customer service
Anticipate Needs and Prefill Them: The Ultimate Customer Service Principle
Good customer service starts with knowing what customers need before they ask.
Anticipate their needs and prefill solutions.
Imagine a world where your customers don’t have to wait.
They get what they want instantly.
This builds loyalty and creates raving fans.
“Great service means making the invisible visible before it’s noticed.” – Mike Brewer
The biggest secret in business?
Do you want to know what the biggest secret is in business?
It’s not about the latest and greatest cutting-edge PropTech or novel marketing strategies.
It’s simply excellent service.
Mediocre service is the norm today!
It’s so bad that if you excel even slightly more than your competitor, it sets you apart dramatically.
When multifamily companies focus on genuinely pleasing their prospects and residents, they can create a loyal base that no competitor can steal.
“When service is the battleground, a smile and sincerity become your strongest weapons.” – Mike Brewer
The Surprising Power of Ridiculous Responsiveness in Business Communication
Photo by Azwedo L.LC on Unsplash
A concept is steadily gaining traction, one that might initially sound counterintuitive – the idea of ‘Ridiculous Responsiveness.’ Far from being an overzealous reaction, it is a strategic maneuver. It’s a philosophy where response times are pushed to their limits in customer service and across all business interactions.
Redefining Speed in Communication:
The traditional 24-hour response window is gradually becoming obsolete. Ridiculous responsiveness aims to shrink this window to an almost immediate response, sometimes within minutes. This hyper-speed communication signals to clients, partners, and stakeholders that your organization is attentive and exceptionally proactive. Being the quickest to respond can set a business apart, offering a competitive edge in client satisfaction and engagement. While true, it’s sad at the same time.
Cultivating a Culture of Urgency and Attention:
Adopting this approach requires a cultural shift within an organization. It’s about nurturing a sense of urgency and importance around communication. Every email, call, or message is treated as a top priority. Which means nothing is an absolute priority. This culture shift can lead to heightened employee engagement, as their role in communication is emphasized. However, it’s crucial to balance this with measures that prevent burnout, ensuring that employee well-being is not compromised while response times are quick.
Leveraging Technology for Enhanced Responsiveness:
Technology plays a pivotal role in facilitating ridiculous responsiveness. Automated responses, AI-driven customer service bots, and sophisticated CRM systems can help manage and prioritize communications. However, the human element remains irreplaceable. Personalized, thoughtful responses that reflect understanding the client’s needs are essential. Technology should be used as a tool to aid responsiveness, not replace the personal touch that forms the foundation of strong business relationships.
Risks and Challenges:
While this approach has numerous benefits, it’s not without its challenges. There’s a fine line between being responsive and intrusive. Over-communication can lead to information overload for clients and might be perceived as pushy. Furthermore, the emphasis on speed must not come at the cost of quality. Responses need to be fast but also accurate, relevant, and helpful.
Measuring the Impact:
The impact of ridiculous responsiveness can be measured in several ways. Customer satisfaction scores, repeat business rates, and engagement metrics are straightforward indicators. Internally, monitoring employee morale and productivity levels can provide insights into how well this approach is integrated into the company culture.
Case Studies:
Many successful businesses have harnessed the power of ridiculous responsiveness. Companies like Amazon and Zappos are renowned for their quick response times, often going above and beyond to resolve customer queries swiftly. This has earned them customer loyalty and set a new standard in customer service.
Ridiculous responsiveness in business communication is a powerful strategy that can lead to significant advantages when executed with balance and precision. It fosters a culture of urgency and importance around communication, enhances customer satisfaction, and can give a business a notable edge in a crowded marketplace. While it poses certain challenges, with the right approach and tools, it can be a transformative force in how businesses interact with their stakeholders.
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Customer Service vs. Hospitality: Crafting Unforgettable Resident Experiences
Photo by Izz R on Unsplash
Customer service and hospitality are often used interchangeably. While they might seem synonymous, understanding their subtle distinctions can dramatically alter the resident experience. Let’s dive deep into these concepts.
The Bedrock of Customer Service:
At its core, customer service is transactional. It’s the necessary foundation upon which multifamily communities operate. Consider customer service as the diligent employee ensuring all community amenities function correctly, quick responses to maintenance requests, or the systematic leasing and resident management approach. It’s about addressing needs, solving problems, and ensuring operations run smoothly.
Customer service is the baseline. In the multifamily space, customer service ensures resident satisfaction at the most basic level. The community’s amenities may be top-notch, the grounds may be immaculate, and the apartments may boast the latest finishes. But if customer service falters – if maintenance requests go unanswered or community policies are applied inconsistently – resident trust erodes.
The Magic of Hospitality:
Now, here’s where the magic happens. Hospitality goes beyond mere transactions. It’s about crafting experiences, building relationships, and making residents feel at home. Hospitality represents the soul of a community, where every interaction is a chance to create memorable experiences.
Will Guidara, an influential figure in the hospitality sector, aptly describes hospitality as the art of making someone feel seen and valued. This might manifest as a personalized welcome package for a new resident in the multifamily space, remembering residents’ birthdays or even acknowledging their day-to-day triumphs and challenges.
Multifamily communities aren’t just about buildings and amenities. They’re about people, emotions, and the essence of ‘home.’ Hospitality, in this regard, is about the heart – the human connections that transform a mere residence into a cherished community.
Striking the Right Balance:
While customer service ensures that the multifamily community functions effectively, hospitality ensures it thrives and resonates on an emotional level. Both are integral, but they serve different purposes.
For instance, a resident might renew their lease because the community offers consistent customer service – their maintenance requests are always addressed promptly, and community policies are clear and fair. But what if we could elevate this experience? What if, on top of excellent customer service, the resident felt a deep connection to the community and valued and cherished every interaction with the team? That’s the difference hospitality makes.
Crafting Memorable Experiences:
The insight here highlights the importance of viewing communities not just as properties but as ecosystems of relationships. Realizing every touchpoint, from leasing to daily interactions, is an opportunity to go beyond the expected and venture into the realm of the unforgettable.
The overarching point is that while a community needs to ace its customer service game, hospitality differentiates one community from another. Hospitality fosters resident loyalty, crafts a vibrant community culture, and sets a property apart in a saturated market.
In Sum
Understanding the interplay between customer service and hospitality is the difference maker in multifamily. While customer service forms the foundation, hospitality is the secret sauce that turns residents into passionate advocates. Multifamily operators and professionals have an opportunity to craft experiences that satisfy residents and truly enchant them.
Customer Service vs Hospitality: Redefining Engagement in Multifamily Property Management
Embrace a New Approach to Resident Relations, Elevating from Service to Hospitality
Photo by Clay Banks on Unsplash
In the multifamily realm, residents yearn for more than just service; they seek an authentic and meaningful engagement echoing the warm embrace of hospitality. Many management leaders commonly misconstrue customer service and hospitality as interchangeable. However, distinguishing between these concepts is vital to enhancing residents’ experiences and nurturing long-term loyalty.
Despite the excellent service levels provided by many multifamily properties, residents may still report dissatisfaction or an impersonal touch. The issue lies not with the service itself but with the limited scope of traditional customer service. Customer service addresses problems in its core form reactively, while hospitality centers on proactively creating memorable, personalized experiences for each resident. It is this difference that distinguishes thriving properties from those merely surviving.
Redefining resident interactions from a hospitality perspective entails understanding each resident as an individual with unique preferences and requirements. It’s about anticipating needs before they become explicit demands. For instance, remembering a resident’s likes and dislikes can foster a deep sense of belonging and comfort.
Implementing a hospitality mindset extends beyond individual interactions. It impacts the entire community culture, breeding an atmosphere of genuine care and empathy. This culture becomes a driving force, with team members embodying hospitality in their approach to resident care, enhancing morale, and building a highly desirable living community.
When done right, hospitality is a potent tool for nurturing resident loyalty. By making residents feel valued and appreciated, you cultivate an emotional connection, which serves as a powerful retention tool. Residents who feel genuinely cared for are less likely to move, reducing turnover rates and stabilizing property income.
Lastly, in the era of online reviews and social media, excellent hospitality can significantly boost a property’s reputation. Satisfied residents are likelier to leave positive reviews and recommend the property to friends and family, driving new prospects to your door.
