Most of us are very focused on building our reputation, which is good, but are we also focused on building character and accountability? Are we making those important changes to truly improve our customer experience? Are we owning our mistakes even when we don’t want to?
The question of accountability is an important one to ask. And, clearly not an easy one to answer. Who is accountable for your apartment reviews, both good and bad? Who is accountable for responding to those reviews? Who is accountable for implementing change?
Last week we spoke to Jennifer Staciokas from Lincoln Property Company (LPC) and Nicole Salmieri from Concord Management Ltd.. Their portfolios could not be more different, so naturally, their approach to accountability for apartment reviews is different. Jennifer’s group puts a lot of responsibility on the communities, while Nicole’s team handles most of it at the corporate level.
While their approaches are different, they both have made the customer experience and accountability part of their culture. For example, LPC has really made responding to apartment reviews part of the everyday responsibility onsite. They have chosen to do this because they have embraced the idea that every apartment review is an opportunity to convert that resident into a brand advocate. They see reviews as just another avenue of interaction, similar to the phone or in-person conversation you could have. They have kept it simple and approachable so that it is not intimidating.
Even though Concord does a lot of the responding from a corporate level, their site teams are still very involved. Their customer experience is a collaborative effort that has truly become part of their culture. Once they got involved with the conversation, they quickly embraced apartment reviews and customer feedback because they were able to prove how much it affected their business and the happiness of their residents.
Like everything we do, there is not a ‘one size fits all’ for this challenge. You have to find what works for your company and your community based on the resources you have.
It is the middle of March now. Why not put together an accountability to plan for the second quarter of this year? Take some time to examine your last six months of apartment reviews. Determine what can and should be fixed and who is going to do the fixing. And of course, measure your success. We would love hear your stories!
Misty Sanford
Social Insight Thought Leader
Renter’s Voice