Let’s start with an easy concept that can be hard to swallow: The customer’s perception is YOUR reality. You might think that your customer service and amenities are great, but it doesn’t really matter unless your residents think so too. If, on the other hand, they think your properties are not so great or even awful, that’s what everyone else—friends, family, social media circles, review site audiences—will think too. Yikes! So how can you know what your residents are thinking? You’re not a mind reader, after all! Relax, we have a solution. Enter Net Promoter Score® (NPS) resident surveys the quick and easy way to keep your finger on the pulse of customer sentiment. You can absolutely send these surveys out to residents yourself every time you want to take the temperature of a community. But to save you and your staff time, NPS surveys are integrated with (and can be automated by) RentCafe® as part of a total property marketing solution for multifamily operators. What are NPS surveys? NPS is an industry-wide standard that scores responses to a single question to identify promoters, passives, and detractors at each property. Your residents just have to answer one easy question for you to get valuable feedback. Extensive research has shown that your NPS acts as a leading indicator of growth. If your organization’s NPS is higher than those of your competitors, you will likely outperform the market.     How do they work? Using RentCafe, surveys are automatically emailed to your residents based on a completed event, like a move in or move out. The email contains a single question with the option to select 0 – 10 based on how satisfied the recipient is with their experience. Who sees the results? The results can be viewed in RentCafe Site Manager and are not public. You can view individual responses from your residents and compare results across properties. What do you do next? The companies who use NPS well use it as part of a full marketing and operational strategy. Every NPS you receive becomes an action item. Each response should trigger a follow up email or other action. As a company, you might choose to: Send a thank you Ask “how can we do better?” Request a written review Why is this important? Being proactive by surveying your residents and letting them know they’ve been heard—that their feedback isn’t just falling on deaf ears—plays a big role in building advocacy at your properties. By providing better customer service, you are actually creating additional marketing opportunities at both the community and corporate levels. By responding directly to your user generated content, you create brand ambassadors to promote your property! For more details on NPS, log into Site Manager and look for Surveys under Company Settings. If you don’t have RentCafe yet, but have questions about it, you can also contact us. For more tips on how to improve your customer service level and keep your residents happy, don’t miss Jackie Ramstedt’s presentation on Wednesday, January 27. Yardi is a proud sponsor of Webinar Wednesdays, a series of bi-monthly, multifamily webinars brought to you by Apartment All Stars, NAA, and Multifamily Insiders. Click here to see the list of upcoming topics and register today. Do you periodically survey your residents? What works or doesn’t work at your...