Two new exciting workshops being offered

I am excited to announce the creation of two new interactive workshops at Wizardry Enterprises in addition to my other educational presentations.

“Excitement to Create Excellence,” is designed to cover two key areas critical to improving NOI.  The first area deals with our employees and team members, who are the foundation to your organizations success.  What can we do regarding training, communication, and creating inspiration that makes them want to do their job not because they have to…but because they want to?  How do we create excitement in the workplace so it inspires excellence?  How can you set goals and make those goals something your employees strive to reach?  I believe in the concept of treating our employees as number one, and they will in turn treat our residents as number one.  Second, what can you do to create excellence for our residents so the last thing on their mind is giving a notice to vacate?  What do your residents really want when it comes to amenities, activities, communication, and what will provide them with a true feeling they are part of a community?  How do we create excellence while dealing with things like rent collection, lease enforcement, the renewal process, and service?  How can excellence through excitement be transferred to your brand identity, marketing, and reputation within your market?  These are just a few of the areas we will touch on in “Excitement to Create Excellence.”

“Maintenance for Managers,” is a workshop with the intent on informing and educating not just managers, but your entire office support team.  Service is such a critical part of the success of any site. Having a better understanding of the service side of the business benefits your employees in gaining a better perspective of the service maintenance performs, preparing them for the next level of advancement with a higher knowledge base, and reinforcing what they must do in support to the overall service mission.  What should we be asking every resident when they call or come in the office to request service?  How does preventive maintenance play a factor in keeping residents, and what strategies can you provide in support to make it a simpler, more efficient, and effective process?  What is your resident’s perception when they make a request for service, and is it one of inconvenience or appreciation? How can leasing and the move-in experience contribute to service through a proactive approach?  How easy do you make it for residents to request service, and are you using the latest techniques and processes available?  Studies still show the biggest reason residents leave is because of lack of or poor service, not their rent.  What are you doing to maximize resident retention and in support of your service team when as it relates to maintenance?

Please contact me at lawrenceberry@verizon.net so we can discuss how I can provide support to your educational needs.

INSPECT WHAT YOU EXPECT

I wrote an article for UNITS magazine some years back titled "Communicate, Don't Complain" talking about this as it relates to vendors and service providers; however, the topic includes other areas.  Inspecting what you expect also relates to our team members and the job they are doing.  Let's start with the basics.

Site inspections for any regional or district manager are part of the position.  First, any site visit should not feel intimidating but in support of the overall goals and objectives of a company or property. Making a  site visit feel more like a treasure hunt and a learning platform is a skill, and is a leadership characteristic which supports the team approach and can be motivational versus intimidating.  When I visited my sites, they knew I wasn't there to find faults but to find opportunities.  The old adage you don't see the forest for the trees applies; however I like to look at it as you don't see the trees for the forest.  Think about it and you'll understand what I mean.  After all, it's the details which make the difference and support both resident services and leasing as well as building effective teams.  They need to know, and more importantly feel, you're there in support of the operation.

Vendors and suppliers are needed in most operations such as painting, cleaning, carpet cleaning, and providing services outside of the abilities or scope of the team.  Which is why I encourage and require the team to adopt certain behaviors that can lead to getting what is expected:

(1) Have written specifications on what the task is expected to provide.  As an example, do your  cleaning specifications call for edge cleaning along baseboards, air and return air vents, fixtures such as lighting and globes, appliance details, cabinets and drawers, payment for services, reporting conditions which management needs to be aware of, and the fact you will be conducting inspections?  I asked in a recent seminar I was conducting who had these processes and only one in the room of over 30 property managers could say they had them.  You should have the same type of specifications for carpet cleaning, carpet and tile installation, painting, pest control, pool maintenance, or any services you contract out.  

(2) Everyone on a team needs to know the expectation by service providers and support and understand these specifications. I will say it again, you can't hit a target if you can't see it.   Walk apartment turns with the team so they understand what a quality product looks like.  Ask them to inspect with you, reviewing and covering any areas which could be improved on.  Make it a treasure hunt not an inspection. 

(3) Actually perform inspections and at times walk apartments with your service providers and the team.  It all starts when you hire them with setting the expectation and insuring there are clear expectations.  I'm willing to pay a little more if I know a service provider gives me a quality product, and it will show in the bottom line with satisfied prospects and residents.  

(4) Inspecting the services we provide is so critical to success.  I can tell you the number one reason residents leave is lack of or poor service, not rent.  We spend ten time more on leasing than we do on resident retention, which in my opinion is backwards.  Do you have an effective program for resident satisfaction and do you take action and respond to the resident if there are deficiencies?  What percentage of service requests do you follow up on?  If you have electronic satisfaction formats is it easy for your residents to complete and do you have both acknowledge and a reward for contributing. I suggested in a recent workshop they consider having a monthly drawing for anyone completing a satisfaction survey.  Just in the past week, I received an email from a property manager saying she had offered a $50 rent rebate with anyone participating eligible for their drawing.  Her communication informed me it was a huge success in the first two months of offering.  Another side to this coin is identifying employees or services which were substandard and needed correction or coaching. Remember the "don't see the trees for the forest" statement. 

(5) Do you listen to phone calls if you have that option (and you do have that opportunity even if not electronically by listening to the calls your office staff are on), and do you coach for success and developing to create an environment of excellence?  Do you survey visitor traffic to see how good of a job your leasing team is doing?  

It used to be that an unhappy resident told a handful of people about their poor experience.  With the advent of the Internet, now they have a platform to tell millions.  Management is helping others climb the ladder of success.  Leadership is making sure they're on the right wall.  Coaching, training, supporting, and yes inspecting what you or your residents expect leads to a cohesive environment and helping others exceed and excel.  Communication is also so important when dealing with this topic so your team understands the reason behind what is being done and what success feels like in meeting objectives.  Let them know the method to the madness.  This also goes with sharing successes and letting the team and team members know when they have met the excellence goal.  Now, go lead.