You know that feeling you get when you come back to a restaurant whose food you really liked, only to find the food wasn’t as good the next time?
I remember once when my wife and I decided to pick up some Mexican food at a place around the corner from our home, which was one of our “go to” restaurants. We really liked this place when it first opened because the food tasted pretty good and the price was unbeatable.
When I arrived home I took the food out of the bag and immediately felt that my burrito seemed lighter than normal. Then they gave us only a couple of things of sauce and they gave us the wrong one! They had always included utensils-but forgot this time. And finally as I ate my burrito, I can tell you that while it tasted good, it didn’t seem to taste as good as before.
When my wife and I first tried the restaurant we were really impressed with it. Yet even as we were enjoying our first meal, we wondered if the restaurant would start to “chintz” on the food after they attracted customers. For example, remember when the fried chicken really was “finger-licking good?” Remember when a quarter pounder burger was a quarter pound? Have you ever seen the “sandwich artist” at the sub shop weighing the meat on a scale before putting it on your sandwich? What is that about?
We go back to our favorite restaurants time and time again because we like the food and we expect it to be the same every time. When the quality of the food changes we may choose to stop going and find a new favorite restaurant. In other words for a business to keep earning our business, it must continue to do the things it did in the first place to attract us to the business. And if it stops doing what we loved about it in the first place, we’ll often find somewhere else to do.
Your residents feel the same way you know? When your residents choose your community they do so based on the information that was presented to them during the leasing process. That information then becomes the bare minimum standard that they will expect from you.
What am I saying?
If you want to keep your residents your residents, start by doing the things that made them “fall in love” with your community in the first place!
