Important techniques proven to increase resident retention

Part 2 of 3 Continued from the April 22 CDE edition of The New York Real Estate Journal. * Familiarize new employees and periodically update tenured staff with the firm's culture towards providing excellent service and attitude toward resident retention with customer service being a priority. * Provide all employees with ongoing training. Utilize job descriptions and give them guidance and encouragement as often as possible. Create an atmosphere that energizes everyone to learn and integrate new skills on the job while motivating employees by serving as a teacher rather than a taskmaster. This will go a long way in forming partnerships with your team by building up their confidence and gaining their respect and loyalty. * Conduct regular staff meetings and emphasize customer service while reviewing any deficiencies that need to be addressed with the staff member's job performance and or attitude. Solicit their suggestions as well because employees often know better than management how improvements can be made. Doing so will create a positive environment among employees which will help boost both productivity and morale of staff. Staff will believe that their opinions count and play an important role in solving management problems. This will contribute to the success of establishing a winning team and efficiently managed property. Remember, there is no "I" in the word team. * Set up a work order system to properly respond to all complaints timely and orderly. This is also a good barometer to monitoring the performance of staff. Staff should be sure to document all complaints and make sure that all problems are handled quickly and professionally with a follow up in writing or phone call to the tenant to apprise them on what was done rather than leaving a tenant guessing about what is going on which can result in unnecessary phone calls to the building office inquiring about the status. Communication Communication is extremely important from day one. Send out a memo/newsletter to the tenants explaining the company's philosophy, a description of accomplishments, while expressing how proud you are to have their property included in your family/portfolio of properties under your management. Include in it all contact information for key staff members including the president of the firm, super/site mgr., property mgr., leasing agent, front desk, management office and bookkeeper. You can also include information on upcoming capital improvement work. By providing this information you have initiated a dialogue between you and your tenant. The following are other areas of communication that will help retain tenants: * Solicit surveys to residents periodically regarding the maintenance of the property and ask for their suggestions. * Answer all complaints and calls promptly. Superior service must be a prerequisite and not an option in order to maintain a professionally managed property that the staff is proud to work in and the residents are proud to live in. All residents are entitled to know not only what is expected of them but what is going on as well. It is something that is too often overlooked but should not be taken for granted. Doing so will eliminate the possibility of negative word of mouth from current to prospective tenants leading to problems retaining them and justifying proposed amount of rent from prospective tenants. Effective communication avoids waste and time. This article was first reprinted in Professional Management, a publication of the National Association of Home Builders, reprinted with permission. To be continued in the June 24 CDE edition of The New York Real Estate Journal. Edward Andron, ARM, RAM, is the V.P. and Director of Management for Leebar Management Corp., New York, N.Y.