What if your apartment community had a dance troupe or cheer team?

I know it sounds weird at first but everything was questionable when it first got its start right? I’ve been doing some research with apartment dwellers trying to figure out what activities they enjoy doing personally and how their management company could possible incorporate their desires into their retention plans.

I had an interesting conversation with a young lady named Carly who told me how much she missed dancing. She’s now in her early thirties, very health conscious and always looking for new and exciting ways to burn a few extra calories.

After talking for a while we concluded that her property attracted young, active professionals who were always open to experiencing new things and meeting new people. I asked her if her property hosted events and like many she said yes but she never goes and most of the time most people don’t go.

I proposed to her the idea of starting a dance troupe on the property that would perform at each event. She along with the property manager could decide the parameters and if it would be co-ed. Perhaps she could do different groups, one for teens and one for young adults. We threw around a few ideas and I could tell she was excited.

Think about it. Your property has a dance or cheer troupe that gets together once a week in the clubhouse or out on the tennis court to practice. This builds instant bonds that in turn gains you more loyal residents. Not only that, this guarantees their appearance at your events which more than likely guarantees everyone in their household showing up to watch them perform.

It is also a built in feature for all of your events. Can you imagine how interesting it will be to come out and see the “Oaktown Estate Steppers”? Your residents will look forward to their creativity, skits, uniforms and maybe even themed routines. They will look forward to hearing them chanting and cheering about how much they appreciate the residents.

Your team will also enjoy the idea of getting their neighbors to come out. They will discuss it with neighbors in passing and or promote it within your online portal. Who wants to practice and perfect a performance and have no one to show it to? This idea is perfect for those of you looking to increase morale and build participation for your events.

We believe that the reason events came up as such a low priority in recent surveys as a reason for residents to stay is because most of the time people do not attend. There’s a huge benefit in offering incentives and legitimate reasons to come out to events outside of the typical come out and meet your neighbors pitch.

Let’s face it…for many it feels too forced and down right awkward but when you begin to engage your residents and form genuine alliances you don’t have to work so hard to get their attention and their participation.

Dare to be a trailblazer and begin to focus on building communities within your communities or feel free to give me a call and I’ll be happy to show you how.

Talisa Lavarry

Founder

Resident Keepers

Unhappy residents? Make the complaints work for you!

Unhappy residents? Make the complaints work for you.

Let’s take a moment and do a bit of guided meditation. You live in a perfect world and your business model is flowing perfectly. You have the freedom to go and do anything you want when you want to because you have the perfect employees whom all work tirelessly and endlessly never complaining while growing your businesses by leaps and bounds.

Your residents are not only satisfied, they’re loyal. They refer their friends and you keep a waiting list for new residents to move in. You have little to no concessions in motion. Your on-line ratings are through the roof and your walls and desks are cluttered with thank you cards, awards and accolades.

Sit in the feeling for a moment. Really allow yourself to go there. Imagine that huge problem you are facing right now being resolved and all is well in your property management world……ahh…..feels good doesn’t it?

ALRIGHT SNAP OUT OF IT!!!!!! Fun to dream isn’t it? Sorry to shake you but I’ve gotta bring you back to reality in order to make my point. How did it feel to go there? Now that you’re back do you despise your reality vs. the dream?

If so you should definitely keep reading. Life is not perfect and never will be perfect in any capacity but one thing I know for sure is that time and experience makes us all better. The reason why this is the case is the longer we are in business the more mistakes we’ve made and the more obstacles we’ve overcome.

There’s no reason we should be dealing with the same resident complaints and issues that we were dealing with over a year ago. If we are wise we learn from our mistakes. This is the point I want to make today.

While I understand that your customer complaints are not favored and how much you dread dealing with the ones that they post publically I want you to understand the value that is attached to each one of them. Yes, in the moment the complaint is bad and you’d rather it not exist but it is huge for your future.

The fact that the resident is pointing out the issue is almost like you having the answers to a test. You are now clear about what needs to change and most importantly the lines of communication have been opened for you to find out exactly how to go about changing it.

It would be extremely wise for you to not only show that you are concerned but to genuinely ask for direction and suggestions to make things better. While it’s an issue today this very issue could make you a hero tomorrow.

Don’t fret or run away from the constructive criticisms that your residents give. I’d say embrace them. Let them know that you want to give them opportunities to be heard. I guarantee you this will decrease your chances of getting public, negative reviews.

If and when your residents know that you actually care and will do all that you can to make them happy they won’t feel the need to go behind your back and tell the world how bad and uncaring you are.

In a nutshell, open yourself up for more honest dialogue, show that you are supportive and caring and actually make moves towards your discoveries in communication. This will work wonders for your business model and help you to get a lot more value out what poses itself to be a headache.

Talisa Lavarry

Resident Keepers

For more info regarding resident satisfaction and retention sign up for our mailing list at www.residentkeepers.com

Your Residents are out shopping other properties!

You do realize that your residents are out shopping other properties right?

Haunting thought isn’t it? Well the truth of the matter is nine times out of ten your residents are not going to come and forewarn you that they are considering going elsewhere however they do tell their friends and colleagues in their casual day to day conversation.

Perhaps they are asking around about other properties or voicing their concerns about what’s not quite right at your property. Even worse some are going online into forums and sharing information or discussing it in their social media outlets such as facebook, twitter, yelp and apartmentratings.com.

Let’s face it; if you have no way of keeping an eye on these things your notices to vacate can catch you by surprise. Not only that, it sometimes leaves you with little to no wiggle room for trying to convince them to stay.

Have you ever considered putting practices in place that would allow you to be more aware of what your residents were thinking, what they desire and what they dislike about your property? Do you realize how this would allow you to be more proactive in your resident retention initiatives?

Let’s think about this. What if there was a resource that allowed them to vent in house rather than out to the world about how their leaky faucet has been such an issue? We also have to admit to the fact that lots of times people see the manager as “authority”. It is common human behavior to often times avoid authority all together. It could be that they fear that by speaking up they could be making things worse or they are just shy and or don’t know how to communicate their desires and needs.

What if you were innovative and strategic and put persons in place that did not come across so authoritative? What if these people were neighbors as well that strategized becoming acquainted with your other residents with the full intention of engaging them in very relaxed settings while getting the information out of them that could be the key to your getting their lease resigned?

Are your wheels turning yet? I certainly hope so. Yes you have a management team and yes you know your business but you’ve gotta admit that I’m onto something here. It is absolutely worth the small investment to implement these practices on your property. Resident Keepers has figured this all out and we have the innovation, creativity, energy and education to make sure that it is consistently carried out for you and your residents.

Below I’ve listed step by step how we make this all come together and create amazing results.

1. Recruit resident(s) to lead and carry out the plan.
2. Train said resident(s) in all aspects of the assignment as well as in fair housing. 
3. Establish our presence on the property (residents need to know that they now have fun friends on the property that want to make their stay more pleasant).
4. Get residents signed up for and involved in www.myvirtualneighbor.com(This is critical to development of our plan. People tell exactly what they want and need all day everyday while hanging out in online social media mediums).
5. Get the neighborhood businesses invested in your property. (People love freebies, door prizes, coupons etc. and businesses love to get through the doors of their neighboring potential clients). 
6. Host traditional events and offer frequent surprises to residents all while keeping their individual likes and desires in mind as well as their scheduled lease end dates.
7. Connect like minded residents and help them create individual social connections based on their personal desires. 
8. Communicate with and survey residents often to consistently be aware of their needs, desires and any possible opportunities for improvement.

These practices take consistency and focus which are two things that many properties if not most lack when it comes to resident retention. Resident Keepers is an easy, wise, fun and economical solution to this problem.

For more tips about resident retention log onto www.residentkeepers.comand sign up for the mailing list.