Behind The Leasing Desk . Com

Bouncing Back from Bad PR

Heather Blume — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 14:22:00 GMT

Between floor mats and sticky gas pedals, Toyota has not exactly had the best first quarter ever. Working in an industry where I hear people complain about the online ratings being brutal, I'm sure that those of you who've felt the sting of Apartment Ratings can sympathize, at least on some level. Cars, apartments, Walmart - Bad PR is always the same. (Except for Walmart... they deserve to wiggle on the hook a bit.) Turning around a problem is all about how you react to it.. Did Toyota drop the ball on this one? Okay, yeah they did. Run away gas pedal = uber scary and media hype-ability.

It WAS bad.

But they fessed up. See, this is the part where you get to start turning the bad stuff around. Denial is easy, but not productive and not helpful to your reputation. A real step 1 is ALWAYS the same: Fess Up. Toyota had to recall over 400,000 Prius Hybrids and the total vehicle recalls tallied around 8.5 million. Expensive, but to save their brand, it was necessary. They might have acted a bit slow for the needs of the immediate gratification American society, 55% of whom, according to a recent Gallup poll, aren't happy with the response time.

Step 2: Resist the urge to tell people how they're totally blowing this out of proportion. Look, I ran the numbers here. We are talking about 19 unarguably tragic deaths in a span of 10 years, counted across 20 MILLION cars. That puts your actual odds of being killed by this defect at infinitesimal when compared to going down in a plane crash - 1 in 6,137 flights a year - being hit by lightning - 1 in 56,439 a year - or dying in an earthquake - 1 in 120,161. But did they throw that out there? Nope.

Instead, they moved to step 3: Focus on what we CAN do and the good we have done. Granted, their ads aren't talking about the types of cars right now, gas mileage, etc., but what they are focused on is rebuilding consumer confidence. They're talking about safety. Sure, that's usually Volvo's shtick, but hey, it works. At least they realize that the fundamental TRUST is what they have to rebuild. People might forget over time, but trust takes effort to heal. And it's working. According to that same Gallup poll, 60% of Americans think it's safe to be in a Toyota. 53% of Americans who don't own a Toyota think they are safe, and among owners, that figure rises to 80%.

Are these steps going to sweep everything under the rug and make it go away? Certainly not, but they are going to go a long way in restoring and retaining customer relationships. There's not a step that Toyota made that we in the apartment industry cannot also take in responding to criticism. Take a moment to ponder this before you access that manager account on Apartment Ratings. You might just change your response.

Business Lessons from 10 Year-Olds

Heather Blume — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 14:06:00 GMT

I'm a huge fan of kids when they aren't screaming during a movie or an expensive dinner. My nephews are two of the most nifty little humans on the planet. I think that children are, overall, pretty awesome, and I think I've finally figured out the reason.

Kids do the things they do, say the things they say, because it makes sense for them to.

Stick with me on this one.

You ask a 10 year-old to clean their room. Odds are, you're going to get a "NO" in return. Why? It's not because they're insolent; it's because they've prioritized things. If my to do list consists of cleaning my room, playing with my friends, doing my homework, and taking out the catbox, the obvious priority for me is playing with my friends. This is the reason that we offer kids an allowance. It teaches them how to shift their priorities. But at the end of the day, they are still setting the order. Is $10 a week worth cleaning my room on a beautiful sunny day? No Way.

On a similar vein, 10 year-olds know how to use the word, "no." Do you? I know I struggle with it. I'm a chronic over extender. Most ten year-olds I've met really don't care about hurting someone's feelings if they're asked to do a job they don't want to do. As adults, we want to be liked. A lot. Agreeable people are liked by most others, so we learn to say "yes, yes, yes." Then we stress out, miss deadlines, let people down by turning in sloppy work, and the frustrating cycle repeats itself over and over again.

When they come home from "work," their first instinct isn't to just collapse from the stress of the day. When I was ten, if I bombed that day in Math class (and that happened a LOT) I didn't carry that with me all day. You go outside for recess, you run around a little, sit on the swings, and jump a little rope, you were FINE. Your mood lasted about 5 minutes and then you shook it off like a dog coming out of a bath. Sure, it wasn't the greatest day, but one little mess up didn't stick to the Velcro of your soul.

Ten year-olds are also completely unaware of the limitations they have on them because they're ten. You ask them what they want to be when they grow up and they'll tell you - Astronaut, Scientist, Movie Star, Teacher, Mommy, etc. I've known kids who wanted to be scientists that couldn't even grasp the basics of how things worked, but the thought of having that awesome white spiky hair and a long lab coat still kept the dream alive. Kids don't realize that you have to be good at math to create buildings. They just want to make something that touches the sky. The "how" of it is something that they can figure out later. I think that as adults we focus so much on the "how" of a project that sometimes we short ourselves the chance of creating a product that touches the sky.

They do not care about that one piece of hair that refuses to behave. My parents have a third grade school picture to attest to this one. They are the only people on the planet who can run around in mismatched clothes, probably with a bathing suit underneath, and know THEY LOOK GOOD! They haven't developed their second guessing ability yet. You know the one - it's what causes every child to think their body is incredibly odd and out of place the minute they hit 6th grade, and obsess over how everyone else sees them. It's the same thing that makes certain people afraid of taking the stage, leading, or standing up for something they believe in. The fear of what sight other people have when they look at us costs adults confidence.

So natural. So reasonable. So what's keeping us from getting back some of this stuff, if not in literal terms, at least in spirit? Tell me what you think!

Do You Know Where You Are? - Follow Up From Yesterday

Heather Blume — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 16:57:00 GMT

I love involved parents. My own, for instance, read or watch every entry that I produce on my blog and consulting site, despite having much knowledge of the world of renting. I think the last time they lived in an apartment was 1971. However, my parents do have wide knowledge of the rest of the world, and after reading yesterday's post, my father offered me a suggestion that I thought was pretty smart. That's what you get when you talk to an Ex Fire Chief.

He mentioned how when he was on the fire department, sometimes there would be a fire, but the person calling for help (usually a babysitter) would send the fire trucks to the wrong address, because he or she didn't know what the address of the home was, or in panic, the person would blurt out their own home address. Scary thought.

Granted, this was before enhanced 911, but it's still a concern today, seeing as how according to the National Center for Health and Statistics, 1 in 5 American households are cell phone only, and I would wager a guess that number is even higher in metro tech areas. Not one of my friends here in Seattle has a land line in their home. It's an extra cost that they, and I, just don't see the point of. Even with enhanced 911, cell phone locations are tracked either using cellular tower triangulation or by using the phone's built in GPS. Both location systems take precious seconds in an emergency, and there is no guarantee that your metro area has the second tier of enhanced 911, as it has been costly to implement and a lot of municipalities are holding back on those big ticket upgrades to systems given the current economy.

Renters are often transient people. I know some residents who move every year, either to get a better deal on the rent or to try a new place out. If a fire were to start in their apartment 2 days after move in, how many of them do you think would remember their new address? I know I wouldn't have. Heck, I've lived at my current place for almost 3 years now, and I still flub the numbers on occasion.

So as apartment managers, what can we do to make the situation better?

You're gonna love this. It's cheap. It's easy. And it's one more touch to make your community stand out.

Solving this problem can be as simple as putting a name badge sized sticker on the back of the door, stating the address of the apartment, and the name of the community (since many community names sound very similar these days). I would suggest that on the sticker you include the number for the office, since sometimes around move in, that number can be a pain for residents to find. Also, you may want to write the address as:

1234 Renter's Way, Apartment P(as in Peter) 4

When you're speaking quickly or in a rush, enunciation tends to go right out the window, and the letters D, T, and P as well as M and N can all sound the same. This problem is multiplied if the person speaking has a thick accent. If you chose to do that on your stickers, use the universal letter call signs, which you can find here.

You can either print these stickers in house, or you can contract them out to a printing company. In house may be better for this particular project, since the input will change for each apartment. And remember, these will stay on the back of the door from resident to resident, so don't skimp on the quality of the paper ($13 dollars on average for a package of 5 sheets), and make sure they look nice. Using your company or property logo on them is a pretty good idea as well, since it will be helpful with your branding efforts.

A Resident Event Idea That Plays With Fire...Extinguishers

Heather Blume — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 13:16:00 GMT

As many of you know, I'm currently enrolled in my CAM classes through our local NAA Affiliate, WMFHA. I love going to these classes because the group of people we have is so much fun, and the ideas that they throw out there are so incredibly fabulous that they just blow my mind on a daily basis. Last week, our topic was management of residential issues, and part of that discussion was talking about what events we've seen done or would like to see done. A fabulous idea was donated to the group by Essex Property Trust manager, Tiffany-Ashton Gatsby.

A fire extinguisher party!

Why do I love this idea? Well, it comes from more than just growing up as a fire fighter's kid, though I'm sure that has something to do with it. If something caught fire in our home, it was a lot like snow shoveling and window washing - My dad dealt with it. Whether this is because my mother once pulled the extinguisher off the wall...with the brackets still attached... or because he had most experience dealing with it, I'm not sure. But I never got to use the extinguisher. I knew how, but often, as my dad would remind me how to use the thing before they'd leave the house for any extended period of time (like they thought something was going to happen!) I always felt kind of let down at the end of the day when nothing caught on fire. I really wanted to get the chance to use one, just once. You have to admit, when you see people fire them off, it does look pretty fun. Or perhaps I was just a very odd child.

Like myself, many people have them in their homes and yet, should the crisis arise and the adrenaline pump, most people have never before fired one off. Granted, the instructions aren't hard. Point. Pull tab. Shoot. But in the moment, it can catch you by surprise.

Tiffany said that she always had great turn out for these events because, frankly, when your life isn't in danger, using a fire extinguisher can be kind of awesome. The local fire station was happy to send out a representative to talk to her residents about apartment fire safety, and her residents showed up because they had great motivation to come do something fun.

If you feel any hesitation about reaching out to your local fire station, don't. I'll tell you from experience, firemen LOVE this kind of thing. It's pretty much one of the more fun things they can do between bouts of saving people's lives and property. And most firemen that I've ever known, at least the ones who go out and do the speaking gigs, are incredibly personable, so they will be able to talk to and connect with your residents.

Great ways to expand on this idea:

Ask your firefighters to bring some of their gear with them. Kids love to try on the hats, boots and jackets. This not only gives them something that is really fun, but parents think it's cute and the pictures will be amazing.
I don't even know if they do this anymore or not, but when I was much younger, the local fire department would take all the kids on rides in the fire trucks. If they still do this in your area, think about how great it will be when your community's kids go to school and "market" to their friends, who then whine to their parents because they didn't get to ride the fire truck.
Burn treatment tips - Please ask your firefighter to bring an EMT with them to talk about the different kinds of burns and how to treat them. People STILL think you should put butter on burns. Crazy!
If you have a parking problem with people putting their cars in fire lanes or blocking hydrants, this is also a great chance for someone besides the management to mention something to the residents about it. The mental image of a firetruck coming down that lane, no matter what's parked there, or breaking the windows out of a car to run a hose through it so that they could reach the hydrant...it might be more a more powerful message when disguised in safety from someone who has a uniform that everyone loves.

A small announcement

Heather Blume — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 23:19:00 GMT

You'll be seeing some changes on Behind the Leasing Desk's layout in the coming weeks as we transition it as part of BTLD Consulting. Our URL will remain the same, but the look will change to mirror that of the consulting site, and this set up will make it so much easier for my faithful readers to find all of our content in one place. Not only will you find my blog posts, but also the Multifamily 5x5 broadcasts and the Dear Heather Letters column, as well as all of the tips, tools and tricks that I keep adding to the consulting site. I got some great advice from Mark Juleen and Mike Whaling about incorporating everything together, and since they are two of the smartest multifamily SEO guys I know, it would be careless of me to disregard their words.

Bear with us as we transition and I can promise you the occasional weird mouse click paths will be well worth it!

-Heather

Multifamily 5x5 for the Week of March 1st

Heather Blume — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 11:00:00 GMT

It's Monday morning, and you know what that means - Another Multifamily 5x5! Check out our weekly web show here!

"Wholesome Goodness," ...Whatever that means.

Heather Blume — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 03:55:00 GMT

Stouffer's marketing department needs to invest in a thesaurus.

Tonight, while watching one of the 30 episodes of Law and Order on my DVR, I was away from my remote when the commercial break came to pass. It's been a while since I've actually watched a commercial. In fact, since the invention of the DVR, the only time I've watched commercials is when the remote has somehow fallen between the cushions of the couch and I cannot find it, resulting in a frenzied search for the thing before I have to hear Luke Wilson try to spin AT&T as having good coverage. (He's full of horse plops.)

In my search for the holy remote tonight, I had to hear about how Stouffer's makes families stronger by gathering them around the dinner table to eat meals full of, "Wholesome Goodness." This statement elicited a derisive snort of disbelief from me, as I have several times eaten Stouffer's meals and I'll tell you right now that the ONLY thing they are full of is salt and preservatives, and possibly the same thing that Luke Wilson is full of.

The problem is words. The English language is awesome at using a lot of words and sounding like there's a meaning in them, when in fact, there is nothing being said by them at all. This is pretty prevalent in the world of food marketing.

Organic
Wholesome
Lite
Diet
Healthy
All Natural

The problem is, people are wising up. It once was that you could slap two or three of those puppies on a box of terrible food, and not only would people buy it, but you could charge 30% more for it. Anymore though, when I see the word "Healthy" on a box, I read the label. It's NEVER healthy. It might not be as bad for you as something else, but it's still not healthy.

What about us? The words we use in our ads? Granted, perhaps I've spent more time than most reading through countless ads on Craigslist and other ILS sites, but I can't tell you how many ads look just like the ad before them, and the ad before that one, and the ad before that one. It's all the same. Everyone uses the same words, and because of that, you're not distinguishing your product. What's worse, I have visited some of the properties that I'm reading ads for, and your property is NOT what you're writing about.

If you're running out of words, don't use the same ones that everyone else is using. Think of a different way to get your message out there, and actually use some words that MEAN SOMETHING! After all, if your ad is the first contact that you have a potential new resident, why would you want to start out that relationship in the pretense of a lie, or what they might perceive to be a lie?

If you're not a wordsmith, and it's okay if you aren't, check out these resources:

Power Sales Words - Oliver
Words that Sell - Bayan

Both are excellent sources for descriptions of what you may have, and remember, should all else fail, Microsoft Word has a built in Thesaurus!

Monday Morning Multifamily 5x5

Heather Blume — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 08:41:00 GMT

A new Multifamily 5x5 broadcast is up on our sister site at www.btldconsulting.com!

Today's topics included:
Marketing and Retention with NCAA March Madness!
Conference Conversation on the NAA Student Housing Conference
Reading Recommendation for "The Levity Effect"
Technology Talk about Texting Tips
Maintenance Minute focused on Assembling a Sparkle Kit

5 minutes traded for 5 ideas to start the week off with a bang!

Feature Feature!

Heather Blume — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 22:24:00 GMT

In case you were not aware, Tuesday is "Dear Heather" letter day on BTLD Consulting. This week's letter - Done Playing Nice - hit a bit of a chord with me, and I'd love it if you'd click over there and check it out!

I'm still working through all of the letters I received this week, so if you haven't heard back yet, no fear, I am on it! And if you have a problem or idea that you'd like to ask my advice on, submit it in email form to Heather@behindtheleasingdesk.com, with a subject line of "Dear Heather Letter." ( I promise a response, and I promise honesty, but remember, if the problem is you, I'll tell you the truth, just as I did in my letter today.)

It's Monday Morning, and Time for Another Multifamily 5x5!

Heather Blume — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 11:15:00 GMT

Check out this week's Multifamily 5x5 at the BTLD Consulting site!

Mister Smith Goes To Twitter

Heather Blume — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 22:21:00 GMT

Someone at Southwest Airlines is going to be having a very bad Monday.

The airline that for years has touted it's champion customer service received quite a blow this Valentine's Day Weekend when a pilot required an already seated (with the arm rests down, I might add) Kevin Smith to deplane due to his weight. Kevin, the director and writer of such cult classic films as Clerks, Mallrats and Chasing Amy, is widely admired by both Gen X and Gen Y for his sardonic and amusing observations on everyday life. His Twitter feed, @thatkevinsmith, boasts 1,664,067 at the time of this blog writing, and even if you figure in a third of those people as being sex bots, that's still a pretty hefty following.

Southwest's own policy states that passengers will be asked to buy an additional seat if they cannot put the arm rest down. As Kevin was already seated with his carry on stowed and the arm rests fully down, this was not in violation of that policy. In front of a plane full of people, his weight was called out and he was asked to leave. Bad Form. Even a flight attendant admitted later that he should not have been asked to leave. And now, Southwest Air will have to fall on the Social Media Sword that they've successfully swung this last year.

Kevin tells the story through his Twitter feed, in his unique voice. As I read it last night, I was stunned. I couldn't understand why Southwest Air would have done things this way, especially when it comes to ticking off a very vocal and talented writer and film maker. The thing about filmmakers, they kind of know how the media works. The thing about writers, they know how to tell a story. The combination of the two will spell out some public relations mess that's going to stick to the shoes of Southwest for a while.

Then, upon my awakening this morning, I see the posted response from the Southwest Air Blog. Their response is best summed up by Kevin himself:

@Southwest air "Our apology to Kevin smith and more details regarding the events from last night: http://cot.ag/96KHC7 " So your apology is "Sorry, sir. But you ARE kinda fat..."? I flew out AND back IN ONE SEAT, YOU PIECES OF SHIT! SModcast in two hrs tells WHOLE story.

They cite his earlier purchase of two seats, and indicate that it was for weight reasons. No. If I were Kevin Smith, the last thing I'd want to do is end up seated next to....well, me. I talk to the people around me sometimes, and I know that's annoying. And he's KEVIN SMITH. People are going to talk to him. Everyone knows someone, has written something, thinks something that they'd like to shove in the face of a successful Hollywood type. An extra seat seems a small price to pay to stay out of "pitchland hell" for a flight.

Am I a bit Team Kevin on this one? You bet. I can't side with stupidity, especially not consistently enforced stupidity.

This is just another great example of how careful we have to be with our customers. The customer is not only right, ladies and gentlemen, but the customer is someone you have to respect. They've got a voice, with teeth, and they're not afraid to use it.

Oh, and I'll never purchase a ticket on Southwest Air again. Ever.

Neat Tools from the National Apartment Association

Heather Blume — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 18:57:00 GMT

It's the first ever National Apartment Careers month! I'm so excited about this month and the focus that's been put on our industry as a career of choice, rather than a, "job I just tripped and fell into." The National Apartment Association has put out some awesome resources for recruiting this month and I want to encourage you to check them out, whether you're a property manager who does some hiring from time to time, or you're a main recruiter at a large company. These brochures and fliers are great for awareness and make excellent tools for job fairs, and the folks over at Apartment Careers.Com have even put together a special offer for employers.

Check out the campaign information here : http://www.naahq.org/education/naaei/campaigns/Pages/default.aspx#tools

And as for me, I love their neat took kit : http://www.naahq.org/SiteCollectionDocuments/Education/ApartmentCareerHQMonthToolkit_low.pdf

Announcing The BTLD Right On Ribbon Winner for February!

Heather Blume — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 19:16:00 GMT

This month's winner is a great example of excellence in our industry!

Nominated by, "A Little Bird," who wished to remain anonymous, February's winner is a definite asset to her company and to the community that she manages. Rose Manos of Indigo Real Estate Services in Seattle has been in the property management world for 10 years.

What drew my attention to Rose over the other nominations that I received this month were comments made by her nominator:

"Rose is the kind of manager who doesn't see the problem, but instead sees the ways to solve the problem. There's nothing that she won't overcome." After visiting with Rose, I would say that assessment of her tenacity is dead on. Her ability to skip the "wallowing" stage of problem solving is not only impressive, but a massive asset to her company and to her property's owners, Harbor Properties.
"She cares about people. I mean, REALLY cares about people." I didn't understand the distinction until sitting and talking with Rose for a bit. We talked about how challenging the economy is right now, and she mentioned off-handedly something about protecting her team. Upon further inquiry, Rose explained to me that she's the line between her staff and the upper management, and she takes a very protective stance. She discussed with me her point of view about how it's not good to pass the massive stress downward right now, because if her team is upset then they can't perform well, and good performance is what they need more than anything in the current market. I have to say, that impressed me quite a bit, as I know many managers seem to be forgetting that lately.
"She worked her way up, earned it. You have to respect that." Indeed you do. Rose started as a maintenance technician and moved up to a supervisor. From there, she accepted the challenges inside the office, moving up the chain of promotions until she reached Property Manager, all while she balanced being a mom and going to school to get her bachelor's degree in Business Administration.

One thing that wasn't mentioned by her nominator, but that I noticed upon visiting with Rose is that she takes enormous pride in her property, The Mural. In touring the property, I was very impressed at how clean it was and how incredibly well it melded with the local area. She loves the building and pushes hard for integration with the surrounding community. She talked about the excellent relationship that she has with her owners and, rightfully, too great pride in how strong the communication was.

Rose also isn't afraid to try innovative ways to motivate her team. She mentioned to me that her current "reward" for getting a lease included giving her people 4 hours of paid time off, noting that it had increased their closings, and upped team morale.

For all these reasons and more, Rose Manos is exceptionally deserving of this month's Behind the Leasing Desk RIGHT ON RIBBON Award, including the 2 months of free service for her property from the amazing resident rewards program, Black Ledger! Congratulations to Rose and to Indigo Real Estate Services for their exceptional employee!

Bigger isn't always better - Originally written for Appfolio's Property Manager E-Zine

Heather Blume — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 09:18:00 GMT

Bigger isn’t always better.

When she was in 8^th grade, as is tradition in my family, my sister got her first set of matched luggage. It was dark blue with tan piping and I remember it was from Jaguar. For 8^thgrade promotion, I think she received all the pieces to that luggage set that she hadn’t gotten for the holiday season prior. There was a garment bag, and a little overnight suitcase, and there were also make-up cases and duffel bags. And then there was the MONSTER.

I had never seen a suitcase this big before. I was tall for my age, and chubby, but I could fit inside of it entirely with the lid zipped shut. I thought it was the coolest suitcase ever. That was, of course, up until the one year we packed it for a vacation. It was an ideal solution, we thought. We each had plenty of room to fill up with our stuff. It all fit in there nice and neat with a non-bulging lid. We stood the MONSTER up and quickly found that, fully loaded, it was heavy, hard to control, and, on the whole, very annoying to deal with. I had never before realized it was possible to have too much suitcase.

It’s possible to have the same experience with an apartment as a renter. Trends in America for the last few decades have had us renting bigger and bigger living spaces and buying more and more “stuff” to fill them up with. The sun is quickly sinking on that trend, and foreshadowing shows that what we’re about to see is a lot of downsizing. Whether it’s from Boomers who can no longer keep up with the demands of a large house, or Gen Y renters who are eco-conscious about the space they take up and the energy they use, we are going to see a lot more people inquiring fora smaller sized apartment than they would have previously rented.

This gives those of you out there who top out with the two bedroom floor plans a chance not only to get back in the game, but to score some of those rentals for your own property. When you get a call about whether or not you have three bedroom floorplans, you may want to encourage your leasing consultants to ask more questions before dismissing the lead. Statements like, “We do have some large two bedrooms with a lot of square footage, do you think that an extra large second bedroom would work for your needs?” Pointing out that in many floor plans, those third bedrooms can be not much bigger than the size of a walk in closet will help with selling the downsize to many folks.

As a leasing consultant, it can be hard to push for more information without worrying about looking pushy. Remember to encourage your staff to be inquisitive. And if you’re trying to encourage them to be better information gatherers, do your best to eliminate any negative connotation words from your vocabulary, such as “nosey.” Those kinds of words are exactly what keep your leasing staff from asking the deeper questions. It’s not being nosey, it’s determining needs. Bigger isn’t always better for everyone.

Announcing Our New Sister Site!

Heather Blume — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 15:11:00 GMT

Take a moment today to skate on over to BTLDConsulting.com, our new sister site, and home of Heather's new weekly Multifamily 5x5 broadcasts and the "Dear Heather" Advice column! That's just the tip of the all new site content to come in the future months, so check back frequently as new links and lists are published, new Right On Ribbon Winners are announced, and new contests, polls and more are brought to life for this digital audience!

Today is the first broadcast of Episode 1:1 of the Multifamily 5 by 5 with Heather, so take 5 min from your day and grab some new ideas and information!

www.btldconsulting.com

Improv Insights in a Multifamily World

Heather Blume — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 13:46:00 GMT

Once upon a time, I was a theatre major. This was during the era in my life that my parents referred to as, "Heather making decisions that will not earn her a lucrative career." As I took more art and theatre classes, and their hair grew grayer and, in the case of my dad, more sparse, I actually learned a ton of skills that have become invaluable to me in my day to day life. As a theatre major, one of the elective courses I took was "Improvisational Acting."

This class was amazing, and I saw funnier stuff come out of my classmates than I saw the rest of the time we were at college. For the first month of the class, the teacher, Kate, let people pretty much go where the moment took them. Inevitably, it always lead to liberal use of the F-word,sex or drugs or sex AND drugs while saying the F-word.

Was it funny? Sometimes. We were in our early 20's, after all.

After the first month, Kate made the rule that we couldn't go there anymore. Her justification was that it was, "too easy," for a laugh, and it wasn't really taking a lot of thought. We could go anywhere else, but we couldn't go to sex and drugs, and we started to limit the casual mega swears.

It got a heck of a lot funnier after that.

See, when you make the joke or get the laugh with bad language, sex, and drugs, what you're getting is the reactionary laugh. Your joke is cotton candy. It might taste good in the moment, but a few seconds later, it's gone and no one really remembers why it was so funny. Real comedy, long lasting laughter that sticks with you, comes from a much deeper connection with your audience. It comes from reaching them in a place that's way beyond the surface reaction. This humor is the emotional meal of meat and potatoes that keeps you full for a long time.

Such as it is with marketing. So many people in our industry are jumping into the blogging world, and many of them are really urgently pushing for higher traffic and massive word of mouth buzz. I think blogging is great, obviously, but I'm going to caution you all to follow my old professor's advice. Skip the sex, the drugs, and the being provocative for the sake of being provocative.

It might be funny to talk about the sex lives of your residents or about receiving the complaints, but your community blog is NOT the place to do it. Any public forum isn't really someplace I'd suggest it. In general terms, maybe, but never in embarrassing personal terms. And talking about that, "herbal smell," that you've got coming out of apartment 3B on the blog, that's also something I'd put the kibosh on right quick.

Will this stuff get people to talk about you? Sure. Everyone likes to talk about things that someone should have never said. But is this the kind of talk that you really want people to be saying? Word of mouth can be a great weapon, but the other side of that sword is that it's a painful adversary as well. Don't let the bad word of mouth come from something you should have never published online.

It's not enough that people talk about you; they have to be saying something that will increase your business for it to be truly effective marketing. If you want people to talk about you in a way that benefits your property, then you have to do something, write something, be something, that is just that: Remarkable. Otherwise, you're just gossip.

An Example of This "Internet Thing" Done Well

Heather Blume — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 13:19:00 GMT

Mural Apartments is owned by Harbor Properties of Seattle, a company that, according to the property manager, believes in deep community integration. This is VERY obvious by their website at www.muralapartments.com. Let me tell you what I like about this site:

The community blog, which actually focuses on the community (novel idea no?) rather than the apartments.
A well done site that mirrors the feel of the artsy West Seattle area
This site will show well on a Netbook sized screen, and that's something a lot of traditional property sites don't do now.
This site kicks even more butt because THERE IS NO FLASH PROGRAMMING!
They actively promote their ACTIVE Facebook Fanpage on the site (and twitter feed!)
The layout is clean and crisp, yet still has awesome personality to it.
If you click on the Neighborhood tab, you see just how committed to community integration they really are, and it's very well done!

The property lives up to the expectations put forth by the website, so visitors aren't subject to the switch and bait stuff I've seen other places.

Kudos to Harbor Properties and Indigo Management for their keen online presence with Mural Apartments!

What this property has done isn't difficult, but it took more than 5 minutes to accomplish. Ask yourself today, as you're looking at your site, do we look like we are personal and care, or do we look like we were in a hurry to move on to the next project? It's a good possibility that your potential residents may gravitate to one of these appearances more than the other.

"We Only Use Craigslist"

Heather Blume — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 12:29:00 GMT

It's a mantra some of my ILS vendor friends are getting a little tired of hearing. I can't really say that I blame them.

No one could have predicted 6 years ago that Craigslist would become the prime choice for apartment internet listings in 2010. After all, at that point in time it wasn't all that well known, and was mostly used to list owner managed places, rooms for rent, or sublets (and even then, it was a little creepy). Today, it's difficult to find a property that isn't managing an ad presence on Craigslist. Traffic from there for many properties has been so successful, in fact, that they are starting to drop traditional ILS services like Rent.com, For Rent, Apartment Guide, Apartments.com, and Move.com. After all, they've found something that's "free" and it works, so why keep paying for those other sites?

Well, it's never quite that easy in the multifamily world. There are a lot of downsides to putting all your eggs in the Craigslist basket, just like there are a lot of downsides to depending totally on social media.

Professionalism- While VFyer and Postlets create pages that are attractive to the eye, you have to remember that you are still on CRAIGSLIST, a traditionally text based environment. No matter how great the layout on your CL ad is, you're never going to have the same level of professionalism that a traditional ILS offers. The thing I find entirely frustrating when looking at CL ads is that people are trying to turn the format in to something that it isn't, and, in my experience, that sort of move never goes over well with consumers.
Credibility- Okay, so your ad looks great, but here's the thing: It's still on CRAIGSLIST. If your key demographic is late Genxers and younger, then great, you should be okay. However, if you're still trying to get some of that sweet baby boomer pie (and there's a LOT of it out there), they are far less likely to find you on Craigslist over something more traditional like a For Rent magazine or Move.com. My parents are pretty much cookie cutter boomers, and when I've mentioned CL to them, their initial reaction is always something along the lines of "Can you really trust that?"
Security- This goes hand in hand with credibility, but remember that ANYONE can post and ad about your property on CL. Your residents, disgruntled ex employees, etc. Because of the semi-anonymous nature of CL, it's an ideal platform for scammers.
Qualified vs. Unqualified Traffic- The major complaint I hear constantly from properties is that, yes they get a ton of hits off of CL, but the traffic isn't always qualified to live at the property. There has been a lot of work done to maximize the targeting of the traditional ILS, and while there are ways to do targeted CL ads, it costs you a lot in time, which brings me to my next point...
It's not really free- Lisa Trosien and countless other speakers have been telling you all this for years, so I'm just going to echo their statements. It might not hit your budget directly, but it does cost you time, and it costs you constant innovative thoughts to look different than everyone else on the list now. I'm all for the innovation, but I think too much time is spent trying to make craigslist work better when there are stronger tools available.
Tracking - It seems that every time we find a tool that allows us to track our CL hits, Craigslist just as quickly goes out of their way to shut it down. Traditional advertising platforms aren't things that you have to "Fight" since they're supposed to be working for you.

Am I anti Craigslist? Not in the least. I think that, despite its weaknesses, it's a tool that's still making our work easier. But it's a tool that you should work with as well as keeping your relationships running with the traditional ILS systems, because each service provides something different. I do think that traditional ILS systems need to step up their service and get their heads back in the game, because a lot of people can't tell you folks apart. People always are able to say, "I found you on Craigslist," but when it comes to the ILS, they say, "It was one of those sites, I don't know which one," which appears to the folks on site that CL is a stronger brand.

I know budgets are tight this year, and I know it's tempting to cut out some of the ILS money that you're spending. I suggest before making a broad slash, examine each platform on its own merits and see what each one can deliver for you. Talk to your reps, and ask them to show you everything you need to make an informed choice. I'm sure they'll be more than happy to, and they might even bring you some cookies for the meeting.

Beating Burnout - Negative Nancy Needs to Go

Heather Blume — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 13:36:00 GMT

Gallup polls have found that 75% of the workforce in America would classify themselves as "disengaged." When you think about what you see out there every day, this isn't too surprising. Frankly, I can't remember the last time I was actually asked if I wanted fries with anything I ordered at McDonald's, and that's McDonald's! What about the abundance of examples that you can find just by visiting your local retail outlets, or by walking through any given cube farm at a tech firm?

As disheartening as it is to see that 3/4 of our workforce isn't engaged in their jobs, the real human resources nightmare part of that number is the 15% of American workers who are what the book, The 7 Hidden Reasons Employees Leave, calls Actively Disengaged. These are the people who are more than just apathetic about their jobs. They're angry and intentionally working against your company's objectives and goals from the inside. In short, they're already totally burned out, and they want to take you down with them.

If you've been reading my work on employee retention for long, you know that I am a big fan of being slow to fire people, opting to rather mentor and mold the employee through engagement and recognition. This is a hard article for me to write, personally, because of that belief, but I'm just going to lay it out there:

If your employee resides in that 15% of the population who is actively disengaged, it's time to swing the axe and cut off that dead weight.

Brutal, I know. But the truth of the matter is that keeping an employee on your payroll who is actively disengaged is not only a drain on your property's financial, but also on your emotional and managerial resources. According to a study reported by the Gallup Management Journal, these people cost the US economy between $292 and $355 BILLION dollars every year. The same study found that these employees miss, on average, 3.5 more days a year than other employees (and these people would be the ones who, despite the increased workload, you are THRILLED with when they call in sick.)

So what are the characteristics of someone who's an AD employee? Curt Coffman, author of First Break All The Rules, suggested in an interview with Gallup that it's a mindset you're looking for, what he called the, "I'm okay, you're okay." According to him, these are the negative employees who will shut out people who invite them to become part of a solution in preference to staying part of the problem and complaining about it. Coffman says they thrive on it. Don't assume, however, that negativity is always an indicator of active disengagement. He cautious to remember that we ALL can become negative from time to time, but the AD employee just never comes out of it, acting like a stroke causing blood clot to your team.

If you have a blood clot on your staff, you need to get it removed before property paralysis sets in and you lose upward mobility in the market. Negativity can easily spread throughout your team if you allow the constant barrage to continue, and burnout is the end effect. You start with one burned out team member, and end up with three open positions to fill.

Hold the Hold and Just Talk To ME!

Heather Blume — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 01:43:00 GMT

Mental Exhaustion.

That's what I get when I try to call my local doctor these days. Now, I love my doctor because she doesn't think I'm weird and doesn't make sweeping statements like, "You're going to die if you get Pneumonia," but getting just a tiny bit of information out of the clinic is a process that sucks. First I call, and I tell them what's wrong and ask if I need an appointment for that. They tell me that they don't know, but that they will have an RN call me back and let me know. The RN calls back, under an UNKNOWN number (Who doesn't check the # on their caller ID these days? I hate telemarketers, so I don't answer that nonsense!), leaves me a message with no information except her name, which she rushes through so that I can't actually hear what it was, and tells me to call her back. I call the number she leaves, no more than 5 minutes after missing the call, and end up at a call center where they don't know me from Adam, they don't know who I'm looking for, and they don't know what my original call was about, and the hold, transfer, hold transfer, hold process takes about 25 minutes of my life that I'll never get back. What I'm sure they did know was how annoyed I was with the whole insane process of trying to get to talk to someone who can tell me whether or not I should bother a doctor!

I don't hate the people at the call center. The dude I hate is the one who came up with this asinine plan and thought it worked as functioning customer service. As a customer, I don't expect that I'm your only person to talk to. I don't expect that you have nothing better to do than dote on me and my issue. However, I expect that you respect my time at least as much as you respect your own, and you don't lead me on a wild goose chase through phone-ville hell!

How often does it take more than one phone call for your residents to reach the person they need to? If you find yourself playing phone tag with your residents, remember that their irritation with the service grows exponentially each and every time they have to call you back for the same issue, and it grows faster than that if you don't know what they're talking about. Just like being transfered from department to department, residents also don't fancy having to deal with multiple people on the same issue, so if you catch the problem, own it and fix it, and make sure you stay with it, even if you have to involve the manger, until the problem is resolved.

Do you have a resident issue follow up calender? This can be so easy to integrate into Outlook. Choose a color of importance and when you know there is a resident with an issue, set yourself up with a reminder (and including a description of the issue HELPS here...) that will pop up and remind you to make that call today. There are few things that annoy people more than when they feel their opinion or time are not valued by those around them. At home, we should always feel valued, don't you think?

And remember, according to an article from 2007 that I found on the Courier Mail, people spend, no, make that WASTE 60 million HOURS each and every year on hold. 60 Million! Don't tell a customer you'll be right back, unless you're really going to be right back. Otherwise, respect their time enough to get their number and call them back when you say you will, because they really don't need to hear the Muzak and sales pitch for the community while you find their file.

National "Have Fun At Work" Day

Heather Blume — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 19:01:00 GMT

Did you know that today is national Have Fun At Work day? I didn't until I scrolled though my twitter feed this morning, and I'm kind of sad that I almost missed it!

Why is it so important to have fun at work? Well, first of all, we spend at least 8 hours a day, 5 days a week at this place and if it sucks, we're going to be looking to jump ship on the first attractive raft that floats by. Second, it's been proven that when people have fun, they are more productive, and produce more creative solutions to given problems. Pressure and stress tends to not bring out the best in most folks. And, finally, when you have fun with people, it's easier to create genuine relationships because people drop their guards a bit and you get to see the real person inside.

It always amazes me, when I look on a macro level, at which industries in this world seem to have the most "fun" at work. For instance, teachers, depending on the day, can have a good time at their jobs... or at least they could until they had to stop teaching knowledge a few years ago, and start teaching people how to pass NCLB tests. Until that point in time though, I remember that my parents usually enjoyed going to work, because they truly seemed to love what they did, and how they could make a difference.

But the one of the industries, in my opinion, that has the most fun at work are the people who work in technology and software design. Yes, behold the nerds, they light our way to a fun work environment!

Before you think I'm crazy, making a boisterous claim about folks who are known to be antisocial and people skill challenged, I ask you this: Have you ever walked through a cube farm and taken a really good look around you? In the average nerd's cube, you will usually find all kinds of odd things plugged in to their USB ports, like little snowmen that light up, or swirling around light balls. Look on top of the computer tower, or maybe just to the left, and odds are that you'll find, perhaps, a little gun that shoots mini marshmallows, or a pencil holder constructed out of legos. Or maybe you'll see a coffee mug that is in the shape of a beaker. In fact, the geek culture is so in to having a fun work place that they have entire sites dedicated these sort of "creativity tools." My favorite - Think Geek where you can purchase anything from plush sushi, to colored bubbles, to robots, to one of a hundred pieces of apparel proclaiming your "1337"ness (that's leetness for those of you who are not righteous h4xors.) And even with all this stuff, these people are some of the hardest workers on the planet, dedicated to their craft and able to produce, among other things, most of the websites and software that we use most days. I firmly believe it's because they know how to have fun.

Are these things that, as leasing constants, we could have on our desks? Probably not, but the spirit is all the same and it's that spirit of fun that we can bring in to our work spaces. Here are a few ways you can do it, from the great blog by Jody Urqahart, I Do Inspire (See all 13 of her steps HERE):

Add some fun to your meetings by bringing in things like nerf balls or party blowers. Even a recent WSJ article advised this practice and suggested adding water guns to your weekly staff meetings, as it not only will keep your people awake, but mentally engaged on the meeting.
Learn to respond to fun when it happens, instead of approaching everything with that left sided analytical brain. Some of the funniest and most amazing things that happen in this world happen with absolutely no planning.
Put fun things and activities in the staff room. This allows people to take their mind off of the seriousness of work for a short period, so they come back to work with a more positive and balanced perspective.
(I LOVE this one!!!) Encourage staff to leave work behind at the end of the day. Employees shouldn't’t be so consumed with work that it affects their family life and leisure activities. Find fun ways for employees to “unload” at the end of the day or week. Create a ritual like writing a “to do” list and posting it on the board. By doing this, you commit to not thinking about the things on the list until the next day.

And last but not least, if you don't know where to start try three things. First, talk to your employees and ask them if they're having fun, and if they have any ideas on how to create a more fun work place. Second, don't forget that your human resources department has a whole bunch of people who specialize in this sort of thing, because, Baby, fun at work goes to the very heart of talent retention. Third, look on line for resources such as the Fun at Work website, where you can get lots of great ideas and adapt them to the needs of your workplace.

If none of these steps get you very far, then give me a call. I'm a VERY fun person. Just ask all my nerd friends.

Look Local and Love What You Find!

Heather Blume — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 14:28:00 GMT

At last November's Multifamily Pro Brainstorming conference in Houston, one of the trends that Tami found focusworthy for the upcoming year was "Localism," - being able to find what's important in the community around you. The trend is prevalent, as we even see it showing up in the current month's issue of UNITS, where on the in and out list marketing your location has gone IN and marketing your amenities has gone OUT. What are the special gem factors about where you live?

Local Businesses- What can renters find in your neighborhood/town that they can't find other places? I currently rent in a suburb of Seattle called Issaquah. In this charming little hamlet you can find a Caffe Ladro (a regional chain that is usually only found in DT Seattle), the Issaquah Brewhouse (home of Rogue Ale and many meat dishes stuffed with Blu Cheese), Flying Pie Pizza (where the toppings pile high and the grease is plentiful), Alice's Beauty Shop (the first stylist in 15 years to not cut Alan's hair so that the final result was HORRID!) and you are less than 20 min from the beautiful Sahalish Lodge. And that's just the stuff I've Yelped recently.
Local Festivals and Attractions - Knowing stuff to see and stuff to do is becoming more and more important for people as attention spans grow shorter and shorter. After all, you can only blow up people in Halo for so long before it all starts to get a little boring. Again, in Issaquah alone we have weekend farmer's markets, Salmon Days, Library book sales, tons of events at Lake Sammamish, and we're less than 20 minutes from both downtown Seattle or, heading the other direction, the beautiful Snoqualmie falls. Don't think there's anything special to see or do where you are? You're talking to a girl who grew up in a town with a population of 2000 people, and we still had a yearly "Riverless Festival" as well as playing host to "Kansas' Biggest Rodeo," and tons of other events. Every locality has it's own flavor, you just have to be willing to sell the taste. No matter how bad you think you have it, remember this: Kirwin, Kansas - 12 miles from where I grew up, population of 150 people in a good year- is PROUDLY known as, "The Goose Capital of Kansas." (And yes, I know western Kansas is a weird world. I've come to terms with it and so should you.)
Local Little Knowns- Did you know that King County, Washington has the lowest rate of death by heart attack of anywhere in the United States? Our EMS response time is amazing out here due to great city planning and awesome training. The average time it takes from a 911 call to the response team arrival is less than 5 minutes. Will that sell you an apartment? Well, that depends on whether or not the person you're talking to has had a heart attack before, something that we don't ask as we fill out the guest card. Knowing trivia about your location might seem trivial, but people are fascinated by little known stuff. It makes us feel smart when we drop it in to a conversation later and amaze the people around us. Where movies were filmed, where famous people live, eat and shop, how many hiking trails there are on each mountain, etc. All of this stuff enders you to your potential resident.

One of the great uses for these things comes when it's newsletter creation time. Since I discourage ever printing filler articles (because your residents do not WANT another word search or recipe for zucchini bread!), it can be a little difficult to fill the pages sometimes. Focusing on your local community can have great effects on your resident retention as it always gives you something to talk about!

There is something special about every place, even if it's harder to find in some places. At your next staff meeting, try this exercise to help your sales team: Everyone gets a piece of paper and a pencil, and, in 5 minutes , they list every gem factor of your area that they can think of. At the end of five minutes, you go around the table and read your lists, everyone crossing off the things that other people listed. The person with the most points wins a prize, but the real prize is that your team has just created a master list of great community selling points to make your tours and connections with future renters far more memorable and MUCH stronger!

Catch a Wave and you're sittin' on top of the world...

Heather Blume — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 14:27:00 GMT

or at least the world of great online collaboration!

Google Wave isn't a brand new tool, but it's still in that super elite, gotta-have-an-invite-to-use-it phase of Google development, much the way that Gmail was upon its initial launch, so if you haven't been invited to try it or want to see what all the hubbub is about it, click here and apply for an invitation. If you don't know what Wave is/does, check out this short video. I'd give one of my allotted invites, but they've now been reserved for members of my apartment association, the Washington Multi Family Housing Association, here in beautiful Seattle!

That's right, I'm doing everything in my power to get WMFHA to catch the wave! So just why do I think that my apartment association should be utilizing Google Wave?

It's a natural tool for committees that have too much to do, not enough communication and people who can't make every meeting. Posting a proposed meeting agenda to Wave before the meeting allows for instant changes and for committee members to add ideas, or even discuss some of those ideas before they are added to the agenda if they do not really need to take time out of the meeting. Additionally, running Wave during the meeting while hosting absent members through either the Google Voice or Google Video apps makes the likelihood of attendance higher on some of those crazy meeting days
Wave allows for two people who are spearheading a project to work on it, and still have the committee chair or director/board members watch the feed to know what's going on if they need to. Wave's ability to respond to conversations in thread format allows board members or association directors to clarify points, redirect progress and to answer questions in a forum that does not allow for a misinterpretation of the answer given.
Constant status feeds of the progress (or lack there of) let leaders know if the projects are moving forward or if they've stymied, as so many do. This information might also be exceptionally helpful for catching those small roadblocks and finding ways around them before they completely stop a project and people lose interest and wander off
Since studies have shown that Gen Y works excellently in a collaborative environment, why not use a tool that will encourage participation from those "leaders of tomorrow" that we need to tap before all of our baby boomers retire?
It's FREE, whereas for many online collaboration software solutions, you'll be laying down some serious cash. Free fits in any budget.

Black Ledger partners with Behind the Leasing Desk's BTLD Right On Ribbon Award!

Heather Blume — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 23:25:00 GMT

In the world of BTLD news, this is a biggie: I'm so proud and excited to announce that Black Ledger is partnering with Behind the Leasing Desk to sponsor our BTLD Right On Ribbon award! They are gifting our winners with 2 months free service for their community!

December's winner, Terry Gibson, and her fabulous Greystar community, Four Winds, in Overland Park, Kansas will be enjoying this fantastic resident retention focused service as our way of reinforcing outstanding performance!

Thank you, Black Ledger for your support and willingness to help us recognizeand reward those in our industry who do amazing work! I encourage all of my readers to check out their product at www.blackledger.com, and if you're interested, I'd love to put you in touch with our awesome Washington state rep, James Larson, who's efforts have made this partnership possible!

Just areminder, don't forget to get your nominations in for the BTLD Right OnRibbon Contest! Email your nominations toHeather@behindtheleasingdesk.com and tell me how this person went aboveand beyond in your company!

Beating Burnout - Saving Stars from Supernova

Heather Blume — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 15:46:00 GMT

A few years ago, I had an amazing opportunity drop in my lap. One of the big national property management staffing companies took an interest in me and asked me to come on board with them and open their new Seattle office. I'm always up for a new challenge, and I liked the pace and feeling of the company,so I jumped in with both feet. While I was doing the job, I thought everything was totally normal. Because I was meeting great success, I processed it as perfectly acceptable to have ulcers, to work 16 hours a day, 7days a week, to drop everything when my phone rang, and to bite off the heads of my friends and family whenever I felt like it. I didn't actually process that I was drowning in stress until everyone starting asking me if I was stressed out.

"No, I'm fine! I just really like my job," I'd tell them. I would then give them my happy smile and say, "I'm really committed to my clients and customer service, that's all," and then I'd watch them roll their eyes. I knew I was fine. I was making excellent profits for the company, and I knew that it was perfectly normal not to be able to sleep 2or 3 days of the week. After all, they were paying me to worry about my numbers falling or my clients changing to a different company. I felt I was being paid to deal with feeling bad.

I was in too deep to see my own stress and completely out of control in my professional life. By the time I finally figured out how much stress I was under, I had already began to subconsciously hate my job. I had supernovaed off the bat for the company and found that I had to keep working harder and harder to hit the bars that I set for myself in the first 6 months of work. Coming out of the gate, burning as bright as I could, I never learned how to turn down the fuel on the fire to find a balance,and pretty soon that fuel ran out, and I burned out and crashed. BOOM.

Because property management is full of employees who are high energy, high production personalities, this kind of job experience isn't uncommon. I've seen it happen in property managers, leasing consultants, trainers, regionals, as well as to all the folks on the maintenance side of the job. We come in, and we amaze the people around us right off the bat, so we push ourselves just a smidge harder, and they're amazed again. Then we break out the big guns and kick it in to overdrive because we want to be the best, and no one can keep up with us. We are the golden child of property management.

One of two things happen. Either we can't keep up with the overdrive speed for long periods of time after our superiors have already come to expect it as normal production speed, OR someone just like us is hired, and since they've not been in overdrive for 4 months, they can do more than we can. Either way, we lose our golden child status. And it's devastating to us, so we burn out, stop trying, and say, "screw it," as we fall out of love with our job.

Supernova employees can make a great long term investment for a company because they have a lot of the qualities that we always tell people to look for in a good hire, and when the chips are down, these people will come through for you. The catch is that you have to pair them with a worker who models constancy and knows how to hold back someone just enough to keep them from bursting. So what do we do to keep ourselves and those supernova prone folks around us from exploding?

First, slow down. I know it's cliché but it really is a marathon, not a sprint. Outside of the world of music, no one ever went from number 99 to number 1 overnight, so try to settle yourself in for the long haul. Remember, when they hired you, it was for your potential, but not just for your potential in the next 5 days.

Second, if you're a manager over a potential supernova, help them learn the classic skill of time management. Novas rarely realize how long something will take, as they can't estimate project time very well, and if you can teach them this skill, they will be less likely to overload and blow.

Third, supernova candidates have to learn to applaud themselves. Part of the reason that they are pushing themselves so hard is because they are thriving on external praise and kudos. Sometimes it's because they never learned how to self motivate, and other times it stems from self esteem issues.

Just for Fun, a peek at where Behind the Leasing Desk is at home

Heather Blume — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 03:29:00 GMT

I've received a ton of requests over the last few months, but as they're growing in intensity, (6 in the last week alone!) I've finally caved and posted a picture of my workspace. This is where I create my presentations and where I write Behind the Leasing Desk (unless I'm on the road or working from a Cafe Ladro up in the Issaquah Highlands.).

Anyway, if you'd like to take a look, you can link to the picture here, or you can check it out through the Facebook Fanpage here.

And yes, I play with and own a lot of toys. They're vital to my creative process. And there's nothing wrong with that! :)

The Evil Overlord List: Management Lesson on Number 32

Heather Blume — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 15:57:00 GMT

This post takes it's origins from one of my favorite websites, Peter's Evil Overlord List. In essence, the site is a list of common blunders in movies and plots where you would find the "Evil Villain" character type. What I also find when reading the site is that it grants amazing insights into the world of people management.

Today's lesson comes from point number 32, which reads:

"I will not fly into a rage and kill a messenger who brings me bad news just to illustrate how evil I really am. Good messengers are hard to come by."

Killing the messenger is all to common a management response to bad news. The problem with killing the messenger is that, as the quote says, good messengers are VERY hard to come by. The people who will be honest with you, the ones who will tell you when you're about to make a presentation with your fly down or that the marketing plan for the next quarter sounds like it was designed by a 3 year old throwing chewing gum at a dart board, these are the people who you don't want to injure the lines of communication with.

Yes men are easy to find. There is no shortage of people in this world who will disagree with you and still play sycophant to your face. Someone who is honest enough to tell you when you're wrong or you've got a screwy view of the world, even if you don't like it, is someone you should probably keep around as long as possible.

(This blog is a teaser post for Heather's new management seminar, How to Manage Like an Evil Overlord, which can be booked by emailing her at heather@behindtheleasingdesk.com, or calling her at 785.410.7385)

Someone Pushed My Peeve Button

Heather Blume — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 06:11:00 GMT

Okay, I'm going to vent off on this for a moment, and as it's social media related, I think this a pretty good space.

I love twitter. I love my twitter feed, my twitter friends, and the reputation and how much business it has earned me over the last year. When I choose to friend someone, 99.5% of the time it is because they somehow have a link to the industry OR I know them on a personal level. So let me tell you what I'm tired of. I'm tired of "Social Media Marketing Experts" following me or friending me on Facebook who have never reached out to me and are clearly just going to spam me with their crap. I don't want to hear their crap, I have my own crap to listen to. On top of that point, if they were truly "Experts" then they would know that what they are doing is the polar opposite of using the media the correct way for marketing!!!

I follow Chris Brogan and I follow The Brand Builder on Twitter. I've never met either of them personally, however, each one of them has, at one time or another, had an ACTUAL CONVERSATION with me. We've exchanged ideas, and for that, I find them nifty. Some people I will follow because I want to hear what they have to say. These would be the Keith Ferrazzi and Dan Schawabel type of folks, and they bring valuable insights to me. It's for this reason that I also follow Wil Wheaton, Levar Burton and Tony Robbins. But they didn't friend me first. I was the seeker on that follow, because I liked their words, and I didn't expect a follow back. The "Experts" and "Gurus" who are following me aren't doing so because they like my words...they just want me to reciprocate the follow, and, to quote a show from my childhood, "Homie don't play that."

It's about relationship management, people! It's not about follower count. It's not about friends. It's not even about how many likes or dislikes you get on your posts. It's about the relationship you are able to cultivate with people and that takes time. So if you have 50,000 Followers, good for you. It means you have a lot of people who will just follow you blindly. I'm not one of them. Either get to know me or bugger off, because I don't have time for people I don't relate with in my twitter stream.

And now I feel better.

J. Geils on Social Media

Heather Blume — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 14:40:00 GMT

"My blood runs cold, my memory has just been sold, My angel is the Centerfold."

You know, J Giels was a visionary. I don't just say that because I'm a nerd for 80s music with questionable themes. Here he was in 1982 with the song "Centerfold" (which, by the way, was at number 1 for 6 weeks, acting as further proof that America loves the naked girl next door) long before facebook, twitter, myspace and the online world in general. Yes, the song is about the girl you imagined was naked as a teen actually being naked as an adult, but it's also about public exposure, and what people are ready to see and what they aren't ready to see. I find it interesting that his ultimate goal at the end of the song is to find somewhere with the girl to, referring to her clothes, "Take 'em off in private."

I've written on this topic before, but recently it has been brought back in to my direct line of view. See, I have a very good friend who is a corporate recruiter, and on those occasions when she needs to have a "Really?!" session with someone, she calls me. Last week was by far one of the biggest job searching blunder calls that I've seen in a while.

She emailed me a resume from a potential candidate, and asked me to call her before I opened it. When I called, immediately, she started laughing and told me to go ahead and open the resume. Everything looked pretty normal to me, and the candidate looked pretty good on paper. I wasn't sure yet what was so funny. At the top of her resume, she had listed her social networking sites, and included links to her profiles, that she had listed under a section that said "See my personality!." My friend told me to click on the Facebook link. As soon as the page loaded, I realized why she was finding such humor in the situation.

What lay before me was a totally open FB page, no security settings, and a profile pic that showed more of that candidate than any HR professional would want to see, as she was taking a shot of booze upside down while wearing a tank top, leaving little to the imagination. "See my personality," indeed. My friend told me to read her status updates, and while I won't quote them for you, I will tell you they were a 60/40 mix of where she was going to party and who with combined with how much she hated her job and the current people she worked with.

No recruiter will touch that with a 10 foot pole, let alone a reply email.

Keep your wits about you on line folks, especially if you don't understand how to use privacy settings. Pictures of what you're too drunk to remember, Google never forgets.

Beating Burnout - Surviving Stress

Heather Blume — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 15:31:00 GMT

Whether it's the pressure others put on us or the pressure we put on ourselves, our industry is rife with stressed out people. Go to a property management convention sometime, and I swear you will see a sea of smokers who NEED their nicotine fix standing outside of it. Vendors, try calling your regionals and property managers just to chat on Monday morning at the beginning or end of the month. It will be funny. I promise. (I'm kidding! NEVER do this!) And we all know that the reason the door to the managers office closes is so that they can go in there and cry when they need to without anyone seeing it.

And it's not just our industry. Research conducted at Fairleigh Dickinson University found that 3 out of 4 American workers describe their work as "stressful." The same study also found that the workload has increased substantially over the last 25 years, as today's workforce is now working the equivalent of an extra 13th month every year in hours. On top of the extra work, we now have less pay for more work, and job security has become the punchline to a very dark joke. And if you think stress is just "a personal problem," consider this factoid from the same study: Workplace stress costs U.S. employers an estimated $200 billion per year in absenteeism, lower productivity,staff turnover, workers' compensation, medical insurance and other stress-related expenses.

Here are a few signs you might be stressed out:

You are seriously contemplating how much money you could make as a full time beachcomber who cleans up shells and sells them to tourists
You get a snow day, and even though you're out of milk, bread, eggs, and all other basic food elements, you pray for the snowbounding blizzard to continue
You've experienced either a significant weight gain or weight loss without trying for either and now none of your corporate attire fits right anymore
You know deep down in your heart that if you could just carry a tazer and lightly shock the people who upset you, that your job would be SO much more fulfilling and better

Since according to a NIOSH report on workplace stress, 26% of workers report being burned out OFTEN by their work, we have to find new ways to combat stress on the job. Step one for many people comes from taking control of the situation. This is a step that some people find can create even more problems if not taken correctly. I'm not suggesting that you jump in to PROPERTY COMMANDER mode, turning your workspace into a marine boot camp. The key in taking control is realizing that you control YOU. You're in command of how you react, how and if you let things affect you, and how long you are willing to worry about problems.

After you get control of yourself, you can do a lot of different things to help alleviate the effects of stress on your body. One of my favorites is exercise. You'd be surprised how incredible you feel after a session of kickboxing, or a yoga class where you worked so hard that you had to focus on nothing else. Besides a rush of endorphins, exercise can also provide a mental clarity that allows you to see otherwise hidden solutions to issues. I've gotten some of my best ideas while trying to keep a good pace on the elliptical.

The food you eat can do more than just put you in the carbohydrate coma after lunch. It can actually cause serious mood alterations in the body. Fast food for lunch might seem an ideal solution on a busy day, but you're going to regret the grease on that pan pizza in about two hours when you feel sluggish and depressed. You don't want to do the other classic property management move of skipping your lunch either, because as your blood sugar falls, so does your good mood. Pretty soon you're throwing a stapler across the room and you don't really know why you're upset. You're best bet is to eat a healthy balanced lunch, and to get out of the office when you do it. Everyone deserves an uninterrupted lunch break.

When you're not sleeping, your body's ability to handle stress is severely compromised, so if you're having trouble sleeping, see your doctor as soon as possible. They can give you tips like not using your computer or watching tv for an hour before bed, or keeping a pad of paper next to the bed to record ideas on, and they can also check to see that your sleep problem isn't indicative of something much more serious. A well rested body is key to keeping an emotional balance.

Lastly, as much as we're tempted, all articles and papers on stress management I've read have one consistent piece of advice: Keep away from the nicotine and only drink in moderation. You may feel for the 20 minutes after your cigarette that you can handle anything, but because nicotine is a powerful stimulant, it will actually lead to higher levels of anxiety, not lower. Likewise, as your body processes alcohol, you will find that there is a delayed reaction of higher anxiety. This occurs when your body breaks down the drug on the cellular level 48 to 72 hours after ingestion, so a night of binge drinking on Saturday means a likely Monday stress fest.

You want to beat burnout from stress? Breathe. That's one thing you can do, no matter where you're at.

Could you be a little less "dependable?"

Heather Blume — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 21:30:00 GMT

I just spent two weeks in bronchial hell. You see, I'm one of those lucky people who seems to catch everything that's "going around." If I'm standing downwind of someone who sneezes, I'll come down with what they have. It's for this reason that, before I started my own company, I hated the dependable employee.

You know the one I mean. I'm talking about Mister or Miss come in to work with or stick out the workday with "just a low grade fever," or "just a cough that sounds like a seal being abused," or "just this sinus thing that's making me sneeze on all the community use phones." For the inexperienced manager, there's a sense of admiration initially for this employee. They're such a little trooper! That admiration fades, however, over the next three weeks as your team systematically comes down with the same ailment that the little trooper brought in to share, causing massive losses in productivity and staffing costs.

So why do we go to work sick? Well, to start with, we have a limited number of personal days. For a lot of companies, if you are ill, and run through your allotted paid sick days, the next step is to start sucking from your vacation time. Talk about a great vacation. You went to see toilet land and met Captain NyQuil. What a way to recharge your batteries.

Next, there is the social pressure of work. Maybe we have a big project or deadline that's looming. Could it be Month End Close? 7 Turns that have to all be done in 3 days? Resident party this week? Whatever it is, we decide it's more important than nipping whatever bug we've got. Just one more day at work, maybe just a half day. We have to get caught up. Also on the cue of social pressure, we don't want to let down our teammates. When we're not there, they have to pick up the slack for us, and that's not fair.

If you are one of these very dependable employees, please consider the repercussions of your actions before you come to work in the morning. No one is telling you to stay home with a case of the sniffles and abuse the sick days policy, but I am asking you not to force me to spend MY sick days. If you're contagious, you probably know it. Call in sick.

To keep illness from spreading in your offices this flu season, I've got a few tips for you.

Antibacterial lotion - Killing the germs is important, but using straight Purell can dry out your staff's hands, leading to cracked skin, which is no fun at all. Purell makes a lotion form of their gel, or you can find some great scented antibacterial lotions at Bath and Body Works, picking a smell that goes with the season for your office.
Follow those signs in the bathrooms of every public place and, for the love of Tony Danza, COVER YOUR COUGH! I swear, I thought that this was something parents taught their children to do naturally, but I've seen more adults in elevators unapologetically hack on the back of the people in front of them lately than I would have expected. And please cough to your elbows people, not on the hands you're going to use to welcome a future resident. Your flu is not the free gift with tour that you're offering.
Your keyboard is not your friend during flu season. Because the small crevices make an ideal breeding ground for germs and because your hands go on this thing at least 100 times a day, wipe down your keyboard daily with an anti-static antibacterial wet wipe.
Wipe down and Lysol your phone daily. You don't know who coughed on the mouth piece when you weren't looking or who might have deposited their nasty ear infection for you to catch. The phone is one of the big spreaders of office illness because human instinct with phones is that when they are ringing, we answer them, even if they aren't ours.
Keep Kleenex on at your desk. Not only will it help you when you have a winter bout of the sniffles, but it will also allow you to subtly tell people that you don't want to catch what they've got. If someone is coughing or sneezing in front of you, offering them a Kleenex seems polite, but it also says, "Please deposit your ick here, not on my day planner."
Fabreeze Antibacterial the carpets, drapes, and chairs in your office around lunch time. I'm so not kidding about this. That stuff not only will make your office smell better, but it reduces the chance that you'll catch the floating ick in the air. Either way, you win!

Good luck to you out there, and for those of you who have already caught the winter crud, get well soon! And don't come back to work until you do!!!

Heather Reviews the Multifamily Pro Brainstorming Conference for 2009

Heather Blume — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 23:08:00 GMT

Multifamily Pro Brainstorming 2009: A Human Conference With Out Of This World Results

I’ve had many multifamily moments that ranked pretty high on my list of awesome experiences. As important as each one of those was to me, they’ve all been eclipsed by the week I spent at Multifamily Pro Brainstorming in Houston. I’m not a novice to conventions by any means, but the energy, creativity and addictive nature of this conference has made it a set in stone plan for me to attend next year.

Dancing on chairs and making more excited noise than I’ll bet Houston has ever heard before, a room full of people dressed as aliens, star wars characters,Trekkers, not to mention the oracle of the future herself, Ms. Tami Swirek,greeted over 800 amazing multifamily minds on Wednesday morning. It had to be quite a sight for those first time brainstormers, but the energy of Tami’s facilitation staff was out of this world and incredibly contagious! By the end of the day, our 64 tables had come up with over812 new multifamily ideas, executable and designed with the idea of tappinginto key trends for the coming year. Tami set in our sights on 10 trends,including Hyper-Tasking, Infolust, Being the Greenest, Localism, and Generosity, as well as several sub trends under each category. Explained by Tami and the Apartment Expert, Lisa Trosien, these upcoming trends worked like a snow shovel to uncover what has been a much hidden path for our industry this last year. Everyone has had a rough year this year, but that fact didn’t seem to dampen the spirits of a room full of dedicated problems olvers. Participants were even invited to pose their biggest challenge to the small group they were working with, giving everyone at their tables a chance to pull together and find solutions. I can’t describe to you the rewarding feeling of looking around the table at 8 people who were engaged and involved in helping each other. People were so generous with their thoughts and experiences, and, though I can’t speak for any of the other tables, those expected and traditional conversation killers never once reared their head at my table. Open minds and open hearts make for open eyes moving forward.

Tami spoke at the Trends 2010 luncheon, a session which made me want to yell out AMEN several times. Thankfully, I had Twitter and didn’t have to interrupt her to agree with her. Tweets highlighting key points posted during Tami’s speech do not even come close to doing the presentation justice. It’s something you really had to be there to get the full effect of and I encourage those of you who have never heard her speak before to add attending a session with her to your list of things to do during your career.

Wednesday wrapped up with a great executive panel session moderated by the CEO of Camden. When you take the stage in a maintenance supervisor’s uniform to talk about the future of our business, it makes an impressive statement, and I don’t think there was anyone in the room who didn’t hear his message loud and clear. The points brought up by the panel he moderated were thoughtful and interesting. The executive panel skewed more to the financial end of things, but what I walked away with from it was a great quote from our moderator: "If the people in the office aren't smiling, then the stock price isn't going to go up." Dang Skippy!

I would be hard pressed to find a more engaging and fun group of people to celebrate with. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Multifamily folks know how to party! The inclusivity that I saw extended to and from my colleagues was amazing and really touched me personally. It may have been because there was a rough year, but the sense of a banded comradery flowed through this crowd. It was great to reconnect with and meet some of those brilliant minds I’ve been working with on Twitter over the last year. From what I considered to be a very special experience hanging out with some industry legends on my first night, to a long, uncharted walk to dinner the next night, to the great tweet up Thursday evening, I never stopped laughing with these people. These people held an ability to make it fun to wait a half an hour for an elevator. Even my roommate, Charity Hisle, and I stayed up one night until 3 am, just cracking each other up, proving once again that things get increasingly hilarious the more sleep deprived you get. I’ve never had so many people teach me so much through love.

Thursday’s educational sessions were like Pixi Sticks for the brain, a jolt of inspiration and energy that required action. The ones that I attended got me so hyped upand juiced that I couldn’t stop thinking of good ideas, and my brain went in to creativity overdrive! I was privileged to co-present a session on marketing without the internet with the amazing Ms. Cathy Macione. If you’ve never had the pleasure to see her in action, you’re missing out on someone who is energetic, intelligent and inspiring. I was in awe of her poise and grace on the stage, and feel incredibly honored to have been granted the opportunity to work with her. Some of the other great sessions included Charity Hisle and Allison Bell’s Craigslist Best Practices, Lisa Trosien and Mike Whaling on Social Media, and Lori Snider and Jackie Ramsted’s Improv to Improve. Running concurrent to the sessions was a great tradeshow in the lower level of the hotel. It wasn't overwhelming in size, but it was just perfect for the attendance and space allotted. I saw a lot of my favorite vendors there and got the chance to meet and talk with some new ones. I also had the chance to see Anne and Eve's beautiful jewelry. If you geta chance to buy from them, make sure you do, their work is amazing.

Friday morning’s panel sessions were incredibly informative. I wished I could have attended all three, but, as they ran concurrently, that was not possible.Though I did not get the chance to see it, I'm told that the fair housing session offered by Doug Chasick and Nadeen Greene was fantastic! I sat inbriefly on the social media session, moderated by Lisa Trosien, and was very impressed at the knowledge that was being given. To have 5 strong names in multifamily social media there, taking questions and clearing up misconceptions was a complete gift to that audience. And speaking of gifts, the massive amount of ideas offered by the expert panel of consultants in the next room wasn't something I'd take back to the store either! Just sitting in that room, having a chance to soak up their great ideas and knowledge is an experience I am so glad I got the opportunity to have.

Tami has released the dates for this year's conference, September 15-17 in Dallas, and I hope that I will get the chance to see some more of you there. It can completely change your perception of this industry and it can turn your world around. If you've never gone, beg, plead, borrow and deal to get there...it's well worth it!

Beating Burnout - Going Back to the Well

Heather Blume — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 15:09:00 GMT

I'm a nerd. I'm sure that's not a shocking statement, especially if you've been reading my blog for a while. I love to learn and I love to use new knowledge as soon as I come into it. Knowledge inspires me to reexamine situations, find new solutions, and even figure out the reasons why I might have acted or thought the way I did about certain things. I will warn you up front, knowledge can be a pretty powerful addiction, but if you've got to have a vice, it's not a bad way to go.

A lot of people, like yours truly, include new education in their routine of going back to the well. There's something energizing about GOOD education. Now, not every class out there is going to meet my burden of "good" education. If the instructor puts me to sleep, if the material isn't relevant or current, if I don't care about what I'm sent to learn, or if there's no point in me learning this stuff (like calculus), then that's not a worthwhile expenditure of my time and effort, and frankly I'd rather not go. Luckily, in the multifamily education world, we are known for having dynamic presenters and speakers like Lori Snider, Lisa Trosien, Jackie Ramstedt, and Anne Sadovsky to name just a few. But it's not always affordable to bring in a speaker each time our team's motivation seems to wane. What can we do?

A first great option is to take advantage of the technology at your fingertips. I've mentioned many times about all of the blog and on line resources out there for property management professionals, but I also want to talk about some of the newer things in the last six months. Did you know that Appfolio and MultiFamily Insiders partnered to bring free webinars to anyone who wants to see them? So far, I've learned a ton from Mike Whaling, Lori Snider, and Lisa Trosien's, and I hear that their line up for the coming year is incredible! And it doesn't cost you anything as a manager, except time. The ROI here is a no brainer. If you can have an expert teaching your staff for even just an hour, why wouldn't you tune in?

Does your company use classes from Grace Hill or the Training Factor for your training process? Did you know that you can go back in and retake Grace Hill's classes? Well you can. On these two great systems, does your company require every class be taken by everyone? Probably not. When I first started in the industry, the company I was working with had a core curriculum that we had to complete with Grace Hill. I was kind of bummed because a couple of the classes I wanted to take weren't included in the curriculum, so I called and asked the regional trainer if I could take them anyway or if it would cost more. He gave me the thumbs up, and I completed everything they had on the list, short of the Vaultware course. I did the extra classes on slow weekends or in the mid month days where we were not as busy. Many of us out there aren't busy right now, regrettably. But that doesn't mean we need to sit there and twiddle our thumbs. It never hurts to grab an extra course here or there.

One of the cheapest ways to provide this sort of resource over time is to build up a professional library for your staff. Property management resources, like years of back issues of Rent and Retain magazine (NEVER THROW THOSE AWAY!!!) or UNITS can make great additions, but don't forget the non property management related intelligence that is out there. Topics that can yield excellent engagement can run the gamut: Communications, Management, Psychology, Sociology, Sales, Customer Service, Marketing, Career and Workplace Topics, Leadership, and even Technology. Just because it's not directly related, doesn't mean there's nothing to gain from it. If you'd like some suggestions to start your collection, please feel free to email me, and I'd love to share some of my favorites with you! Half Price books is nationwide and you can find many titles that I read there. I know, because 99% of the time, that's where I picked them up.

Beating Burnout Blog Series

Heather Blume — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 20:45:00 GMT

At the start of the year, it’s commonplace for us to all make our resolutions for change, whether it’s to lose weight, to find love, to advance our career, or the ever elusive, to find personal fulfillment. After the last year, it’s no surprise that a lot of people out there are questioning their jobs and career choices. Due to the economy, many of our workers have been shouldering the workload of 2 to 4 people for over a year now. They're constantly worried about the next cut to come and whether it will be their job on the chopping block and, frankly, the stress of it all is making them extremely tired. It's a perfect storm of necessary conditions for a blazing wildfire of burnout.

Maybe you're seeing it with your own teams or even in yourself. Here are some signs to look for:

Your employees have so much apathy that they sound like the goth kids from South Park ("Whatever.")
Eye rolling is such an often occurrence in your office that you're surprised when it DOESN'T happen
Jobs are getting done, but instead of being completed throughly and with a lot of thought, the end product looks like it's held together with paper clips and chewing gum
You wait to have your coffee until AFTER your morning staff meeting, because there's no point in getting a buzz on until you get the Debbie Downers out of your office and on their way for the day
When you wake up in the morning, you're actually praying that someone on your team will call in sick, because, despite the increased work load for the day, it's less emotionally draining than actually having them there.

Amusing as my examples may be, some of you out there are nodding at the screen right now. As a manager, what can you do to fight burnout in your team members and in yourself? Over the next few Wednesdays, I'll give you several different ways to rejuvenate passion for our industry in my Beating Burnout blog series.

A job is like a relationship. You're going to fall in and out of love with it over time. What's important is that you really like the core of what you're doing, because that's what will get you through the rough stages. Just like new car smell, new job passion will fade over time. You'll slow down, become annoyed with the day to day stuff and apathy will creep in. But if you can just remember, every once and a while, to touch that part of your job that made you love it in the first place, you gain a bit of the motivation that it takes to keep you from burning out and divorcing your career partner. That memory touch of the initial career infatuation, that is the goal of this series.

"Try Anti-depressants," and other ways NOT to respond to resident feedback - See it at www.propertymanager.com

Heather Blume — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 11:57:00 GMT

All the cool kids are doing it.

We used to ignore sites like Apartment Ratings and tell our people to try to just forget they were there and not take things personally. In the last two years though, the shift of the social media model has required a reexamination of our silence, and it's been decided, by pretty much everyone out there, that it's time to respond to online public resident feedback.

I get emails on a weekly basis asking me questions from how to avoid escalating a situation in a response to how to deal with a clearly crazy resident ranting, my favorite line from that one being, "Can I just tell her to try anti-depressants?" No. You may not suggest that your residents try taking a dosage of Prozac or Xanax.

So let's talk about what you can say:

Start with a little empathy. Maybe your company thinks it's alright to dust off the old Kindergarten standby of, "I'm sorry." Maybe not. But above all else, display a little empathy. As I said in the #AptChat on Twitter a few weeks ago, if it makes youangry to read what they wrote, think how angry they were when theyposted it.
Realize that if they're complaining, they're pretty angry, and if they thought they had to come online to do it, then you've got a communication breakdown somewhere. Take responsibility for that.
If the situation has already been addressed, discuss publicly the solution that you worked out.
Even if you think the solution worked out, make sure that you invite the resident to call the office and follow up with you should the same problem happen again.
Use the words you would use if you were dining with your Grandmother. Don't use slang, don't use LOL, BRB, TXT MSG ME, etc. Don't drop the Fbomb. Don't say "Sry U were Pissed. Txt me 2 talk." This is not appropriate, and the Grammar Patrol will come, get you, put you in a bag, and beat you with large semi-colons. (What, you thought semi-colons had a valid use? No. They're for beatings by the Grammar Patrol.)
For the love of Tony Danza, take a moment to proof read your post! If you are responding as management, it doesn't matter how illiterate the original posting is, if you respond in half words or type out the word "loose" when you mean the word "lose" (which can Drastically change the meaning of a few sentences I've seen on ratings sites) not only you, but your entire company looks dumb. A misplaced apostrophe rankles me something awful!

I've pulled this management response from Apartment ratings and I've not edited anything out of the post. Now, kudos do go out to management for actually responding to the post, but not for HOW they responded:

I'm sorry to hear that you think this about our apartments,we have been active in trying to clean our side of the block up..its the surrounding apartments that make it bad. we dont let anyone with criminal history in here so i have no idea why you think its us. as for office hours,we are open 9am to 6pm except when we have functions. sorry. have a nice day.

Sorry. Have a nice day.

I imagine that's what their residents are going to tell them at the end of the lease.

The little things are sometimes iconic

Heather Blume — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 15:58:00 GMT

When I first moved to Washington state, I went on a quest to find a Mexican restaurant that had decent chips and salsa. It seems like it would be an easy thing to find, but, alas, it took me almost two years to find a place that I liked where the chips didn't have too much salt on them or the salsa wasn't just large chunks of vegetables without any "sauce" factor to it.. Now that I've found that restaurant, I don't stray too far unless I'm outvoted on Mexican dining options. Deciding dinner with friends IS a democracy, after all.

Last night while dining with our friends, Mike, amature philosopher and observer of the human condition, pointed out something about the economy. "No matter how bad it's gotten, they still give you free chips and salsa," he said.

It's true. In a year of record cut backs and trimming of any fat that's visible, there are some icons that, if we're smart, we don't touch. Sometimes it's something as small as chips and salsa.. This place hadn't changed the chips it was using to something cheaper, or the salsa to a less pricey brand (possibly because there were no cheaper options and I just like low grade chips and dip!), and it never stopped giving free refills on the basket. And it didn't raise the price on the rest of the food to compensate for losses this last year either.

Ask yourself what little things are iconic about your property? What do you have/do/provide that others in your area don't? If your answer dances in the realm of, "I don't know," maybe this is a good time to think about what YOU can do to create iconic ideas. Whether it's the way you welcome a resident, the way your maintenance team works with residents in their homes, or even the cookies we put out or the drinks we offer.

Iconic means it's remembered, it stands out and it's recognized. It doesn't have to be big, it doesn't have to be flashy, and it doesn't have to be expensive. It can be as simple as chips and salsa.