4 Tablespoons Curb Appeal

1 Quart of Apartment Training

½ Cup of Welcoming Office Environment

¼ Cup of Targeted Marketing

1 Pint of Community Reputation

2 Cups of Answering the Phone

2 Cups of Returning Prospect Emails

3 Cups of Welcoming Prospects at the Front Door

2 Cups of Follow Up

1 Smile from Ear to Ear

1 Heart that Wants to Help Someone Find a Home

1 Handshake with a pinch of determination

Blend all these ingredients well.  Cook at 350 degrees of Passion.  Don’t ever let it cool.  Decorate the lease with resident retention rosebuds.  Make your presentation and make that resident drool with anticipation.  Repeat this process daily.  Don’t be wowed by any add water and stir recipes that are out there.  Stick to the fundamentals and you will bake something special every day.  Did I miss any ingredients?  Let me know in the comments below.

Written by Jonathan Saar  If you wish to subscribe to regular posts, please subscribe here.

It is only a couple of weeks away!  It really snuck up on us for sure.  This is definitely going to be a week to remember.  This year we decided to set up a booth for Brainstorming, so we look forward to chatting with a whole bunch of great multifamily folks who are interested in education.  Come and see us at B-26.  The focus on this post is the overall apartment education we will all receive by attending both conferences.

It will be hard to list all the wonderful seminars that are up and coming, but I am going to highlight a few since they impacted me at the last Optimization Summits and Brainstorming, and their impact did not end there!  They are people who I have continued to collaborate with and will be at the conference this next month.   There are also some first timers that I plan on attending since the topics look very interesting and from their history it appears likely that they practice what they preach so that gives those two thumbs up for me.  So here we go!

Brainstorming

Geno Church from Brains on Fire is the keynote speaker on Wednesday.  I have not been able to get out of my head this phenomenal expression: “People are the killer app”.  He discussed that in depth earlier this year and I look forward to hearing it again at Brainstorming.  Brains on Fire recently came out with a book which I look forward to purchasing for myself soon.

Duncan Alney with Firebelly Marketing will be speaking on crisis communication which I have always found to be an interesting topic.  It takes very little for an onsite or corporate incident to spread like wildfire.  Duncan impressed me earlier this year with his thoughtful approach to making sure we as people and our companies are involved in the conversation and topics that are residents and customers are talking about.

Patty Morgan-Seager and Steve Matre will be chatting about time management.  This is an ongoing problem on all levels for all of us workaholics.  Patty and Steve always make me smile so I know that this seminar will do the same.

Kim Cory and Dan Oltersdorf will be speaking on student housing.  They both have proven themselves to be true veterans and pioneers of the student housing market.  Whenever I speak to them about their communities and ideas they have used and implemented, it completely blows my mind.  They made a cool Facebook page called “House Rules” which is dedicated to student housing topics.  This dynamic duo I know will bring some great info to the table.

Jay Ehret will speak about building an awesome brand by design.  Hearing Jay earlier this year, having numerous conversations with him since and hearing from multifamily professionals who have enlisted his services, it is quite apparent to me that he practices what he preaches and that it is effective.  Make sure you pencil this session in, if your brand identity is a topic for your company.

Those are just a smidge of topics that will be presented at Brainstorming.  I have the privilege of being on the idea panel on Friday with a bunch of very cool multifamily folks.  Coming up with those ideas was no easy task, so it will be interesting to see what a bunch of nerds in one room will have put together. Make sure you take the time to plan ahead for what you really need for education and don’t miss out on anything.

Optimization Summits

Brian Solis in many ways has been the pioneer for social media.  He will be speaking about the conversation prism which is one of my favorite visuals and topics.  Beyond the technical aspects of social media, there is much more to consider in social media which is why I look forward to attending his session.

Mack Collier’s session last time had standing room only and I know for sure that will take place again.  His concept of thinking like a rock star allows those brain juices to flow strong.  Since that session I have personally watched Mack engage his audience via his blog, twitter chat and regular online conversations.  What he teaches works! I hope there is a seat available for me.

Chris Penn from Blue Sky Factory will provide data about email marketing that just cannot be ignored.  If you are interested in saving money and delivering campaigns that have a broader and more effective reach, then this is the seminar to be at.

Mike Whaling had in some in depth Facebook sessions earlier this year and they have been brought back for very good reason.  Every single person I spoke to about his sessions could only express how impressed they were with the education.  This session once again I am sure will be all about “doing”.

Lauren Fernandez from Radian6 will be speaking about using social media too bridge the generational gap.  I do not know Lauren real well except for a few tweets here and there, but the subject is intriguing to me so I look forward to the education.

So that is a basic list for me to help with my overall educational objectives.  I could go on and on about the educational sessions that Tami Siewruk and her team have put together.  The point is you just need to be there! Check out Tami’s Brainstorming and Optimization Summits sites and make your educational decisions ahead of time.  Planning is important.  If you have any sessions that you plan on attending please mention them below in the comments section and tell me why.  I look forward to seeing everyone there.

Written by Jonathan Saar

For a quick throw back to earlier this year, check out our Why You Need To Be at Optimization Summits Video below.

Coming up on three quarters of this year, Indatus and The Training Factor have been working hard to bolster our impact on the combination of tracking calls and using the data from that to initiate training.  This post is more of an update to our original partnership announcement that occurred early this year.  As many of you know Indatus has gone through a complete makeover this year to more accurately represent the products and services they offer.  You can learn more about their transformation story here.

Both of our marketing departments felt it necessary to update everyone on the overall specifics of what the services are and how they work together for you.  The other reason for this post is to answer any questions that you may have about this alliance or the services themselves.  Many of our clients on both sides are very happy with the results that this partnership has brought for them.  Below are a few highlights of what is available.

Call Tracker

Call Tracker is a powerful solution for measuring the effectiveness of your marketing efforts by tracking phone data. It accurately identifies how much phone traffic each ad generates.  It also allows you to measure the quality of your employee phone interaction.

Scoring Feature within Call Tracker

As a result of our partnership, we not only use recorded calls as tracking but a teaching mechanism. We not only show you the problem but we help you solve it! While using the scoring feature as an option, a predetermined number of calls per community will be evaluated and scored with our customizable evaluation card and appropriate training will be administered based on a predetermined score baseline. Just watch as your leasing professional’s skills and your closing ratios improve.  Really the scoring turns into teaching!

ROI

You spend a significant amount of marketing dollars attracting potential residents why not get the most of the money by utilizing both Call Tracker and the Call Scoring teacher to increase your closing ratio and your bottom line.

Call Tracker:

- Inserts a unique national toll-free or local telephone number into any ad (or series of ads).

- Instantly routes each call to any business phone of your choosing.

- Every call to that unique number is tracked, stored, and associated with the ad.

- While your business is engaged with the prospect, the software captures caller information and records the phone conversation.

- Once completed, Call Tracker compiles the call information and saves it.  At any time, you can go into your online Management Tools and generate reports.  A few of which are:

– Cost per lead

– Caller profile

– Time-of-day

– Geographic details

– Missed calls

Call Scoring Teacher:

Listens to and evaluated a random sampling of a communities leasing calls

Imports evaluated scored calls into a Learning Management System and notifies employees of their evaluations

Initiates training based on a predetermined baseline score

Notifies supervisors if training is not achieved in given time line

At any time, you can go into your online Reporting tool and generate grouped reports

We can’t tell you enough how happy we are with this program thus far.  Turning data into information that can help out the team’s onsite is priceless.  Information and knowledge only serve to help companies and their member’s progress and do a better job for our residents.  Like I said earlier in this post, we want to hear from you.  If you have questions about these services that are available we are happy to address them.  Feel free to pose your questions and thoughts in the comment section below.  On behalf of The Training Factor, I want to express a big thank you to everyone who reads these posts.  We know budgets are a big concern at the moment and as Eric Brown pointed out to me this morning on Twitter: “Companies are just devising ways to do more with less. That is the new economy.”  One of the main goals of this alliance was to help property management companies do just that…do more with less.

Written by Jonathan Saar

I am not sure what is a more challenging subject to write about budgets or bedbugs.  They both make me itch and mentally break out in hives.  However depending on our job position it is one of those necessary evils to help us prepare for 2011.  I remember the day when I would furiously work on developing excel formulas to help link, calculate and report numerous pages of data in order to provide a sensible summary of the fiscal year activity.  Okay I am scratching again.  Thankfully there are a lot of more robust tools and software out there to keep track of key category expenditures and analyze where profitability took place and why.

In order for those numbers to really work for us though, what did it take?  Right now we are about to look carefully at 2010 data and compare it to 2009 data.  We also will be looking at how he analyzed 2009 data and review team notes, strategies, and decisions that steered how the 2010 budget looked.  The fundamental top question is: Did the 2009 data help make me steer towards a better 2010?  Here is another one: What ideas did you have turned down that you thought would have made a better 2010?  What will you do now to present your ideas again?  Those who are in the budget seats only use the data for mainly one purpose and that is to make next year better.  Are numbers the only driving force?  Hardly!

Make those Numbers Breathe

Numbers absolutely help you key in on problem areas.  You need to know where expenditure percentages fell below or above projections and why.  Reflect for a moment on the connecting points that make a budget live and breathe.

• What is our corporate vision?
• What are our company goals and are we achieving our small, intermediate and long term plans?
• What kind of support did we have from our team for the 2010 budget and can that be improved for 2011?
• What trends are we closely analyzing and are we positioned for 2011 to compensate for changing resident behavioral patterns?

When you analyze the above questions, how much does numerical data apply to the answers you need?  Really a company’s overall approach is an emotional one.  We work to breathe life into our company and into our people.  When departments work in harmony with one another towards a common corporate goal and embrace the need to create a coherent company culture, the ultimate side effect turns out to be profitability.

Here are some trend words to think about for 2011 when it comes to budget season.

Same Old Words-Different Trend

• Efficiency- Has my technological approach to operating a company saved me time and money or wasted it?  Have you been sold something you don’t need?  Unfortunately there are some vendors out there who promise the world and give you very little.  Make sure you have a good testing period from key people in order to ascertain its long term benefits.  Technology will only be efficient if your team knows how to use it properly and it does not become an item of frustration when it slows your overall team efficiency down.  Multifamily technology should be efficient and save your people time and money.
• Sustainability- Green products and opportunities are much more affordable and can be laden with government incentives.  Will green products help with resident retention?  Green products afford property management companies with the opportunity to send a message to their community, one that in 2011 we can only expect it to grow stronger and stronger.  Have you investigated?
• Education- With the explosion of social media and the transparency that is now expected of corporations how are you educating your team to be compliant with Fair Housing and Sexual Harassment Prevention?  Does your educational program comply with what OSHA requires?  Do your people have the necessary skill sets to convert leads to leases, maximize resident retention and avoid costly conflicts that affect employee turnover?  The cost of the consequences for lack of education is exponentially higher than the education costs itself.  What apartment training options have you investigated?
• Decision Making- 2010 saw a massive surge in data regarding how people more and more are making decisions based on what their peers do versus responding to conventional advertising methods.  This trend is only expected to grow for 2011.  How will you respond?  It has been a pretty decent debate for 2010 once again regarding marketing methods such as print, email, and new media.  When interviewing some key people from property management companies, it made me happy to hear that A/B testing was part of their 2010 strategy and that it would continue in 2011.  That is really the only way you will be able to know for sure what will work and what will not.  The challenge is to take that unconventional first step and be the first in your company to try and pioneer a new approach based on how you see resident behavior trending.  There really is no choice but to pay attention to his.  Conventional advertising costs are only going to grow and become harder to discern their impact unless some careful planning is implemented to justify whatever marketing decisions your company makes.

Don’t Forget the Little Things

If you could reduce your electric bill by 3% this coming year how much savings would that mean to you.  I can’t tell you the amount of times our customer service desk has encountered individuals who have never turned their computer off since the day they started working.  Computers are huge energy suckers.  That is just one electrical item of many that help trim the numbers a bit.  How about water?  Water is very costly for many simple because it is wasted.  When analyzing curb appeal of properties it has been noted that the pavement seems to be very well watered along with the bushes and flowers at the entrance.  That equals to money just going down the drain…literally!  The other little things that are out there I encourage you to comment on below.  I know there are plenty!

This is an important part of the year coming up for property management companies.  Hopefully you won’t get too many hives but can look forward to 2011 with much anticipation.  Numbers do play an intricate role in the decisions we will make for 2011, but it’s the passion that exists in each one of us that will make those numbers a reality.  I look forward to your overall thoughts on this topic and how you plan on approaching it this year.  What makes your budget season run smoothly and efficiently?  What trends are you analyzing approaching 2011?

Written by Jonathan Saar

Have you investigated the benefits of a full circle approach to multifamily apartment education?

Mack Collier wrote a post the other day that coincided with research I have been doing for the past few weeks for a presentation that Tamela Coval from RentWiki and I will be handling for the Atlanta Apartment Association.  He wrote a great piece called “Here’s why you shouldn’t treat social media as being ‘free’” Please take a moment to read it!  Mack knows his stuff.

He was speaking about how you can make a blog for free and its connection to your overall website and SEO.  Tamela and I are about to present some information regarding Facebook pages and what it takes to make them successful.  I have reviewed about 100 or more property management and community Facebook pages and my findings were conclusive and probably of no surprise.  Over 90 % of the pages I reviewed were standalone pages.  There was no connection from the website to the page or vice versa.  We know it is very easy to make a Facebook page and maybe as Mack stated in his post that it was an easy buy in from the boss, because it’s ‘free’.  What about your overall goals in creating the page in the first place?

The reality is that if you do not make the connecting points and spend the time and money to make sure you have a full circle approach to your Facebook page, website, blog, twitter account etc., then you are wasting valuable time and resources.  If time seems to be an issue to in monitoring these channels then part of your planning phase should be to come up with a comprehensive strategy to keep these factors in mind.

• SEO
• Return on Engagement
• Resident Retention
• Community Outreach
• Return on Investment
• Corporate Culture
• How to be Social

The last point may seem kind of odd but from the status updates I am noticing that really does need to be discussed.  What are we going to talk about to our residents?  What are they interested in?  What will they respond to and appreciate?  I am sure you have some thoughts on this subject that will lend to this discussion.  What have you found that is working for your company, property management or otherwise?

Written by Jonathan Saar

Have you become a fan of The Training Factor on Facebook?  Thoughtful discussion and regular relevant content is posted daily.

A very inspiring moment happened today while I was shopping.  I am in line checking out and posting something on Twitter with my iPhone.  (Please don’t think I am obsessed)  The lady behind me asked me how I liked my iPhone.  I told her how much I love it and was grateful that my wife bought it for me for our anniversary.  She then said to me, “That’s good to hear, I work for AT&T”.  We then had a real cool conversation about different phones coming out and app’s etc.  I left the store thinking to myself that she did not need to do that, but it left an impression on that she made that effort.

That experience led to today’s blog post title.  I doubt very much that what this lady did was required in the AT&T’s policy and procedure manual.  I feel she did it because that was what she wanted to do and enjoys her work and wanted to make sure that the people who help her paycheck are happy to.  Do you think that is a fair analogy?  Resident retention for property management companies and customer service on the industry partner side is not a 9-5 job.  If you love what you do and the people whom you serve mean something to you then it’s an all the time job.  You will seek opportunities to make a difference as opposed to going through the motions of what your policy manual dictates.  The human element makes the difference.  The AT&T lady made in difference in my day,  what do you do to make a difference for your residents or customers?

Written by Jonathan Saar

Check our YouTube Customer Service Video- An overview of our Customer Service and Resident Retention course

1. Ladders-Do not try and use the top step or rung on a ladder.  Make sure the ladder is either securely tied off and/or has a firm footing on the ground.
2. Tools-Aged tools can be quite a hazard.  Inspect your tools regularly to make sure they are the safest tool for performing a task.  Whether they are power or hand tools, using defective or aged equipment can cause serious injury.
3. Electrical-When repairing electrical items in an apartment, the safest way to do this is to simply have the circuit breaker turned off for the item you are working on.  Other hazards involve the use of electrical cords that have more patches on it than 20 year old jeans
4. Pool-There are dangers and hazards everywhere from electrical to chemical and bio.  Not following specific procedures and guidelines can make you really sick and/or severely injured from caustic substances and poorly maintained or monitored electrical equipment.
5. Pilot Lights-There are times when you are required to do cabinet repair in kitchens.  The materials used to do touch ups and finishes are extremely flammable.  If the stove is run on natural gas, make sure it is turned off prior to your repair work.  Don’t learn the hard way like this apartment maintenance tech did.
6. Back Injuries- It takes one wrong step and one inappropriate method of lifting an object and you can be in some serious pain.  It takes very little weight to cause an injury.  The misconception that it’s only heavy objects that can get us in trouble has led to many long term chronic back injuries.
7. Blood borne Pathogens-Do not ever kid yourself about this hazard.  Whenever you are working on plumbing, working anywhere in a bathroom or kitchen, removing trash involving a turn, personal protective equipment is an absolute must!  Bio hazards can be anywhere.  Make sure you have appropriate gloves, eye protection and even masks in the case of dealing with mold.  It is also imperative that you have a first aid kit with you at all times in case of a flesh wound or other injury that exposes you to any bio hazard.
8. Eye Care- There is very few maintenance situations that would not require eye protection.  Just being exposed to the sun all day can have damaging effects on your eyes.  It is important that your eye wash station is always well maintained and ready for these emergency situations.
9. Combustible Liquids- Keep a well maintained and clean shop area.  Wherever you store your liquid materials, regular inspections of those containers is necessary.  Keep your eye out for corroded containers and leaks.  The wrong combination of liquids can lead to corrosive gases and/or explosions.
10. Fire Protection- Plan for the best but prepare for the worst.  Your maintenance vehicle and work kit should have included a fire extinguisher.  The shop area should have them in place as well.  Make sure you have the correct extinguisher for the correct application.  It is also imperative that you follow the strict guidelines and maintenance schedules for these items.

Those are my top ten but I am sure there are many more.  OSHA has numerous requirements that apply to property management companies.  Please feel free to add your thoughts in the comments below.

Don’t Apartment Maintenance Technicians Just Rock?—Check out our Facebook page in their honor.

Stop and reflect on how many good ideas you had yesterday.  How many did you have last week?  How many did you have last month?  Now ask yourself what ever came of most of those?  Those thought processes are one of the many amazing things about our brain.  We are wired to be creative and are geared to look for the next best concept.  What does it take to see those “good ideas” through to realization?  It takes connection points.

First of all most of our good ideas get thrown out the door by ourselves realizing that once the right side of our brain connects with the left side, the logic of the idea squashes the original concept.  However many ideas do seem to have some possibilities and so we present them to our team.  The next challenge is translating our good idea to the team who is listening with mixed left brain right brain feelings.

Here is the difference in our modern digital age; our team no longer needs to be just the group we see each day when we walk into the leasing or property management office.  Take today’s blog post as an example.  I am sitting here sipping my coffee trying to come up with a “good idea” for a post today.  Nothing was really coming to me and nothing appealed to me on my editorial list so I Googled “good idea”.  As the beginning of this post suggests, my mind was trying to wrap around business good ideas and what becomes of them.  I scrolled down to the bottom of page one and noticed those in my social circle who have used that term in items they have posted and I came across this article from Jay Ehret a speaker from Optimization Summits last year and who will be speaking at Brainstorming and Optimization Summits this year.

His article was entitled “Opportunity Cost and the Danger of the Good Idea”.  It’s a good read so I encourage you to check it out.  Jay’s main point was discussing the growing social media trends that are out there and are they really “good ideas”.  I love this quote from his article: “Good ideas are constantly tempting us. We should ignore most of them and only pay attention to the best idea: the best idea for what we’re trying to accomplish for our business.”

So really I want to emphasize two points in today’s article.  Good ideas will come and go.  Assertiveness is what is absolutely necessary if we want to see our ideas come to fruition.  What does it take?  Ideas need research, they need stats, they need facts and the reason why is because our brain is not the only one involved in the business decision.  All too often we can jump on the bandwagon of new media, out of this world marketing ideas, new gadgets and tools without really taking the time to see if any of these ideas are truly right for our business.

Point number two is that your team is beyond those office doors and conference room.  Ultimately yes the decision will be made there, however you have a whole world out there to assist you.  Google’s social search is a great tool to see what others are saying about a given topic.  This can help you come up with a much more rounded out approach to your concept.  Here is an exercise for you.  Type in some random key word phrases and see what pops up in your social search.  Feel free to comment below on the results.  I am also interested in hearing from you on your process to take a good idea and turn it into something great.

Written by Jonathan Saar

Did you know we have a Linkedin Group?  We would love for you to join and share your training thoughts.

Probably one of the most common human expressions we use is “I didn’t think it could happen to me”. Unforeseen occurrences can happen at any time.  At work even the most minor of situations can turn into a serious injury.  That is why it is OSHA required to have regular monthly apartment training safety talks on various topics in order to keep the reminders fresh on our team’s mind, with the hope that this training will help them think before they do.

Accurate record keeping is also an OSHA must for property management companies.  Leasing apartments may not be as dangerous as building a high rise, but perhaps this faux appearance is what can get us in the most trouble.  If an incident does arise, what documentation should your records have?  OSHA requires the following:

Each employer is required by OSHA to keep records of fatalities, injuries, illnesses, and must record each fatality, injury and illness that:
(1) Is work-related; and
(2) Is a new case; and
(3) Meets one or more of the general recording criteria of Section 1904.7 or the application to specific cases of Section 1904.8 through Section 1904.11 which can be found at www.osha.gov

What are some of the more common office situations where an injury can occur?  Below are some bulleted items.

Falling down is probably the most common accident.  Whether it’s tripping over wires, using a chair instead of a ladder, traversing in a dark office or apartment and many other situations can arise.

Office furniture and equipment can also pose hazards.  Getting fingers pinched or stuck.  Staplers falling off the top of file cabinets onto our head or feet happen all the time.  Have you ever burned yourself on the coffee pot?

Lifting items the wrong way can quickly put you in traction for a few weeks.

Incorrect posture can cause back, wrist, and neck problems.

Can you add to this list? What are some common hazards that you have come across in your office?  In a future post we will discuss safety from a maintenance teams point of view.

The Training Factor has already released the first set of monthly safety talks as a required course for your curriculum. Contact us today and make your property management company OSHA compliant!

Can there be any doubt of what a smile can do for another person.  When a prospective resident walks through that door, you have less than a couple of seconds to make that first impression.  It all starts with a smile.  Does a smile only come from your lips?  Absolutely not!  A smile comes from your whole body.  A genuine smile can be seen and understood from our whole demeanor.  Can you think of ways of how our whole body smiles?  Can a genuine smile really make a difference in gaining a new resident who will lease and call your community home?

How about our eyes?  Certainly they play a huge part.  Make sure your eyes on focused on theirs and not anywhere else.  Of course don’t be creepy about it; you don’t want to make the prospective resident feel uncomfortable.  Be relaxed about your eye contact; do not come across as forced.  Make sure you are not distracted by other things going on around you and remember that you are a professional.  Avoid eyeing the prospect from head to toe and back.  That would be really creepy.  If something does demand your attention while first greeting the prospect, make sure you say: “Excuse me”, turn to the person who is distracting you, address the matter quickly, then turn back and continue the conversation.

The handshake is also an important part of the smile.  That really helps translate the warmth, enthusiasm and overall happiness you are feeling towards the prospective resident.  In other words, don’t give the prospect a boiled spaghetti handshake, they need a determined and firm handshake that shows that their visit means the world to you and you can’t wait to fill their apartment needs.

Make sure our smile is natural.  Sometimes we can over smile.  This can come across as showing too much teeth or the cheese smile.  If we over smile it will be shown in our facial wrinkles.  You could be stretching your face so much that appears that we are completely overdoing what should be a natural act.

One of the best ways to get feedback about your smile and its affect is to ask someone.  There is only so much we can learn by looking in the mirror.  Ask someone close to you to give you an honest assessment of your smile in natural settings and its power over others.  Our ultimate goals are always to command the room…and it starts with a smile.  Does a smile really make a difference in securing leases?  Switch roles for a moment and pretend you are the prospect or consumer.  What impact did a smile have on you?

Written by Jonathan Saar

In case you missed it, check out our 15 steps to telephone leasing success.

There really has been little proof that leasing via twitter is or could ever be a reality.  A few of us have been testing the waters and “listening” to those on twitter who use the keyword apartment or apartment hunting.

By sheer coincidence I spotted a tweet from someone I was following already.  Cristin was kind enough to let me blog about this experience which began with the tweet captured above.  I asked her a few questions about what the difficulties were and where she was looking.  Up to this point I had really not tweeted very much with Cristin expect on a couple of chats.

I then began to use my network and send out some messages to property management companies on twitter who have communities along the east coast.  Cristin was looking for something in the Philadelphia area.  Mike Whaling suggests I ask Ellen Thompson since she had communities in that region.  I introduced Cristin to Ellen on twitter and Ellen very kindly provided assistance and found a community with availability in the location Cristin was looking.

Cristin tweeted a couple of times about her experience and how she was on her way to look at her apartment.  I checked in on her just to see what the outcome and here is her tweet in reply.

Please understand the context of this blog.  I am in no way saying that this is the next greatest way to get leases.  I felt compelled to report to my multifamily friends this experience and to demonstrate the power of listening and networking with the end result being a happy prospective resident that started out stressed and ended up happy.  As the dynamic of how prospective residents are changing it behooves us to closely monitor trends and to be in position for opportunities such as these.  There is so much change on the horizon.  How long will it take us to be ready for it?  I look forward to your thoughts on this topic.  What do you see on the horizon?

Written by Jonathan Saar

Want to keep in touch with blogs and tips related to leasing.  Please check out our Facebook page.

This is similar to defining what comes first, the chicken or the egg.  Training and education should not have an end point.  In the most successful organizations, it is continual and ongoing. In fact, the greatest impact comes from utilizing performance reviews as a springboard to initiate additional and appropriate training and mentoring.  This process we term as “Aspire to Excellence” creates the most benefits for employees and companies alike.

In our industry it is common practice to complete performance evaluations of employees, whether it be in the form of mystery shopping, quarterly reviews or budgetary measurements. In the past, these evaluations have only delivered reports citing issues or achievements. But knowing the problem without having a solution is like building a 1/2 million dollar house and failing to add the roof. It is of no benefit. That is why having a triggered benchmark and training program is so beneficial. It not only recognizes if there is a problem but provides training to facilitate a solution. In your company, what do you do when your performance bench-marked expectations are not fulfilled?

Do your employees receive a reprimand or do you have a system that automatically initiates appropriate training and or mentoring?  Your system should initiate training and mentoring in order to provide the most successful results. It is fully accepted in most industries, including the multifamily industry, that in order for job expectations and excellence  to be realized in the first place, training is the beginning point. But what about training as the solution?

So no matter where learners and team members are in their career path, the only way to help them achieve the success that they want and the fulfilled expectations you need is to implement a system that commands both training and performance in a full circle proactive approach.

Anything else becomes a wall to a learner with no clear direction on what is to happen next.

Written by Mechelle Flowers -President of The Training Factor

Have you reviewed the benefit factors of an automated system?

Our ability to be a true example of successful conflict resolution begins outside the office and especially in down time situations with other team members.  If offsite situations rattle your cage then your sincerity to handle onsite situations will not shine through.  You can’t fake conflict resolution.

Put yourself in the following scenarios and ask yourself how you reacted the last time they happened.

The airline misplaced your baggage

The restaurant took long to bring your order or brought you the wrong items

The bank incorrectly applied service charges to your account

The cashier did not ring up prices correctly on your purchases and does not know what to do next

I am sure you can think of other very aggravating situations.  Feel free to tell me below.  Now I want you to view these situations from both angles.  First of all how did you initially react to these inconveniences?  Did you blow your top right away and become very demanding?  Or did you patiently try to work through the situation?  Now look at from the other side.  How did your emotions change based on the reaction of the person who made the mistake?  Think of the times when you knew the person really could not care less about what happened to you but is merely voicing script in order to handle the situation.  Now contrast that with the times when you genuinely felt the sincerity of the individual who is trying to rectify the situation.  Can you see how it is not possible to fake conflict resolution?

Our teams need to see us as a strong example of living conflict resolution as opposed to just reading a script.  Team leaders who portray this successfully win the hearts of their teammates and of those around them.  In the apartment world and in life in general there are conflicts daily.  The more challenging situations are probably right in the office.  Not faking conflict resolution is no easy task.  It is hard to control the thoughts of wanting to pop someone in the jaw.  The question is how often as companies, do we address this topic?  What are you doing in your coaching, mentoring and training in order to address this topic on a consistent basis?

When you think back to all the situations when we knew that someone was “faking it”, it really gives us grounds and room for improvement within ourselves.  Don’t fake it….live it.

I am interested in hearing your approach to this topic with your teams.  What have you found successful?

Written by Jonathan Saar.

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The following letter was from a resident to one of our clients.  This letter was a must share and there is an interesting lesson to learn from it.  I removed the names for privacy purposes and I really appreciate our client forwarding this to us.  This is a huge testimony to what an overall company culture can do for an organization and how effective training in skills such as customer service really pays off.

“Dear Management Company:

I am writing this letter to Thank Awesome Leasing Professional, one of your leasing agents for her professionalism and hospitality.

On May 28, 2010, I arrived an hour before closing at Community Awesome in a frantic panic. I had just left a neighboring apartment complex where I was to move into one of the units on that very day; but to my dismay, the apartment that was discussed was not presented. In fact, the unit was located in an area that I clearly stated was not going to be comfortable or even safe enough for me to reside in. At that point management proceeded to show me another unit that was 4 flights up and to add insult to injury, at a higher rate.

Well, you can imagine, I had a lot of emotions come over me all at one time. I was hurt, angry, disappointed, and scared about where I was going to live. I had a time frame to be out of my current home and had reserved a moving truck, turned on my electricity, moved my phone and internet service along with getting all of the monies together to move into this apartment the following day.  When I asked management about what we had discussed, they simply said “Well, this is all we have available, think it over and get back to me later this evening, take care”. I was floored! Here I am, scheduled to move in the next day and there was absolutely no concern about my well being or about what was discussed in regards to the living space. I got in my car and drove directly into the parking lot of Community Awesome.

Thank God for Awesome Leasing Professional! I had met her previously before when I initially was looking for a place to live. As I quickly walked into the office, her face was the first thing I saw. I immediately started rambling about my situation and how I needed to move in ASAP! In fact, if it was possible the next day. She was so kind and accommodating as she pulled up my information and calmly took charge of my chaos.  She explained to me exactly what I needed to do so that she could get the ball rolling for me. At this time, it is just a little after 5pm as she handed me the application to complete and gave me instructions on the next course of action.  I still needed to go to the bank and get my monies redistributed to bring back the money orders to finalize my application.

Awesome Leasing Professional, waited patiently for me to complete my transactions as I returned just a couple of minutes before closing time. She assured me that everything was going to be okay, in fact she stated that she was going to come in the next day, which just so happened to be her day off, to ensure that my paperwork was done for me to move in by June 1, 2010.

To say Thank you just isn’t enough. I was moved to tears, and grateful that she took it upon herself to not just get another tenant, but she showed heart felt compassion and empathy for my situation. As a consumer, it is refreshing to have people really listening to you and taking the time to resolve your issues.

I want you to know that Awesome Leasing Professional is a true Gem. She represents your organization to the highest levels of integrity. I personally wanted to thank her for being here for me in my moment of despair. She brought the sunshine into a cloudy day.

I am now a resident and this has been a wonderful beginning. I am happy and excited about living here.  Your whole staff has been amazing! Please continue to support them, because it is “rare” to get great service and it has been impeccable! Thank you again.”~~Contributed

Did you notice that this resident initially had made a decision to move into another community?  Can you imagine the situation if the Awesome Leasing Professional did not create a memorable experience when the potential resident first met her?  There are some amazing lessons to be learned by this situation.  You never know how you are going to close a lease.  Even if it seems that you may not get the sale, can you not see how important it is to maintain a full force customer service demeanor right down to the end.  Awesome Leasing Professional did and the results speak for themselves.

What are your thoughts on this letter?  How do you maintain that full force customer service demeanor through the entire process of dealing with potential residents?

Written by Jonathan Saar

Did you know that our Learning Management System is not only a fantastic value add for property management companies but also for apartment associations?

I had an interesting conversation with Tarla McCann from On-Site the other day, about social media and the impact conversation and reaching out to people can have on your overall brand.  One of the points that her and I were chatting about was measuring the results.  We use often the expression ROI since of course we are looking for those bottom line numbers to always improve in whatever venture we pursue.  That is the ultimate goal.  However there is another part to the equation that helps you get to those magical numbers and that is your ROE—Return on Engagement.

This expression is not something new.  Sarah Evans wrote a nice article last year about how to Measure your ROE.  What we all fight against is our own inhibitions and our fear of what others will think about us.  Posting a blog, making a comment on one, tweeting your opinion, participating in an online discussion groups such as MultifamilyInsiders, #Blogchat and #Aptchat are all ways we expose ourselves and that can be challenging to do.  We are used to having shower curtains, doors to lock and clothes to wear because physically we are afraid to expose ourselves but that also translates to our own emotions and fear of being looked down upon.  Hence we can become lurkers instead of participants.  If you are a lurker that is ok!!! Your being there is so greatly appreciated.  Your support is encouraging to all that are currently comfortable enough to jump into the online space.  It takes baby steps in everything in life in order to feel comfortable with it, but please know that you have an amazing network of professionals who are always there to help.  So take it one step at a time and you will see the value of participating.

Return on Engagement can come in other forms as well.  Think of the other platforms you are using where you want to hear what people are saying.  Some apartment communities felt forced into using apartment review sites and platforms like Yelp simply because there was a fear factor that was initiated as a result of people talking about you and you had little control.  This is where property management companies should be most concerned about their ROE.  It’s your opportunity to capture valuable real estate and that is—people.  Ignoring what people say about you whether it’s good or bad is a waste.  As Geno Church described it, people are the killer app.  The more you make conversation with your residents whether it’s through review sites, Facebook pages, or in your leasing office, the more potential you have to gain valuable ROE and valuable word of mouth marketing.

The challenge from a company standpoint is to let go of those inhibitions.  Take the shower curtain off of your company.  Let your residents see you for what you are! Let them see how much you care about them and how much they mean to you.

How are you leveraging your residents as the killer app?

Written by Jonathan Saar

Are you going to NAA?  Click through to sign up for our complimentary Train the Trainer course.

Being proactive is without a doubt the single best policy for any company.  That being said, when is the last time that we analyzed the strength behind our human resource department?  Too often companies will place this department on the lower end of the corporate totem pole with the misconception that the only reason it is even necessary is because, “My attorney said so”.

I want to share with you some research from SexualHarassment.com.  Notice this paragraph from section O-iii

Most large companies have human resource departments and most companies’ sexual harassment policies call for human resources to handle the reporting and investigation of sexual harassment complaints. Thus, in most sexual harassment cases, the human resource department is on trial. If the company has an adequate sexual harassment policy and employees know how to report sexual harassment to human resources, and in fact report sexual harassment to human resources and the department performs an adequate investigation, then plaintiff will probably lose any sexual harassment case other than a strict liability case against a supervisor.

However, thorough discovery will usually reveal that the human resource department of the company is not as good as it looks.

The reason why human resource departments are inadequate is simple. They do not make money for the company. Many companies have human resource departments only because an attorney advising the company regarding sexual harassment has told them to, and often very little of the human resource personnel time is spent on sexual harassment prevention, training and investigation.

Does this not speak for itself?  Even though this section of the law is pertaining to sexual harassment, Fair Housing is an even bigger concern since the government is fully endorsing testing groups to go out and mystery shop your properties to see whether or not your team is following the Fair Housing act.  Here are some questions you need to ask about your human resources department.

Does my team have regular compliance training?

Do I have a way to prove that the training took place?

Is my human resource department properly staffed and empowered to do their job?

Is there a follow up program if a team member falls below the benchmark set for education?

Do you know specifically which part of the education the learner failed in?

Does your team just “know” the laws or are they educated with real life scenarios?

Perhaps you have some other questions that the human resources department should ask.  This really is no laughing matter and this department should never be scoffed at.  Technology has enables many companies to streamline the process and provide a SAFE and economically sound solution to compliance education.  Do I really need to start citing lawsuits and the financial judgments that have been passed as a result of a “weak human resources department”?  We read about them all of the time.  Specifically when it comes to Fair Housing violations, I post them regularly on our Facebook page.  This has created an even greater awareness of really the scope of what is going on.  I encourage you to join the page.

From a corporate culture perspective it really hinges on how much as a company we really value education and training within our organization.  Do you list it as an expense like you do office supplies?  Or is it presented as a valuable tool and investment for your company?  I look forward to your thoughts on how much you value education and what checks the human resource department needs to be constantly doing.

Written by Jonathan Saar

Do you have a way to track, analyze, and report your compliance training?

I have wanted to share The Training Factor social media program for some time now especially on the topic of time and ROI.  There continues to be the never ending question of exactly how long it takes and what should you be seeing.  Every company is different of course so this is not a “You should do this” post.  It’s simply going to show you that it works and to give you something to compare the time factor involved.

I hope you had a chance to read Social Media Examiner’s post on how Time Pays with Social Media Marketing. It provides some great statistics on a broader scale.

My program was literally one day at a time.  Early in 2009 I started working with different social media platforms and did my research, reading and observing of others to learn what to do and obviously what not to do.  Just some basic experimenting and familiarizing myself with platforms such as LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Digg, Delicious, Plaxo, and others took about 5 months.

The buy in was challenging.  2009 was certainly not a time when people were reaching out for anything.  Most companies were huddled in the trenches and riding out the economic war that was taking place.  The subject of “How long does this take?” came up often during our team meetings.  I am grateful to a wonderful company who believed in my plan and philosophy and was willing to be patient despite the challenging year 2009 was.

It took some time for me to develop a consistent approach to what I was doing each business day since every day was a learning experience.   There was a lot of experimenting in order to test reactions and see what the overall affect was.  So here is a basic rundown of what I monitor each day.

1. Check our LinkedIn Group and monitor activity
2. Find relevant content for our Facebook pages.
3. Interact with comments and questions on our Facebook pages.
4. Find relevant content for Twitter account
5. Interact and have conversations with various professionals on Twitter
6. Read various blog posts and make comments
7. Create informative and relevant blog posts for our viewers.
8. Analyze analytics on all platforms.
9. Educate myself on latest news and updates that change constantly on the topic of social media.
10. Screening data from “listening” platforms such as Google alerts and others.

Now how much “time” do you think this takes on a weekly and daily basis?  Obviously I have numerous other responsibilities during the day.  I have customers I reach out to regularly.  I have numerous companies who I contact regularly that have demonstrated interest in us.  I collaborate with team members on a regular basis on the numerous projects we have going on and the list continues.

The bottom line is it takes a solid consistent approach in order to make it work.  The results speak for themselves.  Obviously I started with big Zeros on all angles.  I was starting from scratch.  From a search engine optimization perspective the results were phenomenal.  The moment we transferred our blog to our actual website, our traffic doubled.  The more blog posts I put out, the more traffic comes in.  As a result of a well rounded approach, traffic sources come from all over the place.  In my opinion, every inbound source is gold.  We are even seeing our Facebook pages show up in Google alerts based on certain keywords.  Whether it’s organic, or from social media platform referrals, each instance helps our Google rankings.  Did this happen overnight? NO! Was it a struggle to keep consistency when initial results were slow?  YES!

The big question is has it worked towards the bottom line?  As a company we have no trouble in saying…Yes.  Did it require patience?  Yes!  Can you just jump in blindly and hope it works?  To me that is like jumping off a bridge into a river when you do not know what lies beneath the surface.  A definite moldable goal and plan is an absolute must.  A consistent patient approach will pay off.

I am interested in hearing your stories.  What were your feelings when you first started using social media for your business and how have you found it working for you?  Thanks for stopping by.  If you value these posts feel free to subscribe via email or RSS feed on the top right corner.

Written by Jonathan Saar

Are you going to NAA this year?  Make sure you stop by booth #1740 and say hi!

Do- Look for room for commendation for every team member.

Don’t- Single out failures on any one team member’s part.

Do- Allow room for everyone to express their thoughts on the agenda items.

Don’t- Insert random items that are not on your agenda.  Your team will not be prepared for the item and this will inhibit the productivity of the meeting.

Do- Create specific guidelines for how the team will implement agenda items

Don’t- Use “Air Statistics”.  In other words do not make statements as if they were facts. (Pulling them from thin air) This is especially important when referring to your competition.  Don’t make up items.  This will only intimidate and discourage your team. Making up facts also discredits you as a team leader.

Do- Create healthy and realistic goals for your team.  Help them have something to look forward to as a result of the agenda items outlined.  Having goals increases productivity.

Don’t- Go Overtime on your agenda.  Stick to the allotted time for each section.

Do- Use visual aids to assist with agenda items.  Using print material, whiteboards, projectors, and other items will greatly assist with overall retention of key agenda items.

Don’t- Develop an “I” problem.  Always be selective in your word choice so that the meetings overall aura is positive and is fostering a team spirit.

I am sure you can add to this list of Do’s and Don’ts.  Whether you are in the property management industry or any other, what are your tips for a successful team meeting?

Thanks for reading today’s post.  Feel free to share it with your friends.  So you don’t miss out on any post, there is also a “subscribe to” function on the top right of the page.

Written by Jonathan Saar

Did you know that The Training Factor is now doing mystery shops?

Another epiphany hit me this morning when I woke up besides the fact that I really wanted more coffee.  I got to thinking about all the projects I have on my plate and also the list that each of my team members have in anticipation of future events.  The word “deadline” was the associative word of the moment.  Then it kind of struck me how really that is such an awful word.  I tweeted it out, put it on my Facebook page and I had people agree with me.

The next step was to find out where this word came from.  So here is what I found.  According to the Online Etymology Dictionary the words history comes from the civil war era where prisoners were warned that if they crossed a literal line they would be shot.  Chew on that for a moment then continue to the next paragraph.

So now that we know this it behooves us to ask ourselves the question: “Why do I use this word as a daily business term in order to set a time limit on a project?”

The word screams negativity!  It has the word “DEAD” in it.  I thought to myself all the times I put myself on a deadline or was given a deadline or realized my deadline was in just a few hours and every time I recited the word in my head or remembered those moments the only feeling that I experienced was….fear.

The property management industry is project oriented.  Multifamily professionals across the board are working hard each day to improve their business profile.  Is there not a better word we can use for our teams to signal a completion time frame?

We are required to inspire our team not scare them.  So I now I put this out to you.  Am I in left field with the crows and cornstalks on this post?  What kind of lingo do you use to help your team see their projects through to completion?  I look forward to your comments.

Thank you for taking the time to read today’s post.  If you feel this and my other posts have value, feel free to share them with your friends.  To not miss out on a post, there is a subscribe to feature available on the top right corner of this page.  Thanks so much!

Did you know that we now have student pay per course options available now?

See you at the National Apartment Association Educational Conference at booth #1740  Don’t forget to register!

Written by Jonathan Saar