9 Responsiveness Tips

Communication Best Practices

By Erica Rascón on Mar 1, 2017 in Marketing

Want to get in touch with your residents? SatisFacts 2017 Online Renter study reveals that 88 percent of respondents prefer to be contacted via email; 73 percent ask to be contacted by cell phone, and 50 percent request text communication.

 

Each method of communication has its own best practices. Dive into these nine tips for effective responsiveness.

EMAIL

Email is old news but effective email techniques constantly change. You must find a way to make your emails stand out in inboxes that are flooded with spam and competitors.

These tips may keep your emails from the trash folder:

1. HubSpot reports that 33 percent of email recipients decide whether or not to open an email based on the subject alone. Subject lines matter!

Since 40 percent of emails are read via mobile device, keep your subject 30-50 characters max.

Make the subject interactive by leading with a verb. “Party with us tomorrow night!” is more enticing than, “There is a party tomorrow night!”

If you have an incentive, notify the reader in the subject line, such as “Get 10% off rent next month.”

Add emojis at your own risk. Research tells us that readers dread all caps and excessive punctuation. More than 85 percent of respondents prefer an all-lowercase subject line to one in all caps. But emojis are a relatively new terrain. When used sparingly, they can make a good headline stand out. Downside: they might not translate well across devices and carriers. Also, certain demographics (and not others) appreciate emoji use.

Lastly, integrate numbers when you can. Numbers stand out among text and they provide context. “2 weeks until your lease renewal” will have a higher click-through rate than “renew your lease soon.”

2. Timing matters. Consider the subject of your email and then determine when it would be most relevant for readers to take action. A note about the new onsite coffee house will be most relevant before residents leave for work, for example.

 

3. Humans want to interact with humans. Simple! HubSpot suggests that an email from “Kasey Smith, Laurel Heights” will have a higher click-through rate than an email from “Laurel Heights” alone.

CALLS

Calling residents can be a fun way to build rapport and share a message. Consider these tips to warm up before your calls:

4. Create one to three sample scripts. It helps to know what you’re going to say in advance. With one script, though, you’ll start to sound like a robot. Switching it up can help the call sound natural.

5. Many pointers for email subject lines also apply to the first sentences of your script: be personable, concise, and lead with any incentives that might interest residents.

6. SitePoint suggests that you find your inner baritone. Without becoming comical, use the richer tones of your voice during calls. Deeper voices are associated with responsibility and authority.

TEXT

An increasing number of users prefer contact via text. Luckily for you, texts have a high read rate and a quick response time. The tips below may help your text communications hit home without a hitch:

7. Text Request reports that 99 percent of text messages are read. About 90 percent of users respond within five minutes with an average response time of 90 seconds, per HubSpot.

Users’ quick read and response times mean that you will get your message to the masses faster. It also means you have to quickly read and respond!

8. Per The Telephone Consumer Protection Act, you must have written consent to contact residents via text. Consider including the consent form in the lease signing and renewal processes.

9. Invest in software that allows you to send and receive texts from a secure line. When staff uses private devices, you can run into a slew of security and privacy issues.