BIIL Tenant Retention Strategy for Improving Customer Care

1. Make Positive First Impressions

Customer service begins even before your first in-person interaction with
prospective residents.
Once the appointment is booked, be timely and attentive. When you’re
training employees, make sure they understand what makes for a great
customer interaction.
Give employees permission to put the customer first and give prospective
residents and owners their undivided attention. That means they’re showing
genuine interest in the prospect, asking the right questions, and keeping
their cell phones on silent. When it’s time for residents to sign the lease,
make sure the application and screening processes are completely
streamlined
2. Resolve Resident Complaints
Great relationships don’t happen overnight. It takes time and skill to build
strong business relationships, and the most successful property managers
also use soft skills, like empathy and communication, to navigate tricky
situations. When complaints roll in, how you respond is just as important as
the actions you take. How quickly did you get back to the resident? Did you
use positive language, or were you defensive? What can you do to prevent
the same situation from happening again?
You already know it’s important to respond to all resident complaints,
but great customer service in property management is about being
proactive. You know the ins and outs of your business better than anyone—
sit down and make a list of the most common resident concerns. From
parking problems to noisy neighbours, how can you proactively address
those concerns before they become a problem? What systems can you create
around the concern to address it as quickly as possible? For those
situations you can’t anticipate, use them as a teaching moment to be more
prepared in the future.
Responsiveness shows respect and courtesy: two pillars of great customer
service. One of the reasons why customer service matters is that it shows
residents and owners that you care about them. When emails and requests
go unanswered, your customers might feel like an afterthought. Even if you
don’t have the information they need right away, let them know you’ve
received their message and when they can expect to hear from you next.
We know what you’re thinking: you have tons of residents, and they send
requests at all hours of the night. You need your sleep too, so set up a
friendly automated response for after-hours messages with your business
hours and who they can contact for urgent matters. If your inbox is buried
with maintenance requests, it might be time to invest in property
management software with a resident site. With a site, residents can submit
maintenance requests with photos and get status updates from you and the
repair person. Maintenance request tracking helps you stay on top of service
and keeps residents in the loop on what to expect and when.
3. Communicate Transparently with Rental Owners
What matters most to your rental owners? In short, they just want you to
treat them like a human—a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach to client relationships
just won’t work anymore. You can build strong relationships with owners by
focusing on transparent, personalized communication that gives them the
information they need for what they care about most. Can your owners view
financial transactions and important documents whenever they need them?
Do they have access to up-to-date details about their properties?
Owner portals can help facilitate clear, consistent communication with
owners, without taking up too much of your time. Sustainable owner
relationships are built on trust and transparency, so it’s important to stay in
touch with each and every client. Be proactive and make information
available to owners before they even ask for it. Plus, a healthy dose
of operational transparency gives owners a window into how hard you’re
working to maximize profits and value for them, which helps strengthen the
relationship.

4. Conduct Resident Surveys

We get it: feedback is scary. From online reviews run rampant to disgruntled
residents, property managers often deal with the not-so-pretty side of
feedback. But when you ask for feedback before there’s a problem, you can
take back control of the feedback loop.
One of the qualities of excellent customer service is constant attention, and
asking for residents’ opinions and feedback shows you genuinely care. Use
online tools like SurveyMonkey or post a bulletin on your resident site to
solicit their feedback. Not getting much participation? You might not be
asking the right questions. Try using a feedback mechanism like the ‘start,
stop, continue’ technique to find out what you should start doing, stop
doing, and continue doing. Creating a consistent feedback loop will keep you
dialled into your residents’ needs and help you identify issues before they
become a problem.

Investing in technology upgrades should always be looked at through the

lens to improve the resident experience.
 5. Make Cost-Effective Upgrades
Chances are that your resident survey brought up at least a few upgrades
that your residents want to see. Listening to their feedback and making a
few strategic upgrades is one of your best lines of defence against high
turnover and vacancies. Whether it’s investing in technology to boost
efficiency or making resident-requested cosmetic upgrades, small changes
can have a big impact.
Remember that your current residents and owners are a major source for
quality referrals. Delighting your current customers with the upgrades they
want could lead to landing new business down the line. People talk about
their living experience all the time with their friends, families, and
colleagues—what are they saying about you? When you create great
customer experiences, you’ll generate positive word-of-mouth that could
bring in new business.
6. Manage Maintenance and Construction
There’s no way around it: maintenance and construction projects are always
an inconvenience. You can’t do much about that, but there’s plenty you can
do to communicate with residents to help it go as smoothly as possible. For
planned projects, share announcements and updates through bulletins on
your resident site. Let residents know when and where the projects are
taking place and how it will impact them. Will utilities be shut off? Will
certain areas of the building be off-limits? When do you expect the project to
wrap up?
Communication is key to a successful maintenance project. Give residents
the information they need to navigate the situation, like estimated timelines
and contact information for key players involved in the project. If you let
communication lapse and residents are caught off guard, that’s when they’ll
start to feel like you don’t care. When residents don’t feel like a priority, it
erodes the relationship and makes them less likely to stay put.
The industry is evolving, and strong relationships are the new gold standard
for achieving sustainable growth. Remember: property management is all
about creating great living experiences, and that means putting people first.
With the right relationships and tools in place, you’ve got all you need to
build a thriving business. After all, residents are most impacted by the
quality of your service—and therefore your most important clients.
1. CREATE A FAIR AND UNDERSTANDABLE RENTAL CONTRACT
The start to any successful tenant-landlord relationship is a fair and agreed-
upon rental contract. Make sure tenants understand everything written in
the contract, so nothing is left to their imagination or question. The more
straightforward the contract is, the more tenants will feel at ease when they
sign the dotted line. A contract that is unclear or ambiguous not only invites
room for interpretation, but tenants may also see this as dishonest.
2. CREATE A FORMAL PROCESS FOR TENANTS TO SEND COMPLAINTS
AND SUGGESTIONS
As any property management team knows, tenants are bound to have both
suggestions and complaints about their property or unit over time. To
provide the best support possible, create a formal process for giving and
receiving those suggestions and complaints. Tenants should know where to
go to submit a complaint or suggestion, and a property management
company should be regularly reviewing those submissions. This allows both
tenants and property managers to be proactive and resolve issues quickly.
3. CREATE A FORMAL PROCESS FOR ROUTINE AND EMERGENCY
MAINTENANCE AND REPAIRS
In addition to suggestions and complaints, tenants are likely to submit
maintenance and repair requests. A property management team should have
an in-house maintenance crew or a list of trusted contractors to handle
routine maintenance and emergency repairs. Much like a formal process for
complaints and suggestions, property management companies should have
a place for tenants to submit requests like this via their website (or a 24/7
emergency hotline for repair needs). This gives tenants the peace of mind
that they are always taken care of, when needed.
4. BE ACCESSIBLE 24/7
It is never fun to take a call at 3AM, but as a property manager – it is your
job to be available (or find someone who is!) when emergency situations
arise. Whether it is morning, noon, or middle of the night, tenants should
know they have someone to call or email with their questions or concerns.
5. RESPOND TO ALL COMMUNICATION WITHIN 24 HOURS
While round-the-clock accessibility is ideal, we understand that not every
call and email can be answered immediately. Property managers are still
only human! However, providing excellent customer service means
responding within 24-48 hours if you were unable to respond right away.
Tenants who were unable to reach the team via phone at 10PM but received
a call back first thing the next morning will trust that the property team
thinks of them as a priority. A responsive property management company
creates trust and gratitude amongst tenants.
6. SET CLEAR EXPECTATIONS
The quickest way to tarnish the tenant-landlord relationship is by not
following through on promises. Make sure that expectations are clear both
ways, and if a property team says they are going to do something – do it (or
communicate why you will not be following through).
7. INTERACT REGULARLY WITH TENANTS
Outside of requests, suggestions, and complaints – it is important to interact
regularly with tenants to create a strong relationship and understanding of
their issues. Property teams can host Q&A sessions, offer coffee in the office
once a month, or simply walk around and greet each tenant they encounter.
Either way, tenants and property managers should not just be talking when
something is wrong. The goal is to create a relationship where matters can
be discussed before they turn into a real issue.
8. BE PROFESSIONAL (AND PROVE IT!)
Tenants should feel confident that their property management team knows
what they are doing. The property team should know the contracts, know
the website, know the maintenance and communication processes, and
know the property. When every request and question is answered quickly
and accurately, tenants will respect property teams for the work they do.
With over 280,000 property management companies in the U.S. alone,
property management can be a competitive environment. Rental property
owners always have a long list of property managers to choose from. Offering
excellent customer service can be the bedrock of a successful property
management company, and it can differentiate a property manager for all
the other teams vying for more business.