We chatted with FPI Management’s Jill McNiesh, Social Media & Reputation Manager for the Pacific Northwest, and asked her for 5 things a property can do to directly and positively impact their online reputation management efforts.
Tag Archives: resident retention
Building Your Digital Message
URL, ISL, Company websites, printed brochures and business cards on paper — these are all standard operating procedures for apartment community collateral. It’s time to step out of the print world and re-present your community digitally to fit into the new world of our mobile consumer.
Mobile will be the first screen for web access with the majority of your future residents. 66% of mobile downloads are video and over 6 billion hours of video are watched each month on YouTube—that’s almost an hour for every person on Earth. 100 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube each minute. How much of it features your property? According to Nielsen, YouTube reaches more US adults ages 18-34 than TV/cable network. Today Netflix allows you to surf YouTube on your TV!
The Madonna Approach: Say What You Need
What is it that you want? You might be surprised by how many people in this world have no idea how to answer that question. We focus so often on the things that are disappointing us, making us unhappy, or angering us that we lose sight of our own goals. Without an endpoint, we cannot create a map to our success.
Once you finally do know what you want or where you’re going, the challenge of asking other people arises. If you don’t know who to ask to get what you want, then start asking people who they think you should talk to. If you’re not asking for what you want because of pride, that’s a tougher problem to fix, because you have to make a decision whether or not your pride is more important than your goal. (Psst! Your pride should always be second to your goals!)
Great Ideas Shared from R&R Readers!
We Just Popped In!
In the past year, we have increased our resident retention rate to a spectacular 70% and increased market rents by $76. Thanks to the Popcorn Giveaway, we increased our closing ratio by 10%. Touring apartment communities can be repetitive from the prospect’s perception. You must think of cute and catchy ways to stand out in the crowd so when your prospect gets home with 10 different brochures from various communities, they remember exactly which one you are. One way of doing this is giving out a cute and catchy gift. When you tour in our community, you will receive a bag of popcorn with my business card. The slogan is “Thank you for popping in.” Add a little ribbon and you have a cheap but memorable gift that once again can be used by the recipient.
-Stephanie Anderson, Harbor Village Apartments
Maintain(ance) to Retain
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:
Resident Event – Soda Float Social
Whenever the weather starts to warm up, residents tend to emerge from their homes and become more social. This is a great time to get them more connected with their community. Of course, this is also often your busiest time of the year, so my number one tip for you is to plan the next three months of resident activities now. This means putting them on your calendar for a good time of the month (for example, not the first week of the month), and creating reminders for each task that is needed, and it also means utilizing your teams’ strengths to maximize impact and create a sense of ownership.
