During last week’s customer service webinar with Jackie Ramstedt, she suggested the idea of rewarding the team for a “Perfect Move-in”.  First of all, without going a step further, I have to say I LOVE that idea!  I’m sure you have heard countless times about how a resident’s decision to renew their lease actually comes in those first few days of living at that community.  So with those first days being so crucial, we need to have our compensation packages absolutely match the goal of a perfect move in!

One of the great things about a quality education session is that one idea leads to another, and I started thinking back to a friend of mine who said that his company, outside of multifamily, doesn’t pay sales commissions right away.  Instead, those commissions are tied to the collections of the receivable from the client.  At 60 days out, if the company still hasn’t gotten paid, they let the salesperson know that they have 10 days to get paid or they don’t get their commission!  Next thing you know, the sales people are on the phone making sure that collection process is taken care of.  Now granted, that is a different scenario, but it still highlights the fact that certain processes need to be team efforts.

So what if we took that concept and changed up the leasing bonus?  What if we increased the bonus, but then also tied it to the move-in process overall?  Maybe instead of a $100 leasing commission, it was a $200 Perfect Move-In bonus, split between the leasing consultant and the make-ready team?  Now we have the leasing consultant with a vested interest in making sure that the apartment has absolutely no problems before their new resident moves in.  We have better aligned the longer term goals of the property with the commissions that we provide.

Obviously, increasing or introducing a new bonus has financial implications, but I think that this increase could pay huge dividends in an area that is crucial to the resident lifecycle.

If you like blogs on creative leasing and marketing ideas, click on the “Subscribe” link in the box below, and I would love to hear what you think about a Perfect Move-In Bonus!