Invest In Your Customer Base

Customer “Hot Buttons”
By: Gabriele Preston, CAPS

Most apartment communities have at least a few inherent flaws, whether in the design of the apartments or community itself, fixtures inside the apartments, or simply inadequate policies that affect a resident’s quality of life and become resident “hot buttons” that they push time and again after they move in. If you manage or have managed an apartment community you know what they are by the kind of complaints you’ve heard repeatedly. Well, you may not be able to eradicate every flaw, but you can lessen the chances of your customers being negatively affected by or upset over them with good policies and open communication.

In my experience, the most typical hot buttons include noise, parking, pets, and use of amenities. Your policies must address your residents’ typical “hot buttons” in order to maintain satisfied customers. These items are often neglected and are sometimes the most common reasons why residents become disgruntled and make decisions to purchase a home or move to another rental community or home.

Hot Button #1: Noise
When there are only a few inches between neighbors there is going to be a transference of noise. What a reasonable person should be willing to tolerate and what is considered normal is something that needs to be defined in your organization. Most owners and management companies do not take this problem seriously simply because noise is so common between neighbors that we do not have or have not enforced a good disturbance resolution policy to assist residents who experience true disturbances. In fact, many residents never even complain about noise because they’re afraid of retribution or believe nothing can be done about it.

A good policy not only defines what a true disturbance is, it also clearly states how a resident can act and how the disturbance will be substantiated and resolved. Once the policy is in place it can be explained to both the resident who was affected by the noise and the resident who caused or allowed it to happen. In fact, you can and should promote this policy to your prospects, and make sure a copy of it is included with every move-in packet. You will differentiate yourself in the marketplace from other communities who don’t address this issue up front and reassure prospective residents that, should a problem arise, it will be handled.

To establish residents’ confidence in your policy and trust in your word, you must be willing to evict those offenders who do not stop causing the noise problems. If you don’t have the courage to do that, you won’t have any good residents left. If your company’s or property’s policy is to tell the resident experiencing the noise problem to “call the police,” then I suggest you go back to the drawing board and recreate your policy.

Resident Retention Tip: NOISE
It is always best to substantiate a disturbance before acting on a resolution. Establish whether a noise is a true disturbance and exactly where it’s coming from. In a multifamily dwelling, that’s not always as clear as one may think. Noise travels in ways that can make it seem like it’s coming from one place, but ends up being from another.

Always utilize a team member, courtesy patrol officer, or police officer to substantiate a disturbance. A single resident should not be relied on to substantiate it unless other residents can support the claim. Residents can be biased, unsure, or have an unrealistic opinion of what a true disturbance is. The last thing you want to do is offend another resident by your inquiry or blame an innocent person. So, make it easy for residents to report a disturbance at the time it’s happening. Let them know you cannot resolve a disturbance after the fact unless it was substantiated and that it is okay to call for help at the time it is occurring.

Hot Button #2: Parking
I don’t think I have managed a community yet that does not have some kind of recurring parking issue. Every property is different, and a policy should be drafted that makes the most sense for the individual property. At times that means creating a policy that may deny housing to certain prospects. It may sound crazy to deny someone the ability to rent at a community because they own more than the allowable number of vehicles, but if you don’t deny them housing or provide some sort of realistic accommodation for them, you will create a negative effect on the quality of life for many other residents at your community.

When residents cannot park closely and conveniently to their front doors, they are going to find unique ways to park on the greenspaces or in other “no parking zones” or just become angry at you because they couldn’t park closely enough. They will be angry day in and day out until their lease expires and they can move to another place that offers enough room for their vehicles. So there are times when you must create a policy to avert customer service problems and reduce turnover for the long term.

Resident Retention Tip: PARKING
Consider the word “realistic” very carefully when offering an alternate accommodation for a resident’s vehicle. Prospective residents will agree to anything if they want the apartment. You may have heard residents say, “Sure, I’ll park my extra car on the other side of the community and walk to my apartment,” only to later find out that it doesn’t happen. Why? Because it’s not convenient. While everyone may have good intentions, the accommodation must be convenient and it must cost the resident an additional fee in order for it to work. When it costs money, people are usually willing to make an effort to utilize what they’re paying for.

Hot Button #3: Pets
Properties that allow pets should have a well defined and enforceable pet policy. A policy that is too loose results in pets running wild, scaring and agitating neighbors, and animal waste everywhere. Policies that are too restrictive will cause pet owners to hate every moment of life in the community. Like everything else, if you’re going to allow something, you need to plan, anticipate, and accommodate for it.

For dogs, this means setting appropriate rules such as:
• All dogs brought onto owner’s property must be licensed, and resident shall provide a copy of said license to owner.

• The weight, apparent breed, and approximate age of any dog must be certified in writing by a licensed veterinarian.

• Cats must be spayed/neutered and evidence of this must be certified in writing by a licensed veterinarian.

• Pets must always be leashed when outside of the premises, and shall only be walked in areas designated as a “Pet Walk or Play Area” on the property.

• Resident must immediately clean up any pet feces by placing same in a plastic bag and depositing same in an appropriate refuse receptacle.

• Pets may not be tied, leashed, curbed, or otherwise left unattended on or attached in any way to any balcony, patio, or common area, including, but not limited to hallways, carports, garages, fences or any other fixtures or structures anywhere on owner’s property.

• Resident is responsible for any damage to the property or owner’s other property caused or contributed to by resident’s pet, and must reimburse owner for any and all costs incurred in repairing such damage.

In addition to these rules it is also helpful to make modifications to the apartment community such as installing pet waste stations and designating pet walk and play areas. One of the biggest problems that we deal with when we allow dogs in a community is that owners don’t always care to walk their dogs on a leash. Dogs are left on balconies or let outside free to roam the community. The best way to avert this problem is to designate a good-sized area on your property that is convenient for residents to walk to and use as a dog play area or “bark park.” Install landscaping, pet waste stations, lighting, fenced-in dog runs, covered benches, picnic tables, and the like, and you will have created an area where dog owners want to go and socialize and an amenity you can market to prospects who own dogs. Additionally, you will need to think about residents who don’t want to live near dogs by designating buildings for dog owners or you run the risk of losing these residents.

Hot Button #4: Use of Amenities
Most suburban conventional apartment communities I have managed feature popular amenities such as a heated outdoor swimming pool, fitness room, tennis courts, and playground. In the past, it was our company’s policy to open the pool on Memorial Day and close it on Labor Day. Once, when managing a Class A community in a Chicago area suburb, I directed the maintenance supervisor to turn off the heater for the pool because I felt that it cost too much to heat the pool and my budget goals (mistakenly, I now realize) took precedent over the needs of residents who wanted to swim in warmer water. Besides it was hot outside, how cold could the water possibly be? Well, cold enough to field complaints every week until all the residents knew the water would not be heated.

I laugh about it now and in hindsight I’d probably counsel myself on my poor customer service habits back then because it really didn’t save that much money and probably made more residents upset than not. Even today, I hear of competitors having a “No Guests Allowed” policy for their swimming pools. This is good for us because their disgruntled residents will eventually live at our communities and others like ours where the swimming pool allows guests and is open from early May to the end of September and is heated throughout the season.

So, think about your amenities and how your residents currently use them and how they may like to use them. If you’ve had a question or complaint about the use of your amenities, give careful consideration to modifying your policy. For example, do you really need to close the exercise room at 10:00 p.m.? If it doesn’t pose any more significant security or safety risks, then keep it open later—or even 24 hours a day. Such actions cost you little and often make the difference in resident satisfaction.

EXCERPT FROM THE BOOK "STRAIGHT TALK ON MULTIFAMILY MANAGEMENT" CHAPTER 11: "Invest In Your Customer Base," PAGES 156 - 160.

For more information about this author or book, go to www.straighttalk-mfm.com.

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