Finding a long-term resident to stay in your rental property can be a long-standing task. Utilize effective Waco resident retention strategies to gain sustainable residents that you can trust to stay for a longer time. Some residents stay for the sense of community, others might stay for lower prices come lease renewal time. Others might be spell-bound by the beautiful landscape or maintenance requests operations being completed efficiently and timely by a property management company in Waco.
Despite the reasons residents might stay or go, landlords and property managers should include the move out costs that comes with letting your property to become vacant. This cost can be hefty and cost you the earnings you would have gained if you had retained the resident or had mechanisms in place to replace the resident quickly. Having robust Waco resident retention strategies can help you have a close relationship with your residents. For example, if one of your residents was considering a move, they would trust you and disclose their plans to you. Receiving this information beforehand can give you vastly more time to search for a replacement.
Customer Service
Among the first Waco resident retention strategies to implement is to properly comprehend what your residents want. Some property managers are surprised when they discover that some residents have negative or opposing things to say about them. This can arise for many reasons. One of these reasons is your lack of communication with the resident. Residents want to be paid attention to. While customer service is a vital component of meeting the resident’s needs, property managers tend to not focus on what really matters when dealing with the residents. Some property managers might have resentment towards such phone calls or interactions as it adds more work to an already hectic day. However, what property managers should realize is customer service is the most important part of the day.
Open Communication
Customer Service can be a broad topic. Waco resident retention strategies include diving deep into what your customer service experience signifies for your residents. Generally, customer service shouldn’t be treated as a task. It is an interaction and relationship building step. An effective open communication relationship will not happen right away. The second your resident signs your rental property lease, you start a constant testing phase with them. Residents will test you to see what your updating process is, how quickly you respond to requests, your communication style, and how open you are: where you can either be strict with your job procedures, or flexible and open to conversation. Several residents may be busy and unable to take phone calls. Consider sending texts or simple reminders about things as opposed to accumulating everything into one random long phone conversation.
Listen and Take Action
Waco residents want to be heard. Whether their point-of-view is valid or not, there is a reason why they are communicating with you. Listen to all their comments. A resident will feel validated when you give them time to have their say. Listening, as in any relationship, shows that you care more about just doing the tasks. It shows them that you care about them as a person. Avoid starting out your sentences or responses with “no,” or saying, “no, we can’t do that.” Always provide a solution or alternative that agrees with their ideas even if your solution will cost the resident money or not be exactly what the resident feels is right or has thought of as the solution.
Complete in a Timely Fashion
Residents tend to have a better appreciation when service requests are resolved effectively and are finished right away. Even if you’re accurate and accomplish all the preferences they asked for, but if it isn’t done fast enough and would take several months, you wouldn’t expect them to be pleased. When you finish all the work, and you did it really fast, your Seattle residents would give you more of their trust as a property manager. Even though you have a busy schedule, spend some time to quickly finish the task. Even if it’s just ten minutes, you’ll realize that the attention you give to a service request, especially one that was asked for recently, is going to do wonders for keeping your residents around lease after lease.
A good resident retention strategy is basically listening carefully and performing service requests as soon as possible. Imagine all the possibilities that will open for you as you focus on developing the relationship you have with your residents. Interested in finding out more about Real Property Management Talent, or do you want to schedule a free rental property assessment? Contact us online or call us at 254-4010-0400 today!
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