property management ideas
Peter is a Patriots Fan – Could he be a Mills Properties Fan?
My week was more than eventful – transitioned 1100 new units [what an amazing team we have – so many talented people made this happen], walked a fire unit with an insurance adjuster, experienced two alarms that called for an ambulance and fire truck, handed off a property and talked to a guy named Peter.
Peter was less than happy that the lighting in our parking lot was not as bright as he thought it should be. It rocked that I could tell him that we approved some lighting improvement proposals the day before but he was not satisfied. He really wanted to discuss the fact that the new parking policy was not accommodating for he and his daughter. You see they are taking a trip to Boston next week and past management allowed him to park in the open reserved parking spots for a mere $5 a day. I said, “no worries” – let’s go get you a spot now. “Okay, but did you know the reason that I moved into this apartment was that my employer is right across the street but….at that moment he raised his hand to the sky and exposed an New England Patriots watch. I stopped Pete mid speech and said, “you’re not a Pariots fan, are you?” He said, “You’re damn right I am, let me tell you a funny story.”
Pete went on for the next fifteen minutes [fifteen minutes I really didn’t have but I knew would yield huge dividends] telling me a story about Saint Louis sports teams losing every sporting event they were involved in to a Boston area team during a certain week back in 1994 – he knew it was 94′ as it bared some significance to a major family event. Pete ended his story by telling me that Mills was the best thing that ever happened to the property and that he sees the things we are doing to make the place better. I have to believe it was the fifteen minutes of listening that matter most to Pete.
Is Pete a fan? I venture to say he is still in the wait and see stage but I guarantee you he will be over the next year. And, if the Patriots ever come to town – Pete will have a pair of tickets – on me.
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.
Apartment Reviews – Reimagined
Looking back
Back in October of 2007 we wrote about participating in the conversation via rating sites and even suggested incorporating a mechanism into your property management website to make it easier. Here is a bit of a revised excerpt from that post;
“If you are still of the mind that dismisses the value of sites like apartmentratings.com, listen up. The feedback outlined in the brief above [Deloitte] should move you to action as soon as possible. I truly think we should all open up our company websites to include a consumer and resident feedback mechanism. Instead of internal score keeping, make it completely transparent. My only suggesting is that you have an editor just for the sake of carving out names and character attacks as we know they will come despite our best efforts. Even with that in mind you have to be courageous enough to leave the meat and more importantly act on it.”
Two years later
Here we are nearly two years later in the midst of the conversation marketing buzz and while a good many of us are participating there is still a hesitancy to move that conversation to our websites. Even those that have don’t really have a great deal of participation in terms of consumers reviewing them.
Two years from now
Not only is the writing on the wall but the ink is dry and the conversation is going on with or without you. And, the benefits are immense when you bring the conversation to you;
- You have the ability to increase your credibility
- You have the ability to participate
- You have the ability to influence
- You have the ability to increase your Google Juice
- You have the ability to innovate with your consumer
- You have the ability to create evangelist
- You have the ability to generate further participation
- You have the ability to create loyalty
- You have the ability to create an environment where people feel they are part of something larger than themselves
- You have that ability to respond in lieu of react [there is a big difference]
The more important point here is: how do we increase participation to an Amazonish or iTuneish type level? Do we ask former potential, existing or former residents to review their experience relative to their specific unit such that every unit takes on its very own unique rating? Would that allow us to price higher rated homes differently than lower rated homes. I see it as a great mechanism to allow us the opportunity to really maximize our rents. Maybe the lease rent optimizers out there employee a unit rating lever into their pricing algorithms. The ideas are endless – acting is the key.
All in the name of savings
You have undoubtedly heard of maximizing your mortgage payment by paying 1/2 of your payment every two weeks in lieu of once a month. The fact is you would pay one full payment more in the year than if you paid the traditional way.
Well with that in mind what if we as owner/managers partnered with a local community bank and promoted; All in the Name of Savings.
The promo would encourage people to pay 1/2 of their rent every two weeks thus creating a surplus that we would match $1 for $1 up to $200 or whatever we deem. And, if they renew with us what if we deposit their concessions dollars in their savings account in lieu of giving them rent credits.
With electronic payments becoming more mainstream, it could catch on.
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