As a landlord, there are two statements I like to hear from my tenants: 'We are interested in re-renting for another year' or 'We are looking to move on, BUT we have some friends who are looking to rent the house.
' One of the more effective forms of advertising your properties and keeping them occupied is word of mouth referrals.
With the amount of rental properties available, it can sometimes be a challenge to set yours apart from the others.
In order to help keep tenant occupancy at a maximum, my business partners and I have taken a customer service oriented approach to dealing with our tenants.
Important to this approach are three key elements: communication, going above and beyond, and follow through.
Effectively communicating with your tenants can take on many forms.
The more common forms of communication today include face-to-face conversation, phone calls, emails, and mailings.
Regardless of the communication style, be sure that the message remains as consistent, clear, and helpful as possible.
Timing is also important.
Our company policy is to call back within 24 hours.
This shows a commitment to not only addressing issues, both positive and negative, in a timely manner, but also insures prompt follow through.
Most importantly, make sure to listen to the tenants' concerns, questions, and/or feedback, and provide them with honest answers.
This will help ensure that you can deliver on your promises, but address their specific concerns as well.
Going above and beyond expectations is sometimes the more challenging, yet more impactful aspect to quality customer service.
In an effort to stand out among the other landlords and real estate companies in our area, we use the following techniques to help take the extra step.
When applicable, we may offer a series of incentive programs, such as: rent breaks or gift cards for good grades (when renting to students), money or Phillies tickets for referrals and/or consistent, timely rental payments, and iPods, televisions, or an X-Box for re-renting early in the lease term.
We also offer a mid-rental lunch, in which we collect feedback on how to best move forward, and we offer a pre-move walkthrough to help maximize the tenants possibility of getting back their security deposit.
Regardless of the situation or type of incentive or aid, make sure to legitimize the situation by delivering on any promise made.
Timely and thorough follow through is crucial to both effective communication and going above and beyond expectations.
Making sure that no matter what conversation we have with our tenants, what issue has to be addressed, or what service was discussed, we work very hard to ensure helpful, honest and fair follow through.
This last piece is the underlying foundation for the others, and it can help to ensure that your tenants will walk away feeling like you not only met their needs, but exceeded them.