My first apartment industry job was at a gorgeous luxury community in Newport Beach. We had a three-story amenity building with a huge clubhouse, demonstration kitchen and TV room, theater room, billiards room, and fitness center. Did I mention the three pools and the private beach? It felt like the kind of place where instead of a coffee bar there should have been a champagne bar.
We had it ALL!
Prospects were consistently “wowed” by our community. I loved walking them down our grand staircase, where we could all take in great views of the Pacific Ocean and hearing their reactions. It was a beautiful place to live.
The funny thing is, as nice as the community was, I still had to work really hard to lease them. I’ll admit-when people told me “no” I couldn’t believe it! Shouldn’t the apartments have sold themselves??
The answer is NO.
If you work at a community that is loaded with everything a resident could want don’t fall in the trap (that many people do) of thinking that the product alone will be enough to make your prospect want to lease with you. It’s kind of like this-have you ever met someone who was very attractive (and who knew s/he was attractive) who didn’t think they needed to be nice to anyone, because s/he was good looking? Yeah, a lot of people who work at luxury communities can act the same way.
Don’t be that person.
The Standards Are Higher
Here’s why this is so important: When you work at a luxury community people expect MORE from you. So, not only do you need to be “base level customer service nice” you need to be a step above. Think about it-don’t you expect the customer service experience at Nordstrom to be different than that of TJ Maxx?
If you get ignored at TJ Maxx it may not phase you, because that is what you might expect at an off-price retailer. If you walk into Nordstrom and get ignored, you’d probably be surprised and then upset because it’s NORDSTROM. Amazing service is their thing. So when they don’t do their thing you really notice it.
What am I saying? Your luxury community is your thing. So your level of service needs to match and then exceed the story that your community is telling your prospective residents.
Where do you start?
Start with the basics first. I recently stayed in a hotel and the staff left me a snack box in my room, which was a nice surprise. The problem is they didn’t leave the things in my room that I actually requested and needed. So while the extra stuff was nice, to be honest I would have rather they left me the things I needed instead.
The same is true for your residents … make sure you’re doing the things you’re supposed to do everyday which may include:
- Stand up and greeting everyone-right away
- Offering refreshments
- Being friendly and likeable
- Not making people feel like they’re bothering you
Now that you have the basics covered this is when you can start to go above and beyond with your service to your customer. What does that look like? Well, it depends on your customer! You need to be able the read your customer to know what they need, want and desire from you and from the leasing experience.
The important thing is this … make sure that they are just as “wowed” by YOU as they are with the community.
