On-site peeps, please remember not every one of your resident is Internet or computer savvy. (Story)

On-site peeps, please remember not every one of your resident is Internet or computer savvy. I've recently come on a property and in doing a delinquency report, I saw that a resident always paid on the first, but his payment was always less than what was owed. This property has. RUBS system, so utilities fluctuate. I called the resident - Yes. Picked. Up. The. Phone. And. Talked. With. Him.

Him: Hello?
Me: Hi Mr. X, this is Tracy at the xyz leasing office. How are you today?
Him: I'm well thanks.
Me: That's good to hear! The reason I'm calling is I noticed that you pay your rent on time every month, however, I see there is a small running balance that is causing a late charge to be assessed.
Him: Oh no, I didn't know that! Why is that?
Me: (I explain that late fees have been assessed for an overdue balance that keeps growing each month).
Me: Do you use the online resident portal?
Him: No, I've had difficulty getting that to work.
Me: Do you have an email?
Him: I really don't use that.
Me: Would you like to come to the office and I can print out your ledger?
Him: Yes, I can come down right now if that's ok?
Me: That sounds great, I'll see you in a few minutes.
Mr. X came in to the office. I printed out his ledger and he looked it over. He looked to be calculating the numbers so I offered him my phone / calculator.
He seemed to be a bit embarrassed s he apologized for not knowing this was happening.
"I've lived her for a long time," he said, "and you're the first person to tell me about this!".
"I'm so sorry this has gone on so long without anyone communicating with you," I said.
He proceeded to take out his checkbook and I told him I would reverse the late fees.
"Would you like me to show you how to get on to the resident portal, or would it be helpful if I called you at the beginning of the month, or left a note on your door, with you balance due for the month?" I asked.
"I'm not real sure about doing that online, but if you wouldn't mind leaving a note on my door, that would be wonderful," he said as he was starting to leave, "thank you for taking your time to help me today."
"You're welcome Mr. X," I told him, "I'm happy to help."

The moral of the story? Don't assume everyone is online. Don't assume, period. And, kindness goes a long way. Be a good property manager, leasing agent, etc. Be a kind human.
 

Love this story

LOVE this!

This!!! Sooo true, great job!!

Especially true in the low income or senior communities. I have a lot of this

My former neighbor has macular degeneration. She has an email address, but doesn’t utilize it, because she doesn’t access her computer as she can’t read anything without assistance. She also doesn’t text and can’t access her voice mails easily. Our senior residents especially aren’t always able to handle some of the tech related aspects of communication, despite being smart, responsible, capable residents. We must remain sensitive to individual needs. What is considered an advancement for many is incredibly difficult or inaccessible for others. Know your residents. ** Thank you for this post, and for helping. **

We have all become codependent on the internet. I am one of those "baby boomers" that wasn't taught how to work all these programs from kindergarten. We don't know how all this works, we can learn, we aren't stupid, but we need help in navigating it. Some of us don't even understand the difference between right vs left click! To all those that know it, a little patience and help goes a long way. But please quit being condescending towards us. There are quite a few things you wouldn't know if we could time travel you back to our age. Stick shift cars, phonographs, even "dialing" a phone. You would be lost!

Thank you for sharing and for being one of the good ones!!

Such a perfect example of doing the RIGHT thing. Thanks for sharing this story and for offering this human your empathy and compassion.

This is amazing. Thank you so much for taking the time to pick up the phone and call and not just flatly turn back to the solution as them signing into a portal.

Thank you for being a servant leader and doing the right thing!!!! We get so caught up in daily ops tasks that we sometimes forget the real reason behind our career in multi family and that is taking care of people!!!!

I love this! There are so many residents out there like this. It doesn’t matter how many times I’ve shown my parents how to use the portals even from their phone- they don’t understand or forget the process. Taking an extra step with kindness will set your community apart and yield greater results!

Great job!

The majority of my residents don't have Internet Access nor are they Internet savvy. We do everything via paper and phone calls.

Do you know how many times I would stop what I’m doing and help my seniors set up the online portal? I had to manually enter late fees, so I would call them, wake them up and they would be caught up.

This is great customer service!

Love this

Well said !

Yes, you have to educate them. Well, if we really Love our Residents

I've helped teach how to uber, heck even setup emails. I wouldn't want someone to treat my parent w/ no disregard for human compassion.That will be us one day, just saying. Technology will have advanced way to much and we couldn't keep up.

Yes! This! All of this! I work in student and we currently use RealPage (OnSite/OneSite/Active Building). I’ve been here a month, and all I have to say is it’s freakin hard on my end and it’s not getting easier! I get applicants/residents all the time tell me they’re having issues and I get it! I don’t even understand it from my perspective, so how can we expect them to?! I usually get the opposite pushback (they want to use online methods and don’t know what to do when we tell them they need to use an alternative) because of my demographic, but it’s the same thing! Patience goes a long way, and some days I have to remind myself of that.

Great job!!

Spot On

Great story, Tracy.

You are a good person!

I see why all the previous office staff there were fired.

Until a Karen on your property complains that you are showing him favoritism and discriminating against them because they didn’t get a note and they had to pay late fees.

Tamara, that's true. That's why we are doing a paper newsletter and asking anyone who would like to continue with a paper copy vs. by email to let us know they would like to receive notifications, newsletters, etc. this way. That way we don't discriminate. There will always be the Karens, but I'll always help someone who needs help.

Joe Jefferson this Karen sends small balance letters out to everyone (who needs one) mid-month. It’s not that much more effort and those small balances add up. Way easier to extend a little information when it’s relevant than try to explain why someone’s balance is higher than they thought on the first.

Joe Jefferson there is not a case for favoritism or discrimination unless someone with identical issues is not given the same opportunities.Tracy strikes me as someone who would be fair and consistent when presented with similar circumstances.The most interesting part of this situation is how long it may have been happening with no one taking the time to reach out to the resident. Sad testimony to others’ possible lack of appropriate communication.

Kathy Gifford Vance, I disagree. So based on your statement, a elderly white man is given a statement every month so he can avoid late fees, while the young Hispanic female and middle aged black female are not and they are assessed late fees for not paying the proper amount. This isn’t discrimination because they don’t have identical issues? I’m not trying to bash Tracy, nor did I say she was an unfair person.

I have residents that don’t even have email addresses.

Thank you for being the difference. You waived the fees! You are a rockstar. I had many older folks so I made sure to get printed materials or print them. For some I initially helped them order COVID tests because you couldn’t get through USPS. Thank you for helping bridge communication because he shouldn’t have been charged.