I admit it – I don’t always think the same way as the majority of people. Oftentimes, I can be the only one in a room full of people who sees things differently. Not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing, except that I can tell you it makes life interesting. Ever since I started a second career in property management, I have been bothered by Shop Reports. I don’t like enduring them and it can be almost painful to listen and read the reports of those I manage.

I have spent a great deal of time debating inside my head (and heart) the merits of the authorizing the blind Shop Reports. While I realize these reports give us an insight into the Leasing Consultant’s behavior, I have always felt they were too subjective. It is no secret that I often feel the results of the Shop Report are many times used as a means to arm a Regional or onsite Manager with a reason to fire someone. This is old news.

What I would like to propose is another way to use this means of measuring leasing skills. I thought to myself a few months ago, “What would happen if we went back to the basics and taught to the test?” I understand most training programs attempt to teach the fundamentals of taking a phone call, getting an appointment, greeting the Customer/Client, gathering the info, showing the vacant and closing. So, if all training programs do this, in theory, then why do so many Leasing Consultants fail the test (the Shop)?

What would happen if, instead of hiring a company to Shop our Leasing Teams seemingly gathering all the negative feedback, we sent in Shoppers to record the positive experiences? What would happen if we allowed our Leasing Teams to answer the phone in our company approved manner, but instead of counting off points because the consultant didn’t ask, “And how did you hear about our community today?” in the initial phone call, and we accepted that they asked that question at the appointment?

I am trying a different way. I am simply telling the Leasing Team that they are being shopped on Thursday. I am actually telling them the day of the week to expect traffic. I am eliminating those pesky calls to the office that are so transparent most consultants know it is a Shopper. I want the Leasing Team to understand someone is walking into the Office and it won’t matter that Janice takes the Traffic or if Chris does. I want whoever works with that person to knock that person’s socks off. I want the entire office to be attentive on Thursday to the needs of every person who walks into that leasing office that day. No excuses. Second, I want the presentation to be natural. No canned speeches. Third, there are no excuses for not dressing professionally that day. If nametags are company policy, then there should be nametags displayed.

My goal in training this way is to catch the team doing it RIGHT, not trying to find a reason to punish them for forgetting to say one particular phrase. I want the Leasing Team to know on that day everything everyone does counts: from the initial greeting of every phone call, to standing up when someone enters the building and walking up to them with a hand extended in a welcoming fashion; from escorting the Prospect away from the hustle of the phones ringing to a quiet area where they can sit either on the furniture in the Clubhouse or at a leasing table; from demonstrating the Market Ready – not simply opening the door and saying, “There you go! Look around and tell me what you think.”

I want the Shopper to object to something in the unit or the lack of an amenity. I want to know what the Leasing Consultant said to counter it – was there any creativity involved? Were their personalities evident at all? After all, the Leasing Team knows there will be at least one Shopper there that day. In fact, there will be at least five or more Shoppers there that day. I want the Team to have a lot of practice. And these won’t be just paid Shoppers. I want the Corporate VPs to stroll through on that day. I want a couple of Regional Managers from other regions to Shop. I want a couple of Residents from a sister community to come in and look. Perhaps they may find it more appealing at our community and want to transfer!

At the end of the day, the Shoppers come back in and give immediate feedback. I want there to be a sense of excitement and not a sense of dread. There is lively discussion of all that was said, how the Shoppers were feeling and how the Leasing Consultant was feeling. I want the Leasing Consultant to hear how impressed someone was with his performance and I want them to get honest feedback on what they could have said or done to make it a better leasing experience for that Shopper. Then we will begin again and practice more.

This method works. It works because human beings respond better to positive reinforcement than to negative reinforcement. Human beings want to be the best (it’s in our genetic make-up) and the truth of the matter is this. If your Leasing Team knows exactly what day they are being shopped and still do a poor job of it, then you know exactly where to center your re-training efforts. With this approach, there is a high level of camaraderie that develops within your team. Each member of the team, including the Maintenance Team, will be looking for ways to encourage each other to “get it right.”

This approach will reinforce the training techniques that work for your community, its floor plans, amenities, and special characteristics. This technique will condition your team to perform as taught, and will promote a team’s ingenuity and creativity during the leasing process. Once the team masters your expected responses by demonstrating consistently their knowledge, then and only then should rewards be introduced into the training module. I do not offer any kind of bonuses until the expected leasing behavior is consistent during these Shopping experiences.

And finally, if a community is achieving high occupancy, is meeting all its leasing goals, and the economic occupancy goals are also met, then I do not waste money on hiring Shoppers for that community. High achievers who are internally motivated already know they are doing a great job. High achievers who are externally motivated already will demand recognition, either from a mention in the company newsletter or being given an actual award. All personnel who achieve their goals are given a bonus. Communities that are struggling to meet overall leasing goals should be given extra training and tested repeatedly for a six month period. Those who cannot meet the training program goals successfully are offered administrative roles that support the team but don’t involve leasing apartments. In this way, the feeling that the axe is going to fall over one bad Shop Report is eliminated. Truthfully, those who go through this type of intense, but supportive training program, usually figure out they aren’t “cut out” to be leasing consultants and gladly accept an alternative role or they resign. The Leasing Team must be made to feel they are valuable contributors to the community. They have a job to do, and with a great training program that teaches them what to do, how to do it, and how to keep it fresh without emphasizing intense competition or dangling a threat of job loss at any given moment, they can simply relax, get creative and get the apartments leased faster.