Happy Residents

Fostering customer satisfaction

By Yardi Blog Staff on Jul 8, 2014 in News

Care to know which cities in the United States are home to the most satisfied apartment residents? A recent report released by J Turner Research, a Houston-based company that exclusively specializes in market research for the multifamily industry, identifies Raleigh, North Carolina, as the nation’s hub for happy renters.

The study, The Digital Mirror: Online Rankings and Reflection, tracked and analyzed the online reputation of 46, 000 apartment properties in 131 cities nationwide. Based on an aggregate scoring scale of 1-100, the national average score in online customer satisfaction was 47.

“Online reputation is fast altering the dynamics of every industry” observes Joseph Batdorf, President, J Turner Research. “The apartment industry is no different.  The digital world offers an instant and influential platform for residents to make their voices heard. Residents across the nation have expressed their opinions to rate properties and J Turner has analyzed those ratings to determine the cities offering the highest customer satisfaction in the apartment industry”.

Raleigh, North Carolina, ruled the charts in 2013, standing out as the ‘Happiest City’ in online customer satisfaction by apartment renters with a final score of 54.  According to the study, prospects in Raleigh may call themselves lucky as the chances of them landing a property that is rated at or higher than the national average are 68 percent higher than anywhere else. Cincinnati, Ohio came in second with a final score of 52; Washington, DC was ranked third with a final score of 51; Chicago, Illinois; Modesto, California; and Knoxville, Tennessee, also made the top ten with a score of 51.

On the other end of the customer satisfaction index stands Aurora, Colorado. It seems that residents of Aurora have not had the best of luck with their apartment choices. The study revealed that for a prospective apartment renter in Aurora, there is only a 17 percent chance for a property to be rated at or higher than the national average of 47.

To overcome the challenge of multiple ratings scales, J Turner developed a statistical model that established a single score representing the aggregates of relevant sites.  This score served as a benchmark to compare various properties, management companies, and cities.  A city with at least 50 properties reviewed online was eligible to be ranked in this study.

“The Digital Mirror: Online Ratings and Reflections is the first of its kind study that provides the industry with information to assess the impact and evolution of the online reputation,” Batdorf added.

Ensuring a good reputation in today’s competitive market is crucial for a community to be successful.  And while there is no fail-proof strategy to keep your residents content, there are a few practices that will help you stand out from the crowd and score high with most types of residents, be it Millennials, Gen Xers or Baby Boomers. With the economy improving, and occupancy and rental rates both on an ascending path, property managers can finally shift attention to customers and focus on delivering an enhanced tenant experience.

Customers are more vocal than ever before; they now see the benefits of sharing personal experience, with the good and the bad, and are eager to provide feedback with regards to both services and products. What motivates them the most is that they are being heard and their requests accommodated. Hence the growing trend to use online tools as a means to monitor renter satisfaction and employ real-time data for maximizing efficiency and asset performance.

“We’re certainly beginning to see an industry-wide pattern where communities with the highest levels of customer satisfaction also benefit from the best online ratings and reviews,” said Batdorf. “As reputation management strategies in multifamily continue to evolve, ongoing measurement of customer satisfaction (and dissatisfaction) remains a critical tool for evaluating the effectiveness of initiatives designed to improve customer service.”

Renters are recurrently seeking such attributes as fair pricing, safety and comfort in their apartment choices. Nothing new so far; but with the proliferation of user-generated media and online ratings, technology has permitted property owners to dig deeper and see what makes renters tick in terms of both pragmatism and lifestyle considerations.

A series of surveys on renter preferences conducted by J Turner Research found that the top apartment resident complaints, aside from the financial implications, involved poor response from on-site management or maintenance staff. Improving resident relations with apartment community staff is a most important step which will pay off almost instantly in customer gratification. Once your existing residents are content, rest assured prospects will hear/read about it.

“Apartment residents remain concerned with a broad range of customer satisfaction issues but far and away the immediate opportunity to improve customer service and resident satisfaction levels is by addressing dissatisfaction with onsite staff responses to resident concerns,” Batdorf pointed out.

Undoubtedly, responsiveness is key when aiming to retain residents. Property owners and managers can give a huge boost to their customer satisfaction efforts by ensuring flawless curb appeal for their properties as well as by completing any deferred maintenance, appliance upgrades, common-area renovations or amenity improvements.

According to the JTR analysis, the top 10 multifamily apartment resident complaints are: rental rates; poor grounds / common area upkeep; disorganized staff / lack of communication with staff; quality of response to maintenance requests; overall customer service of management staff; quality of parking / parking availability; concerns over security / safety / lighting; lack of upgraded amenities; pets not on leash / poor pet waste removal; and general lack of preventative maintenance.

 

 

J Turner Research is the leading provider of true operational intelligence geared specifically for the apartment industry. With 31 years of industry experience, Joseph Batdorf launched J Turner Research into the multifamily housing industry in 2003, helping apartment managers measure and market their customer service.