4 Ways to Improve Tenant Relations in Property Management
Tenant relations play an enormous role in tenant retention rates. When you can build a positive relationship with tenants as a property manager, they are more likely to renew their rental agreements or leases. This prevents vacancies that bleed your time and resources without providing a return on investment (ROI).
How can you improve tenant relations in property management so your retention rates remain high?
Focus On Providing Great Tenant Customer Service
A significant portion of the tenant experience is their perception of the level of customer service their property manager provides. In fact, research by Zillow indicates that “staff performance [is] the largest determining factor in why a tenant moves out.” In other words, one of the most important aspects of tenant relations is providing excellent tenant customer service.
If service quality is lacking, tenants may become frustrated and move out.
Focusing on providing excellent tenant customer service can be an effective way to improve your retention rate and build positive tenant relationships. Some key aspects of customer service include:
- Service response speed;
- Quality of service; and
- Communication.
Providing fast, high-quality service while keeping your tenants in the loop is a great place to start.
Be Prepared to Quickly Resolve Property Management Maintenance Issues
The faster you can resolve a property maintenance issue, the better. Rapid service for issues helps to reassure tenants and keeps them from having to deal with discomfort for too long.
However, it can be tough to resolve maintenance issues quickly—especially when you’re away on vacation. Thankfully, there’s an app for that: Homee On Demand. How can a mobile phone app help improve response speed for property maintenance?
Here’s a Story from Phoenix, Arizona:
A work order came in from a property manager who was on vacation in Mexico when he received a call from one of his residents. The resident’s property was broken into the evening before and was robbed. Homees were dispatched the next day to secure the front door for safety. While the resident was upset about the event, it helped that the property manager could be on vacation and still have the repairs completed and the tenant’s security reinstated the same day.
Ask for Customer Feedback to Improve Tenant Relations
Customer feedback is crucial for improving customer relations for a number of reasons:
- It helps to demonstrate that you care about the tenant experience.
- It lets you collect feedback about conditions in the rental property, allowing you to make improvements.
- It gives you a rough idea of how happy or dissatisfied your tenants are (and, thus, how close they are to moving out).
Reaching out to tenants for feedback about conditions at the property they’re renting can help you improve your property management tenant experience. Gathering feedback about specific property maintenance issues is also important.
Homee On Demand makes gathering this information easy for property managers by giving you two points of view on the maintenance issue—one from the tenant when they file the work order through the smartphone app and another from the Homee who completed the work when they submit their report itemizing the time, labor, and materials used.
Consider Reaching Out to Tenants During the Holidays or Other Events
Sometimes, it can help to reach out to a tenant for something other than official business—such as sending a card wishing them happy holidays or a happy birthday. Modern social media platforms like Facebook make it incredibly easy to track birthdays and other important events.
So, consider adding tenants to your Facebook friends list—that way, you can get notifications about upcoming events and congratulate your tenants. This helps to build positive tenant relations by making you more than just “a property manager” to your tenants.
Need more ideas for ways to improve tenant relations as a property manager? Speak to one of HOMEE’s dedicated team members for help!
