Satisfied Residents Equals Higher Profit

Satisfied Residents

Value matters – the sense that residents are getting value for the money they are paying.  Value also means ease and convenience.  Residents expect that apartment living will be hassle-free.  This sense of value leads to happy residents.  Satisfied residents lead to more revenue for the property owner.

Service is the Key

Is it easy for your residents to request service?  Are you making sure service requests are handled quickly and efficiently?  There is a direct correlation between how your staff and vendors handle service requests and your residents’ satisfaction.  A good Property Management professional will focus on service first.

There is also a direct correlation between your residents’ satisfaction and the VALUE of your income-producing property.  According to SatisFacts Research, expenses and lost revenue associated with one resident deciding to move out averages about $3,500.  This expense is a direct hit your bottom line income, and ultimately, the value of your property.

Protecting Your Reputation

Residents expect their service issues to be resolved with little interference.  A strong property management team as well as reliable vendors can provide what the residents are seeking.  When a resident is happy with their service, they will live comfortably and quietly within the community.

However, when service issues are not resolved quickly or to their satisfaction, then the resident is not likely to keep that quiet.  This should be a concern, not only to the property management team, but to the owner/investor as well.  Think of all the on-line ways residents can complain:  ApartmentRatings.com, YELP, Google, Twitter, Facebook, etc. etc.  There are too many on-line outlets for a residents to let everyone know how unhappy they are.  I don’t need to tell you what a poor on-line reputation does to your income and your property value?

Good Service is a Team Effort

Great service comes from a great team – not just the maintenance team performing the service request, but also the office staff who coordinates the service.  The office staff is usually the first point of contact for the resident when a service issue arises.  This is also where the resident will get a sense of how the service request will be handled.

Does the office staff know the right questions to ask?  Is the maintenance team telling the office the status of the service request?  Is the office staff in communication with the resident when there is a delay?  Most importantly, is the entire property management team in communication with each other?

Create a team that emphasizes communication.  A property management team’s number one focus should be Resident Satisfaction.  The goal:  Keep Apartments Occupied.   Creating that resident-focused culture requires teams to be accountable to residents, accountable to each other and focused on details.  Teamwork!  It takes hard work and dedication to make a good team – but it is well worth the effort.  The payoff will be Higher Profits and a Higher Property Value.