Focusing on the sale and not on the customer

Sometimes I'll stumble upon a thread about renters discussing apartments, and there is always a goldmine of information. Here was one incredibly well said comment about their community's misplaced priorities:

Yep. It's quite ridiculous. Our apartment recently spent a fortune remodeling the leasing office, but there's ant hills and dog crap (from owners who don't pick it up) all over the grounds. We've used the pool maybe twice, and visit the office only to pick up packages. This year we didn't even go in to renew our lease - it was done electronically.

"Let's lure these people in with our awesome office and fresh cookies, but forget them the minute they sign the lease! Bwahahahaha."

Needless to say, we're moving out as soon as the option is available. (We said that about six months after we moved in, but have now been here three years. Why does moving cost so much?)

Although I think most communities have the best intentions, I think we often set ourselves up for this type of response based upon how we structure our operations. In other words, communities so often place more resources towards marketing compared to retention, that we lose focus on who our customer really is.

If you all were to guess, what percent of communities could this comment describe?

I believe this can fit about 85% of the properties out there. Now I come up with that figure based upon my small world of experience and travel within the multifamily industry.

My personal opinion is your tenants will sell your property by word of mouth. I think the things that keep residents and get them to talking good about a property are: facilities, amenities, maintenance and repairs, response of management to the concerns, making tenants feel that they matter, and having community events which promote good will from all sides. Keeping in contact with your tenants after they have signed up and ensure things are going well and searching out concerns and responding to them.

I also find it very important that the management does not foster a them and us mentality, because when this happens everything starts on a downhill slide from that point and it reflects in many areas and once you start down that hill it is hard to stop turn around and make corrections.

Retention is the big thing and saves the company a lot of money and saves on the wear and tear to the unit as well!