Sunrise Management & Consulting

jh Jesse Holland

Is your customer service program up to snuff? In today’s fast paced, high tech world you have to make sure your apartments can compete, and not just with the property down the road.

Let’s look at a typical multifamily property tenant, Jane Business. Jane has a good job, impressive salary, good credit and good references. She has no problem paying the first month rent and security. And Jane is very busy, busy at work, and busy at looking for an apartment.

She has a major report due in two days, and an apartment she needs to find by the end of the month. Her day is filled with transactions and decisions that are impacted by customer service.

Jane has a software glitch that is causing her headaches in finishing the report. She calls into her support tech center, and while online, the tech dials into her system, downloads a patch, and she is up and running. Finishing the report she emails it to her local graphic company for 50 bound copies. It is delivered several hours later, with a bag of fresh baked cookies. While enjoying a cookie, she calls FEDEX and her call is answered on the second ring. The rep looks up her account information and schedules a pick-up information and someone will get in a matter of minutes. Before she back to her. She leaves messages on leaves at the end of the day her report all of them. She connects with one,

Our tenants not only compare us to each other, but also to every other experience they have in their economic life. Multifamily property managers are absolutely in competition with companies like FEDEX, because they have established the standard of how our customer wants to be treated.

is out the door. While she is doing these things, she is also scanning the local paper looking for an apartment in a multifamily property. Is her experience, typically, going to be as “customer service” friendly?

She will call several ads that look appealing. Three are answered by a machine with a message to leave her and the leasing agent provides her with basic information, a two bedroom apartment, $650 plus utilities. The agent doesn’t know the s/f, or what the utilities run for that apartment. More importantly, the agent does not give her any reasons to come look at the apartment.

Still, she asks to make an ap-pointment that evening. Sorry, but it will have to be before 6 p.m., or the next day. As Jane is busy presenting her report the next day, she takes the appointment that day, leaving work early to make it. Once there the agent is 10 minutes late for the appointment, and is just finishing up with someone else. The lawns haven’t been mowed recently, and the lot has papers blowing around. Twenty minutes later the agent shows up, and, unable to get the key to work, has to go back to the office for the correct key. Once in the apartment Jane finds it hasn’t been cleaned from the last tenant yet, but is reassured that it will all be taken care of.

At the end of the day she has not been called back by the three properties she left messages at, and she realizes finding an apartment is going to be a very time consuming task.

Our tenants not only compare us to each other, but also to every other experience they have in their economic life. Multifamily property managers are absolutely in competition with companies like FEDEX, because they have established the standard of how our customer wants to be treated.

Customer service is a universal principle of good business. It can set you apart from the majority, and directly impact the performance of your property. First impressions are critical. That first contact with a potential tenant will establish how they view the property, and the property management.

Jane’s customer service experience with a properly managed multifamily property will include:

A return call immediately, if only to schedule a time to speak.
Detailed information about the neighborhood, amenities, utilities and s/f.
Appointments scheduled to her convenience.
A friendly leasing agent who is there before she is.
• A clean apartment to look at.
Applications and paperwork available at the meeting.
Professional treatment that tells her that property management cares, about the property, and about her.
Customer service extends beyond the leasing agent. How much more does it cost you to fill a vacancy than it does to retain a resident?

We should regularly evaluate the customer service our property management frontline provides. While customer service is not hard to deliver, it does take training and focus to implement a true customer service program. If your staff is not up to snuff, provide them the training and direction they need to succeed.

Jesse Holland is the president of Sunrise Management & Consulting, Albany, N.Y.

Evaluating property management customer service: It’s not just important, it’s the difference