The Building Blocks of Multifamily Customer Satisfaction

Our CEO, Bert Wray, recently hosted a panel given at eCore 2022 in Miami, FL, on November 8, 2022. In addition to Bert, the panel included:

• Cindy Clare, COO, Bell Partners
• Cris Kimbrough, Senior Director of Smart Building Technology, Greystar
• Jonathan Denton (JD), Managing Director, Cortland

The panelists' knowledge was impressive, and we wanted to break down a few key concepts discussed. This article is the first of two based on that panel discussion.

Investing in People

Most communities have three customers: the owner/investor, the associates working for the property, and the residents. Success will naturally follow if you can find the balance in making all three happy. Finding that balance is tricky, as the wants and needs of each group can seem diametrically opposed.

Community managers, leasing associates, and maintenance technicians aim to earn a good living, enjoy their work, and feel they have a career path. Residents look for a home that feels like a haven. They want to belong to a community and live in well-maintained apartments. Owners want to maximize the return on their investment and increase their property value over time.

Although their needs are diverse, it is possible to make everyone happy. The possibility arises when you meet the wants of each group in a specific order, with your property team members as the foundation for building multifamily success.

Ms. Clare explains, “Your associates’ happiness translates into your residents' happiness. If an associate is unhappy, they won’t treat your residents well. It’s critical to give associates the tools to handle customers correctly. Properties with a consistent staff perform better. They’ve created a sense of community. They know their residents, and they know what’s going on at the property.”

Incentivizing Technicians

While all team members are essential to building a positive resident experience, maintenance technicians usually interact the most with residents. If maintenance technicians have the most impact on resident experiences, then you need to find ways to encourage them and recognize their successes.

Ms. Clare says, “People underestimate the impact of staff turnover on the performance of a property. If we can make the jobs more compelling for our associates, we will have people who want those jobs as a career.” What makes a technician’s job more compelling?

A good wage:

Be prepared to pay a premium for good technicians. Instead of giving a flat raise across the board, it’s better to base raises on performance. To measure performance, you need a way of collecting and aggregating data about each technician.

AppWork is the only maintenance management software currently available that gathers hundreds of data points about technician performance. This data gives you insights into the value of each technician.

Flexible hours:

There is a big push in the industry toward centralization. Ms. Kimbrough commented, “We are looking at centralization now in terms of maintenance, assistant community managers, and leasing. We see technology as enabling that. When we talk about smart buildings and managed wifi, we see that as improving the tenant experience, operational efficiencies, and the NOI.”

As a bonus, centralization also improves the technician experience. If all data and reporting sync automatically to a central source, this removes the necessity of technicians going back and forth to the leasing office all the time. Plus, centralization helps balance the workload.

For example, if you have five technicians for three communities, the property manager or maintenance supervisor has more flexibility in scheduling. Flexible hours let technicians maintain a healthy work/life ratio, decreasing the chances of burnout.

A career path:

Creating a career involves training and grooming technicians to move up or specialize. If a technician enjoys their job and can grow, they are more likely to remain with your company.

Another benefit of centralization is training technicians in a specialty. If you have one plumber for three properties, then it makes sense for the company to ensure that technician has the best training in plumbing.

Acknowledgment:

There are many forms of acknowledgment: verbally pointing out a job well done; offering small bonuses like food or gift certificates when technicians go above and beyond; proactively giving raises when a technician consistently performs well.

At AppWork, we’ve recently launched a badge system for technicians. The badges provide positive reinforcement for productivity as well as marking performance milestones. Plus, the technicians and managers will have a written history of accomplishments.

Prioritizing Resident Preferences

Team members working for a community are the first building block. If they aren’t happy, then no amount of amenities will help reduce resident turnover. Unhappy associates create unhappy residents.

Teams that enjoy their work and feel loyal to your company will engage positively with residents. They are on the front lines, answering phone calls and responding to maintenance requests. Plus, the longer an associate works for a community, the more they get to know the residents. Residents need to feel a sense of community, and your team is the backbone of that community.

JD talked about the robust resident survey program that Cortland runs. They’ve gathered a lot of data from their residents. From all of that data, he said the top reasons residents gave for non-renewal (minus life events):

1. The management team doesn’t know me by name.
2. The management team doesn’t answer the phone.
3. I don't get a quick response from the on-site team.
4. The property is not kept clean enough.

Interpersonal relationships, or lack thereof, impact resident turnover more than anything else. Building rapport with residents isn't a bonus but an absolute necessity.

Additionally, communities need to offer flexible ways of communicating with residents. Pre-pandemic, a prospective resident had to contact someone in the leasing office and then come in person to that office. The leasing agent then needed to spend time showing the potential resident around.

The pandemic forced communities to adopt contactless ways of making the resident journey. Leasing associates automated initial resident screenings with software. Communities started offering virtual tours or self-guided tours. All interactions with the staff were online or via phone.

Post-pandemic, you find a dichotomy within residents. Some prefer to remain contactless, while others prefer face-to-face. Some want to do everything via an app, while others prefer picking up the phone and talking to an actual person. Some even want to visit a leasing office and have someone show them around.

Ms. Clare commented, “We need to meet our customers where they want to be met.” Communities cannot afford to get entrenched in any one method of communication. They must be open and flexible in how and where they meet residents.

Facing Digital Reality

Putting the pandemic aside, communities can’t ignore the digital world. Between social media and Google ratings, a community will have an online reputation, even if they don’t want one. The vast majority of prospective residents will check the community's Google rating before contacting the leasing office.

Ms. Clare noted that the multifamily industry has become much more customer-focused, “Not only because it helps our communities, but because it’s the reality of the world we live in. You don’t get to make mistakes that stay within the community. The whole world knows about mistakes because they are on social media.”

JD added to this, saying, “Online ratings and reviews are your report cards. We’ve done several analyses where we’ve looked at properties with higher Google scores—we can assign a rent premium to a Google score by property. If your score is below 4.0, 90% of people won’t even look at you. They are looking for 4.5 and above.”

This statement shows a clear correlation between resident happiness and increased revenues.

JD also comments, "If our associate experience is on-point, then our customer experience will be on-point."

He explains that you can take care of 95 out of 100 issues by focusing on the fundamentals:

1. Answer the phones
2. Respond quickly
3. Respond thoroughly
4. Resolve the customer issue

Investing in Relationships

Ms. Kimbrough said that post-pandemic, “We have a new initiative, and we’re refocusing on resident experience. It’s become a top priority for us. As part of that, we’re at a point now where we can try different technologies. We’re looking to put smart home tech and managed wifi into a lot of properties. This is part of improving that resident experience.”

The resident experience will differentiate between an increased NOI versus decreased NOI. JD says, "If you take care of your customers, they’re more likely to renew. They’re more likely to stay with you and pay the premium rent you’re looking for."

There is a formula for multifamily success, and it’s the same formula for multifamily customer satisfaction.

Good wages plus flexible hours plus career paths plus genuine gratitude equals happy associates.

Happy associates create good interpersonal relationships plus cleanliness plus responsiveness resulting in happy residents.

Happy residents decrease turnover rates and are willing to pay a premium to stay in their community, resulting in happy owners and investors.