Resident Relationship Management Eletter: August 2010

In This Issue:

Resident Relationship Coach's Corner: A Simple but Powerful Thought

Resident Retention Rx: Texting! The New Email? 

Team Builder: Creating Balance

Productivity Pointers: Front Desk FAQ's

Resident Relationship Coach's Corner: A Simple but Powerful Thought
I’d like to take a moment to shift gears and share with you the side of our industry that resonates very powerfully with me. It’s something that can often be pushed to the side in the course of busy and unpredictable days, but it is literally the heart and soul of what we do every day.
 
Sit down, clear your thoughts, read what I have to share…and take a moment to ponder what it all means.
 
We preach about focusing on the best practices that we know have the greatest impact on retention, on the best practices that when consistently delivered reduce turnover…by hefty amounts.
 
We preach out how this has a dramatic impact on NOI and asset value.  How this delivers the returns ownership wants.
 
Now I want to preach about why the owner of the asset wins...why turnover drops…and it is for a grand, honorable reason that none of us should ever forget.
 
Turnover drops, and NOI and asset values grow because…doing the right, thoughtful things mean more and more residents are happy with their home.
 
More and more residents are glad that at the end of a stressful day…they can come home to their shelter from the day’s storm.
 
"I can't wait to get home today!"
 
More come home each night…happy to be home.
 
Each of us has the opportunity to have an impact on so many people’s lives.
 
Each of us has the opportunity to improve people’s lives.
 
At the end of the day, this is a grand, grand thing.
 
At the end of the day, this is something you should be proud of.
 
At the end of the day, you should feel good about yourself and the impact you have on people, one life at a time.
 
At the end of the day, I hope you feel your heart swelling as you think about what you are capable of doing to impact so many in such a wonderful way.
 
At the end of the day, your soul should be shining brightly, knowing that you…are making a difference in the world.
 
I think about all of this pretty much every day I walk into the office…and it makes me feel so good that I…that we…can have a real, significant impact on people’s lives.
 
And, sure, there is icing on the cake - the financial gains that owners receive as a result of…you, me, us caring and acting.
 
So go, go take wonderful care of your residents.  The “win” for everyone…is priceless!

Source: Doug Miller, NAA Aptly Spoken, 8/3/2010, http://www.naahq.org/blog/lists/Posts/Post.aspx?ID=195

Doug Miller, founder and owner of SatisFacts Research is a featured blogger for NAA's blog, Aptly Spoken

Resident Retention Rx: Texting! The New Email? 

In our June SatisFactoid Quick Poll, we asked how often office staff received text messages from residents. Surprisingly, the results were 0%!

Why surprising? According to year-to-date SatisFacts customer satisfaction surveys, up to 12% of residents expressed a preference to communicate with the office staff via text message.

As communication migrates swiftly to hand-held technology, what is your community or your property management company putting in place to keep up? Do you feel confident that you know how your residents prefer to communicate with your staff? Do you keep your residents informed on a monthly basis on the variety of ways they can contact the office? Service delivery is solidly grounded in the property management company’s ability to communicate with its residents. How well are you communicating with yours?

Source: Jen Piccotti and www.SatisFacts.com

Find out how your residents prefer to communicate with you through an Annual Resident Satisfaction Survey, because service delivery begins with the ability to communicate with your residents!

Team Builder: Creating Balance

Balance. It’s the one word you will find most often connected to what employees are seeking most in their work lives. It seems we are all trying to do more with less, not only at work, but in our home lives as well. Bonuses and commissions are great motivators, but what about time? Consider awarding high performing employees a free half or whole day of personal time. Those extra 4 or 8 hours may allow them to take care of some of those personal to-do’s that keep getting placed on the back burner, or maybe allow them to have a refreshing no-strings-attached break. 
 
Source: Jen Piccotti

Did you know SatisFacts offers Employee Satisfaction Surveys? Contact us to help you discover what matters most to your employees, because happy employees lead to happy residents!

Productivity Pointers: Front Desk FAQ's

Often for new employees in the front office, they are thrown right in the water and it’s sink or swim, baby! Despite our best training intentions, shadowing plans, or on-boarding checklists, the reality is that property management teams are lean machines, and there are not many free moments to spare.

Make first days and weeks a little easier on new staff, and even seasoned staff, and make a cheat sheet of the 10 most common questions or concerns that residents have at your particular property. The cheat sheet may change seasonally or due to capital projects, but this one page, at-a-glance productivity tool may provide the added confidence a newbie needs to try and resolve a concern on their own.

No need to make it elaborate. It’s a 2-column page with the concern listed in the narrower left-hand column, and bullet points of information or optional solutions listed in the right hand column. Keep in mind, this does not take the place of training, and it is not intended to become the final word or policy on any issue. It simply is meant to provide prompts or commonly known information that may aid in answering common questions or concern.

Source: Jen Piccotti

Ask SatisFacts about a Work-Time Analysis, because we know you are wondering, “Where does all my time go?”

SatisFacts - Seen, Heard, and Served

Are you a MultiFamily Insider?  Jen is a featured blogger!