Warning, RANT!

Warning, RANT!

I've recently been looking for an apartment, and I've been in this business for almost 20 years. In my initial online inquiries, I have specifically asked if a ground floor 2 bd 2 ba is available, or if they have elevators. This is a must for us as my husband requires it.

I received 5 responses back. Five copied and pasted responses back. One even from "The staff at xyz community". Not even a a name. Not one of those responses answered my question. Which now means I have to call or email back my question.

PLEASE if you are a Leasing Agent, or if it's you answering email inquires:

1. Take the time to READ the email.

2. Introduce yourself, or at least give your name at the end of the email response.

3. AND ANSWER THE PROSPECT'S QUESTIONS.

Moving is stressful! It bears repeating. Moving is stressful! I've moved a lot, and I still have moving stress. And all these responses back, ignoring my question, just upped my frustration and stress.

I do apartments shops. I wasn't shopping these properties at the time of inquiry, but they wouldn't have scored very high on initial first impression.

We can do better. Take the time to care.

Rant over.

I so feel you on this one!! When I was looking a year ago, I had a hard time getting answers, it felt like pulling teeth to find out anything. Even after moving in I found out things that they never told me, such as valet garbage was mandatory even though I live 25 feet from the dumpster.

I'm right there with you. I try and explain this to my staff at least once a week...they need to PICK UP THE PHONE, call the prospect. It's astonishing how surprised a prospect is to receive a call. I'm sorry you have had to endure this, I hope you find the perfect place soon!

When you message my property from our website, entrata immediately sends out a blanket response email. It’s automatic and we have nothing to do with it. We always follow up, but this is automation and streamlining at its finest.

We have “pre made” emails but always use their name and answer any specific questions. The best of both worlds for us.

Yeah that is infuriating. I would hate that too. We have the general info template email, but always tailored to specific questions.

Moving, divorce, having children, marriage, and death are 5 of the most stressful things people go through. I teach Leasing 101 classes and I always let them know that you cant change the location, you can’t change the floor plans, you can “renovate” the amenities, but the easiest thing to change is the leasing staff. They are the bread and butter of the industry. If you don’t have amazing leasing staff then you are screwed. I no longer live in an apartment but I always leased based on the way I was treated as a prospect. So many people do not understand this!

Awesome! I tell my leasing staff that people make decisions based on how they feel, before decisions based on fact.

Rant again! Rant any time. This is a quality rant.

It’s easy to fall into routine when it’s your every day, but it’s good to have a reminder like this that it’s not just another day for the prospect.

Great feedback and awesome that you shared that. One of the most memorable lessons I learned through by property management years was that moving is one of the top 5 stresses in life, behind death and divorce. I reminded myself of that any time I got frustrated with a tough client. You never know what someone has going on. You are helping them choose where they will come home to. Its not car sales...compassion is a must.

Sure, I agree with you, but the third party industry websites are to blame as well. How many inquiries do you get for 0 bed, 0 bath, for $0, without a move-in date, and the only comment is a canned "what is your availability?" or include a list of wants that have NOTHING to do with your property; "Wants: Townhouse style, garage, granite countertops, fully furnished, ground floor, helicopter parking, 0 bedrooms or bathrooms, $0 per month, etc"?
All these third party sites make inquires a spam moment. A prospect can hit up 20 properties in a few minutes without even knowing a thing about the properties. Are we going to go through their lists?
Townhouse style? No
garage? No
granite countertops? No
fully furnished? No
Ground floor? No
Helicopter parking? No
0 bedrooms? No
0 bathrooms? No
$0 a month? No
we've got nothing you asked for, but you probably don't even know what your "requirements" are, so I'm going to give you a brief intro, our phone number, and give you a link that will show you all we do have, so you can decide, and the 20 other properties you spammed will do the same.
Every once in a while a prospect will actually ask a real question, and we should be able to filter those out and give them a real response.

It’s easy to fall into routine when it’s your every day, but it’s good to have a reminder like this that it’s not just another day for the prospect.

Great feedback and awesome that you shared that. One of the most memorable lessons I learned through by property management years was that moving is one of the top 5 stresses in life, behind death and divorce. I reminded myself of that any time I got frustrated with a tough client. You never know what someone has going on. You are helping them choose where they will come home to. Its not car sales...compassion is a must.

I had the very same experience trying to move cross country. It was quite eye opening the lost traffic.

I had a similar experience a year ago. I went to 12 communities, only 2 followed up. Only 1 ever answered the phone or returned a voice message (I drive a lot, email doesn't work efficiently for me). I wound up renting a condo because the service was better. I was looking in a higher rent area outside of DC and am well qualified. They all had availability with the exception of two properties. After spending many years as an industry professional and a consultant to the industry, I found it both surprising and disappointing. Interestingly, all of them were on point with their in person tours.

Were those responses automatic? I know our community has those then I respond as soon as they come through. It depends on how people find us. If they go through the community website then it says thank you a team member will contact you shortly. Then I respond with hello *name* thank you for your interest in Parkway Lakeside Apartments. We do have ground floor apartments, and we do not have elevators. When is a good day and time to visit our community? Reading is key but a lot of communities have auto responses. I think it's helpful to show your request for info went through. Is wait 24hrs to see if you get any different responses.

I have been in the business for 32 years. I hate that companies have become so entrenched in CRM and automation. Most PMs and sites have no say in this - “corporate” determines the settings, the auto responses and dictates that specific templates be used.

Agree with this and just to add that if someone leaves a message- call them back! I helped my mom look for an apartment and move after she broke her leg and half the places I called either didn't answer the phone or never returned a phone message! I was absolutely beside myself and during the holiday season no less when anyone who's looking is dead serious about moving. Finding her an ADA accessible apartment was not easy.

In marketing and it's one of my biggest pet peeves with the properties I work with. Templates had their place years ago when the internet first entered our lives and people didn't know what to do with it (yes... I've been in the industry long enough to remember sitting next to the fax machine waiting for the RentNet leads to come in so that I could call the customer....lol) but we've become too reliant on them and auto-pilot sets in. I'm at a point where I'd almost rather see misspelled words and bad grammar as long as the customer's questions are being answered!

These are probably auto responses that generate automatically when a lead comes in. Should be followed up quickly though with a personalized text or email from the office

Leasing 101 folks!
Coming from starting in the industry in the 80s, where we hand wrote our thank you / follow up notes because there were no cell phones, I can say I’ve seen a shift from then to now where the leasing teams have 10x the work we did but this task is such a key role in closing!

It is frustrating. Remember that sometimes the systems are set with an automated response before the agent sees the email. Not ideal but it doesn’t necessarily reflect on the site team.

Agreed! I’m all about the standard email response but if the prospects ask specific questions I take the time to answer those questions. Work smarter not harder!

Two things I learned from this:
1) We need to show real availability on property websites … and indicate which floor those units are on. (We don’t get that data in the feed from any PM software.)
2) We’re learning all the time what questions prospects really have that could be answered in FAQs on the website. This is a perfect example.
100% we can work on smarter responses to prospects (automated or otherwise), but we can also get better at answering prospect questions in the first place and saving them the time and effort of reaching out and waiting to hear back from someone.

Reality 1: prospects don't read.
Reality 2: prospects don't do research.
Reality 3: prospects don't pay attention to your response.
Caller: "Hi, i saw your ad. I'd like to come see it."
Me: "The ad that says I'll have something available in July?"
Caller: "Yes, I have my deposit ready and can move in next week. Can I come see it today?"

I appreciate the patience you have to respond to callers like that without exploding.

yep, we don't get paid enough to deal with (I'll jus let say it) the stupid people, but unfortunately we have to deal with them too. If not for those people, I don't think we'd appreciate the really awesome prospects and residents we do have. But never let the first group dictate how we see and respond to the second group.

I experienced the same if not worse so has my daughter that's looking. I try to steer her towards a realtor and leasing houses. Better customer service if you can believe that.

100 percent. Quit sending generic emails

Good reminder!!! I've noticed occasionally I will catch my team becoming very nonchalant because we have not had any availability, and limited human contact(Covid restrictions over teh past year). I've had to remind them that we are ALWAYS leasing even when we have no availability! ie: maybe the prospects are flexible with move in date., maybe if we provide excellent service they refer a friend, etc etc...

This is exactly why I started my business 20 years ago. We personally reply to every email and answer the questions that each person is asking and offer to set up a tour with each response.