What Multifamily Can Learn About Customer Experience
The sector has made strides in serving renters, but gaps remain, says Cortland’s Mike Gomes.
Looking for an apartment is also an experience, and a deeply personal one at that. Operators have been trying to meet evolving renter needs and transform the customer experience into a better, more enjoyable resident life cycle. The key is creating more memorable, intuitive, and personalized experiences for the modern renters who are just as research-driven as they are digitally savvy.
Focusing on that customer experience creates a long-term impact on new leases, renewals, resident retention, and better reputation. Multifamily can leverage some impactful strategies from other industries to deliver a better experience to renters.
Creating a More Sophisticated Resident Life Cycle
Tim Hermeling, executive vice president of marketing and sales for Cortland, comes from travel and financial services—two industries that understand lead generation and customer experience. Travel and financial services have always been very focused on trying to understand who the customer is and then using that information for marketing, relationship building, and lead nurturing at every stage of the resident life cycle.
“In the past, most multifamily companies have been primarily focused on the physical product,” Hermeling says. “Obviously renters want a physical product, but, as you talk to them, you learn more about what they’re interested in. By listening to them, we have the ability to not only deliver a better physical product, but to also cultivate more of a relationship with them that provides even more value beyond that physical product.”
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Operators have started to better understand the customer experience through research and surveys. That data helps companies transform the way communities are marketed and apartments are delivered. The product is much more than just a place to live—it’s the entire resident life cycle.
Mike Gomes, Cortland’s chief experience officer, has a background in sports, entertainment, and hospitality. He notes that multifamily has applied more of an intentional focus on establishing a better resident experience over the last five years, but gaps remain.
“There’s a discrepancy between what we experience as consumers when interacting with other brands and industries, and how multifamily interacts with renters,” Gomes says. “Multifamily is still a generation behind in delivering personalized service and has been extremely late to adopt a much more digital engagement model. But consumers now expect that individualized, personalized experience because of their engagements across so many other industries.”
Communication is the foundation of a personalized experience. Other industries have well-curated content that is delivered to customers based on their unique needs. The same concept can be used for multifamily, no matter where the resident is within the life cycle, to create more individualized experiences.
“That experience also starts to reflect in your reputation,” Hermeling says. “People who are satisfied will leave positive reviews. We see that in many industries, and we also see that in our business. The next round of residents look for confirmation that they’re going to be treated well where they live and the promises made on the website are kept. It influences your future residents when it comes to signing a lease, and it influences your current residents when it comes to signing a renewal or moving to a sister property.”
Reputation is critical to attracting new residents. Based on Reputation’s 2022 Property Management Report, 88% of prospects will read reviews before touring a community. Fifty-five percent of respondents noted they won’t even tour a community if it’s under four stars on the Google rating.
“That really underscores how a good customer experience translates into positive online reviews and why a strong reputation is beneficial to companies,” Hermeling says. “Online reviews are critically important, and customer experience that is delivered well and that people value will manifest as positive reviews, which then fuels the front end of the cycle again.”
Augmenting Digital Interaction and Website Flows
Many consumers expect a digital experience, from how they open bank accounts and purchase insurance to how they book an airline ticket, a hotel room, or a table at a restaurant. While all those experiences do have physical interaction moments, they’re also augmented by smart, intuitive digital interaction and engagement tools.
The same should be applied to the apartment search and website flows. Looking for an apartment is a predominantly physical experience, but it can be augmented by interactive and digital components. These website features streamline leasing and offer seamless communication. The apartment search has evolved into a more modernized experience, but it’s still falling short of renter needs.
“How you shop for a hotel room or short-term rental is so different from how you shop for an apartment based on a floor plan,” Gomes says. “It almost doesn’t make logical sense, yet that’s the industry paradigm.”
More apartment companies have been enhancing website content with robust visuals, like interactive maps, 3D floor plans, photo galleries, videos, virtual tours, AI chatbots, and more. These website features give renters visual context that encompass an entire community, from overall layout and individual apartment homes to amenities and surrounding neighborhoods. They also make it more intuitive to book tours and get questions quickly answered.
Operators utilizing interactive maps on their community websites are finding that customers spend more time looking at the maps than static floor plans and available apartment pages. Based on data from Griffis Residential, its community website users spend 21% more time engaging with Engrain’s SightMap than the available home pages when searching for a new apartment.
“The quality of your overall resident experience, beginning with the apartment search, impacts the customers that you’re currently serving and potentially affects their decision to renew,” Gomes says. “In the event they have to move, it provides an opportunity to keep renters in the fold. If a resident has a great experience, they may choose to remain within an organization’s ecosystem, even though they’re no longer living in that individual community.”
The industry has focused more on creating better experiences for renters throughout their entire life cycle. Investing in that customer experience is beneficial to the industry as a whole.
“I think the overall historical reputation between operators and residents can be much better,” Gomes says. “Any company in this space striving to deliver a better customer experience will continue to lift the reputation for the whole industry.”
Source: Multifamily Executive
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