At Rent & Retain, we focus often on the sales sides of things, but when it comes to retaining our residents, it’s not just the office team that has a huge impact. According to Satisfacts Research, maintenance factors heavily in to whether or not a resident chooses to renew their lease at the end of the term. Here are three ways to use that knowledge to your benefit:

• Following up on every work order with your residents is a great way to not only stay in touch but to also make sure that the work orders were completed to satisfaction. Always call within 12-24 hours of the completion of the service request, and make sure to ask them if there’s anything else your service team can do for them. March is an ideal month to start doing property walks, inspections, and preventative maintenance work.

• As soon as the weather is reasonably warm, your teams can get out there and look for damaged patios or balconies, walkways and banisters, and crumbling curbs. If you can spare the staff, make a list of the top 5 things in your apartments that get the most service requests and do a quick two or three day walk through inspection of those 5 things. This is also a great time to do your smoke and fire alarm testing for the season.

• When you move in a new resident, take the time to show them some of the quick fixes for things like a running toilet, resetting the garbage disposal, or turning on and off the ice maker in their freezer. If you embrace the technology side of things, you might consider setting up a YouTube channel for your property with short 15-30 second videos explaining how to attend to these every day problems. See the Video Marketing article for ideas on how to do it.