Shopping Comps - a lesson in customer experience (CX)

Recently I was working with a potential new client for a management takeover and as part of our pitch and research on this particular community, we wanted to shop the local competitors (comps) in the area to get a feel for the market and the competition. No two apartment communities are exactly the same, they have different floor plans, different finishes, different amenities, and different people working in the community. I am a firm believer that your people can (and do) make a difference when prospective residents are visiting your community.?

When I reached out to several of the comps for this new community I honestly only had one community answer the phone. All the other communities did not answer and the ones that had a voicemail did not return my call. Well, one returned my call, 8 days after I initially called. If we are not returning prospects calls for 8 days we are losing out on significant income for our communities. Not returning a call for 8 days is the equivalent of waiting on hold for over an hour with a utility company or government agency. There is no sense of urgency, absolutely NO customer service (this literally screams - you are not at all important to us), and likely will not result in a lease (and if it does it is not leaving a great first impression).?

Below I will give a recap of my experience with the comps that I shopped before diving into ways that we as an industry can really work to elevate the resident journey. Of course no community names will be listed in this post to protect the privacy of the companies that own these communities.

Comp A - This was the first comp that I called. They did answer the phone and were able to schedule a tour for me the following day. They could not schedule me for the time that I initially requested due to them being booked for the day but the woman I spoke to on the phone was positive and upbeat (and more importantly, she actually answered the phone). I received a text message confirming my tour for the next day and was asked to confirm the tour (similar to texts restaurants send out confirming your reservation). I ended up arriving at the community about 30 minutes prior to my scheduled appointment. The parking situation and signage were not the best and I ended up driving around the entire property without being able to find where I was supposed to enter. The employee that greeted me told me that I was early but that he would let the leasing consultant know that I was there early. They had some pretty loud construction in the lobby which was noisy and I could tell that the employees had been dealing with it all day and were also frustrated (Multifamily managers - WHY are we making our onsite teams lives harder right now?!?). I overheard the leasing consultant say that she was about to have a “mental breakdown” and that we were “30 minutes early and would just have to wait.” Talk about awesome customer service. He led me to the club room to wait until my appointment time. I ended up leaving because I felt bad taking up this employee's time when she was clearly busy and not having the best day.?

Comp B - I called this community second. They did not answer, so I left a message. I did not hear back for EIGHT days. Needless to say, I stopped by the community prior to them returning my call. When I stopped by the community I was met with a mountain of packages in the lobby, holiday decorations still up, and the office being closed (but I could see two employees working). There also was not any “future resident” parking which is common for our industry - multifamily people - make it easy for your prospects to find you (and park!). I was a little worried that my car would be towed, but I took a chance. I knocked on the door and one of the employees opened it and asked me if I had an appointment. I indicated that I did not have an appointment and that I was just shopping comps and worked in the industry. She was not super friendly and definitely seemed a little put off that she had to jump out of her meeting (which I totally get by the way). It can be very frustrating for our on-site teams to be in the line of sight for all people all the time so I understood why she was not super thrilled. She proceeded to show me the model which did not show well. The amenities were not that great either, they did not have lights on in the common areas (likely due to motion sensors) but it did not leave me feeling like I would want to live in this community. While I was speaking with the employee a resident came down to dig through the mountain of packages and was clearly frustrated by the 50+ packages.

Comp C - I did not reach out to this competitor ahead of time but just wanted to walk in and see if I could take a look at the apartments, amenities, and communities. The curb appeal of the property was impressive and the community appeared welcoming enough. I entered the community and there was a desk for a door attendant but no one was standing there. I looked around and waited for the individual to return. After about 10 minutes I gave up and ended up leaving. Now, I do know that some communities have been going back to remote work with the rise of Omicron all across the country. However, there was no notice posted or any information on when the person would return (if they even would) so I did not want to waste a lot of time without knowing how long I would have to wait. Needless to say, if I was an actual prospect this community would not have left me with a great first impression. I should add that this community has the second-highest rent per square foot of all the comps - so these residents are paying high rents and likely have high expectations.?

Comp D - This community had the highest price per square foot of all the comps. They had a lot of signage out front and on the building but finding my way into the parking lot was not the most streamlined or easy. It was not as bad as Comp A, but could have been without all the signage I saw on the building. I walked into the community and there was someone sitting at a desk to the right of the entrance. She was on the phone and a little slumped and did not seem “ready to help” but that was only my first impression. Once she got off the phone and I explained to her that I was a Regional Manager and just wanted to get some more information about the community. She was extremely helpful and friendly. She had a really great attitude and honestly ended up being the best “shop experience” that I had among all the communities. She did not mind answering any questions I had and was willing to show all the amenity spaces and talk about what the most popular amenities were for her residents. I ended up asking her if the community was on revenue management software due to the fact that she had indicated her occupancy was 98%. She was not sure if they were on revenue management software, in my opinion, this is an example of the management and leadership teams doing their on-site teams a disservice, as this is something that she should know about the community she works at.

So, how could these communities better assist their prospective residents that are in the process of finding a new home? Well, one point I would like to make is that customer service is king (or queen). If we break down these tours by truly looking at how we can improve the customer (resident) experience and customer journey I personally believe we need to look at the field of UX.?

In researching all things CX/UX I believe that we (the multifamily industry) drop a lot of balls when it comes to user experience. What is CX/UX? UX is an abbreviation for user experience, CX is an abbreviation for customer experience so these abbreviations can sometimes be used interchangeably. UX is the study of a user (or customer or resident) experience with your brand. I definitely geek out a little bit when learning about marketing trends and how these can be applied to my daily job. When I was doing research on UX I came across this information about customer experience:?

“There are many elements in the shopping experience associated with a customer's experience. Customer service, a brand's ethical ideals and the shopping environment are examples of factors that effect a customer's experience.”?

Brands are more than just customer experience in today’s world. Our consumers are savvier than ever. They want to shop with brands that speak to them, provide good customer service, have similar values to them, show they care about the community, and are passionate about giving back, in addition to the environment or experience they provide to them.?

Check back next week as I give some tips and pointers as to how I think these comps in particular but also our industry as a whole can do better to give our customers the experience they are looking for!?