Over the years technology has become a must have not only in every aspect of the onsite teams daily job but the prospects and residents living experience. More demands coming at all angles, which leads to the question, how can onsite teams and management companies still continue to focus on personalizing customer service? What should management companies focus on to help create experience differentiators and why is it important?
Why the customer service experience must be a blend of tech and in person.
Today nearly all communities will send some form of survey after the fact — when a prospect or resident’s experiences and journey already ended. Communities must change their approach as solely relying on this approach prevents management companies from identifying and correcting issues as they are happening. For example, current surveys have always been reviewed after the prospect has toured the community, however using strategies like frequent engagement through observed behavior, listening strategies and direct feedback on social channels is something companies must start to incorporate. Another great example would be mid tour surveys during a prospects tour are critical avenues for engaging customers and ensuring near-flawless experiences that elevate satisfaction and loyalty. The journey to finding a new home is a combination of in-person and digital experience and multifamily industry must find a balanced blend.
The rising expectation of successful customer experience includes two things: convenience and personalization.
If a company is ignoring signals or failing to capture certain signals, they may be leaving critical insights and opportunities on the table. Collecting resident feedback across every channel and every touchpoint where appropriate is key. Communities must think about the entire experience a resident is receiving and not just a single moment in time. For example: Just taking the feedback from a service request is just feedback from one moment in time, not the entire residents experience which may also lie in social channels, portals reviews etc. “Uncover the right data and you’ll build a robust, segmented customer profiles that allow your brand to create unique, welcoming, and effortless experiences not only for current residents, but future residents.” (1)
Multifamily Industry in one aspect has not changed over the years, being service-oriented. If anything over the years this multifamily industry has increased in being service-oriented, which places a lot of pressure on onsite employees.
In a crowded industry, how does a management company enhance the residents experience while creating less pressure for onsite employees? We already know the old age 1 to 100 model is out dated and in addition to scrapping this model, management teams, must re-evaluate the work load per employee as it directly affects the service the residents are receiving. Listening to employees concerns, and engaging them on frontline decisions gives employees a stake in their own work. Remembering onsite team members have the most authentic and first hand feedback regarding processes and changes, some that may have worked and some that may have not. These insights are ones that need to be taken into consideration along with the software reporting metrics as reports will not gather everything that is needed to make the best decision.
How does Multifamily Industry move the dial and improve customer service with personalization?
In a most recent article by Medallia, they point out “most companies, regardless of the industry — from retail to life sciences — can become obsessed with direct competition, comparing strategies and operations in order to gain an edge.” This couldn’t be more true in multifamily. It has been seen over the years when one management company chooses to add an amenity, then most competitions will do the same. It seems the age old competitor weekly survey is still around as properties are very tunnel vision, focused on what everyone within our industry is doing. The unique approach with stepping outside our industry and looking at brands in other industries can and will give management companies a fresh lense on how they can improve their customer service with personalization. Hospitality is one industry that closely aligns and one that Multifamily should look to in order to dial in and improve not only customer service, but with personalization
(1) Source.