Gift Cards
Solve for Lonely
Roughly 20% of the of the total American population suffers from some form of loneliness. Some healthy percentage of that number live in apartment communities. As we all know, property managers wear many hats. And one of those hats runs akin to the various professional counseling services.
Solve for Lonely
- Say hello to people
- Smile when you see them
- Wave
- Wave from afar and yell their name out
- Make random monthly calls to people – just because
- Drop by someones apartment unexpectedly
- Pull out their social data – likes, dislikes, what they collect, what they like to do in their spare time.
- Don’t wait until renewal time to give them the free prize inside
- Don’t settle on typical renewal concessions, carpet cleaning, or fixture updating
- Make people feel like a million bucks
- Go for something people will talk about –
How do you get to that last point?
By exercising all the points before it. If you learn through conversation that Charles likes music – drop him a random iTunes gift card – just because. If Mike loves Starbucks – drop him a gift card out of the blue (My friend Michael Cunningham did in fact send me such a gift). I thought that was pretty darn cool and I still talk about it.
People Need a Push
People are lonely and in the same respect they need a push. And that does not mean they need to attend our pool party or resident function. Sometimes that just means saying hello, smiling or dropping by. Sometimes it means a small token gift card.
Resident Referral Money
Before we continue with our budget discussion on the topic of resident referrals, I want to back up and remark on a comment that I saw this last week. The comment was posted on Facebook and whether it related to our post or not, I found it a bit amiss. It was along the lines that discounts for specific groups be it students, seniors, city service workers are dumb.
Now I would not debate the merit of the remark in the sense that there are more creative ways to give money away. I would/will take the position that if it works – do it. It’s kind of like print media. Despite our need/want/desire to get away from our reliance on print media and ILS’s – if they work – we should use them. That is until they run their respective courses.
Resident Referrals
I am fairly certain that resident referrals or giving money or gifts away in exchange for move-ins is employed by every multifamily operator out there in some form or fashion. On that note – are they dumb? If I apply the same logic as our Facebook commenter then I posit – yes. It’s a concession given to a specific group. And, there are more creative ways to give money, influence or incentive to that group. That said, I am both a fan and an advocate of using them be it in the form of a concession, gift card or otherwise. After all they are much cheaper that most print media and or ILSs.
Resident referrals are used to reward your best in place marketing machine. The people who live with you currently. Every single one of them are a marketing opportunity waiting to happen. And, giving them reward can/is a good thing. And, that reward can come in any number of means.
They are monies given in the way of a concession, gift card and or hard tangible item (think flat screen, iPod, iPad, etc..). Now, we could debate the amounts given or the merit of a gift in lieu of money. We can suggest that money is not remembered after it is given. In my mind, we could suggest the same for a gift.
It doesn’t matter where you book it (Read: which line item it hits in your budget) it all shakes out in the bottom line.
Make it Smashing
No matter how you give it away, I would suggest you make it an experience. If you give them a concession – couple it with an impromptu in-home celebration. If you give them an iPod – record an uber-cool celebration message and load it in. Have a party centered around resident referrals and introduce the idea of making a commitment to share 10% (matched by your company) of the fee. Invite the charity in to share in the experience. Get creative and make it worth remarking about.
Your – believing that if it works – use it – multifamily manic,
