talk.
In this new environment, the loyalty of the customer will be paramount to all that we do. The reason? It will become progressively more difficult to find replacement residents. Not impossible but definitely more difficult. That said loyalty should become the operating mantra for 09′. I would challenge every one of you to shoot for the moon in this respect.
We face a time where every community within a thousand mile radius of us will be offering some level of economic incentive to move in and many of your current residents will be inticed by that. Read: plan now.
Steve Yastrow in his book We: The Ideal Customer Relationship
The real loyality you are seeking is the loyalty to YOU. Be crazy and insanely passionate about the relationship aspect of this business. If you hate people, if you hate distraction, if you hate serving – get out now. Move on. Free up your own future before someone else does. 09′ is about relationship. Pause here: I know it’s always been about relationship but how many of us can say we truly and adamantly preach the mantra in our organizations? Truthfully? I stumble with it all the time. Especially when I am spent, tired and ready for the day to end.
Relationship will be huge for me in the way of blog posts this year – Huge! I hope to engage in some crazy amazing conversations around the subject and look forward to it with an open mind.
M
