There are a ton of great resident retention ideas out there. Maintaining your property’s curb appeal, keeping up the general maintenance of the community, fun resident events, and renewal gifts for residents – and those are just a few.
These are foundational ideas to make your residents feel valued and more likely to resign leases year after year. But, there are other resident retention ideas that, with just a little bit of effort, can make a huge impact. What is the secret to many of those retention ideas? Video, of course!
Here are five resident retention ideas that can make a huge difference in your community.
High Impact Communication From the Start
Resident retention begins the day they sign their application. If you wait until renewal to activate your resident retention ideas for apartments, it’s likely too late.
One way to make sure residents are happy is to have high-impact communication from the start. Throughout the resident lifecycle, find ways to communicate with them easier, faster, and more concisely. That’s where video can be an incredible tool.
Video can make communication from the leasing team more enjoyable and more impactful. Think about it. Would you want an email with lines and lines of text or with tons of pdf attachments explaining move-in policies, how to use the trash compactor, or how to pay rent online? Instead, you should create and utilize a library of video tutorials that save the resident time and frustration.
Videos will help residents retain more information. Generally speaking, we retain 90% of visual information. So, residents are going to learn these policies and instructions faster and better than long emails or boring documents. And, ultimately, that will save your leasing team time. It’s a win-win for everyone!
Use Your Scheduling Technology
Today’s properties have a higher occupancy than ever before. So, you can imagine, these amenities fill up fast. We are currently getting into the summer season and that means pool season. You pack your bags and head to the pool deck only to discover that every seat is taken. That’s not a great experience.
Consider using the same technology tools you use to schedule tours to schedule time in your amenities. Many properties already use these calendar tools to allow prospects to click and set their own times for a tour. These same technology tools can be used to, for example, residents can book a specific time on a treadmill in the fitness center or to use the outdoor grilling space or you can allow residents to book a chair for a 2-3 hour time slot. This is going to help residents feel like they are truly getting their value living at your property — and that’s the end game for all of these renewal ideas for apartments.
Leverage Your Service Teams
Your service and maintenance team usually see residents much more frequently than the office staff once they’ve moved in. Another resident retention idea is to use video technology to build trust and a better overall service experience.
Incorporate QR codes into the work orders or service requests. Residents can use those QR codes to find videos to the service technician explaining the work he or she did in the unit. They can thank them for the opportunity to make something right or fix an issue. They can also use this to encourage the resident to leave a public rating or review.
While it’s never fun with something in your home breaks, it’s harder to be upset about that if it’s being fixed by someone you know. With video, residents can put a face to the name. That helps diffuse the situation if something did go wrong. Having the smiling face of the service technician explaining their work and what happened ultimately helps build trust and a stronger connection.
Use Video to Host Renewal Meetings
Typically, properties are going to start meeting with residents around 90 days before the lease expires. Those meetings traditionally mean a resident comes to the leasing office, for a sit-down meeting to discuss the lease. There is likely to be a rent increase, which is never fun, but this face-to-face conversation allows the property manager to better build up the value of the property and ensures a renewal.
However, rather than making a resident take off work or find childcare to meet during office hours, set up virtual meetings. You’ll still be face-to-face but it’s much more convenient for the resident. In fact, these virtual meetings usually last an average of 16 minutes versus the 45 minutes an in-person meeting lasts. Residents are happy their time isn’t wasted and property managers can meet with 3X as many residents in the same amount of time. Saving a resident time will ultimately mean more than any apartment resident event idea.
Create GIFs
Use your video touring platform to create and send fun GIFs to send to residents for fun celebrations. This could be birthdays, job promotions, new babies, running a marathon — anything a resident does that you want to celebrate. Text or email a GIF of the office staff jumping up and down in excitement or “high-fiving” the camera. It may seem small, but showing you care enough to celebrate their accomplishments and special moments is the absolute best resident retention idea.
The moral of our resident retention idea story is: If you’ve already invested in an amazing tech stack, use it beyond the touring phase of the resident lifecycle. Resident retention is a necessary part of multifamily leasing. And, while you’re likely already doing the traditional resident retention moves, using any of these five ideas can take things to the next level.
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