Back to the basics: property management companies were spoiled during the strong economic times of 2000. Now, while enduring the recent soft-market period, they agree that getting "back to the basics" helps keep their residents happy and increase occupancy rates.

When Cindy Smathers, Property Manager at Eastwood Village, a 360-unit apartment community located in the quiet Atlanta suburb of Stockbridge, Ga., realized last June that her occupancy was steadily plummeting, she took matters into her own hands. Smathers hit to the streets with a fistful of balloons and brochures--she was a woman on a mission.

"I took a couple of the staff with me and stood on the street, really whooping it up and waving down cars," she said.

Her efforts paid off. Two roommates stopped by, took a tour and eventually chose to rent in her building. Smathers clinched the deal by spending several hours with the roommates, exploring their needs and "problem solving" their finances. The roommates were so convinced, they found the courage to retrieve their security deposit. She and the roommates were glad they did, because they turned out to be two of Eastwood's most satisfied residents.

"They were very unhappy where they were," said Smathers, "so I took the opportunity to push their hot buttons, and it worked out really well."

There is no denying that the dwindling flow of traffic has forced apartment communities everywhere to pull out all the stops in an effort to fill vacancies. Although a lucky few can throw money at their problems by increasing advertising, and many others are buying back occupancy with all-too-easy special promotions, a growing number of property management professionals are meeting the challenge by reviewing standard procedures and revisiting the most basic operating principles of apartment management.

This movement is gaining popularity at property management companies nationwide. In Atlanta, Post Properties' Senior Vice President Hall McCallum said that though his company always will move forward to try new ideas and approaches, it's just as important to emphasize the importance of "maintaining the fundamentals that brought us to the party."

A survey of industry professionals reveals consistent trends in the way companies are getting Back to Basics.

Covering Your Bases

"We've always tried to stay down to the basics," reports Lincoln Property Company's Senior Vice President Fred Chaney.

Chaney directs his managers to follow LPC's Golden Rules of Property Management, a simple one-page document that details 11 key target goals for managing and monitoring community performance, and includes guidelines such as `seven-day make ready--100 percent of moveouts in move-in condition', `Same day maintenance and never beyond 24 hours', and a final reminder to `spend every dollar as if it were your own money'. "I wish there was some new magic," said Chaney, "but it's follow up and attention, and if you do that you'll be a success."

At Legacy Partners, in Irvine, Calif., Vice President Scott Morrison said, "after a banner year of 2000, everyone got a little spoiled and everything was really easy."

In 2002, Legacy is back to basics, and Morrison relies heavily on his Six P's Community Proactive Recovery Plan, a management tool that records each community's goals and objectives, and spells out the details of 45 management responsibilities, incorporated in a checklist that includes current challenges and asks for proposed solutions. Morrison's Six P's concludes with an attachment listing 100 potential ways that may increase traffic.

At Archstone-Smith, in Houston, the focus has been placed back on the customer and how they experience the leasing process.

"The first responsible step," said Group Vice President Fredda Steinberg, "is to go back and assess all points of contact from the very first exposure with the customer all the way through and including the moveout."

Leasing teams use the company's Standards of Excellence Marketing Checklist to walk them through the renting experience from the prospect's point of view. Communities then are encouraged to make changes to bring the product and processes up to a standard they would expect themselves.

"In a strong market," said Chaney, "your leasing agents can simply become order takers because there is a lack of available units. You really don't know how good or bad you are as a manager until you hit a soft market."

Closing the Back Door

One Back to Basics element that has received nearly unanimous acceptance is a renewed emphasis on resident retention. This is nothing new. Everybody in apartment management knows the drill. If you're not `walking the talk' said Morrison, "your back door is going to be wide open and [resident neighbors] are going to go somewhere where someone is going to be nicer to them."

Legacy has cultivated a new approach to customer service. It uses an employee incentive program based on staff members performing acts of excellent customer service.

"The good times are over," said Morrison. "We are in tough times, which means we must pay attention to the customers."

Susan Sirota is a Southern California-based consultant who advises her clients to revive a time-proven marketing tool, the resident survey.

"When things were booming we were all thinking how astute we were," she said. "But now everyone is asking `What can we do better?'"

Sirota's research seeks to uncover the reasons why a resident made the choice to live in a certain community or to find out the most popular amenities or services of the property.

"I think that is a real basic," said Sarota. "Talk to the customer first. Their input can help you fine-tune your business practices."

McCallum agreed, saying his company's mission is to provide a superior living experience for its residents.

"To do this well, we must listen to the marketplace, our residents and our employees," said McCallum. "These all are resources that help us find the perspectives we need to initiate action plans."

Kim Bacon, Community Manager for Fairfield Properties, has action plans to spare.

"We went back to customer retention," she said. "We had to ask ourselves, `How do we keep our residents?', especially because we've worked so hard to get them," she said.

Her programs include a monthly, but unannounced, Breakfast at the Gate, a program whereby Fairfield offers residents a cup of coffee and a donut. It also sponsors special kids programs such as the popular Plant a Flower program each spring; and her annual Christmas Wrapping Party, whereby she arranges for residents to have their picture taken with Santa and offers complementary gift wrapping that is performed by her staff.

Bacon's said food is one of her greatest secrets for satisfying residents.

"I do feed the residents quite well," she said. "Food always works."

One industry supplier has geared up in response to multifamily's need to retain more residents. At RealPage Inc. COO Dean Schmidt said his company is "dialed in" to the industry's need to increase resident retention.

"Recent studies suggest that higher resident satisfaction with the maintenance service in the unit can improve renewal rates [up to] 40 percent," he said.

RealPage recently implemented a new program that provides automated, real-time information that monitors the response time to work orders and resident requests.

To compete in an aggressive metropolitan market, Community Manager Kisha Carr made retaining residents one of her top priorities at 222 Pearson East, a historic 35-year-old luxury high-rise building in Chicago's museum district.

"Some of the extras that other buildings offer we do not offer," said Carr. "So I make up for those by giving our residents great service and being there for them with whatever they need."

Carr said that includes walking the building to "make sure everything is where it should be" and following up personally after every maintenance call. She said she expects a lot from her staff and encourages it to build loyalty by making the residents feel they are valued. Carr said the secret to being successful at resident retention is being able to show them that "you really, really like them."

The People Factor

Most companies agree that people really do make the difference. Randy Ell, Executive Vice President of Summit Properties, in Charlotte, N.C., said he believes in the power of people.

"The most important thing in a tough economy," he said, "is making sure you have the best people.

"The apartment business isn't a terribly difficult business to understand, but it is difficult to execute."

He said he expects his managers to hire good people, train continually and monitor performance to expectations each day. By receiving frequent feedback, Summit's staff is motivated to grow, learn and to stay on track because otherwise, he said, "everything gets lost in the shuffle."

At Archon Residential Management in Dallas, Chief Operating Officer, Jim Kjolhede does not mince words when describing the attitude he wants from his leasing agents.

"Each prospective resident that comes in our door has a $10,000-$15,000 bill on their forehead. That's what their potentially worth to us."

He looks for people who approach the leasing process with a high level of urgency. "It takes a real special person to do that," he said.

Kjolhede also believes in getting the most from his people with training. His program includes services from CallSource, an industry supplier that records phone calls to the community. Kjolhede said that the service has helped Archon with its leasing effort because it offers an "indisputable learning tool" that allows leasing consultants to gain accurate feedback from its telephone calls. He also takes advantage of video shopping reports and instructs his people to score themselves on a traditional paper shop while they watch their performance.

AIMCO has a training program that features extensive computer-based training.

It offers more than 40 subjects, ranging from selling and basic leasing skills to stress management. The program allows employees to learn on their own time and at their convenience.

"We need to all focus on making sure that those basics are done and give the people every bit of support and tools that we can do to make their jobs easier," said AIMCO Vice President Ron Shelton.

Shelton said that shops also play a big part in his company's training and that AIMCO uses a combination of written and video shops, "but it's not something we beat them up with," he said. "Rather, we say you need to work on this or that specific area."

Cynthiann King, Chief Learning Officer of her own Chicago-area training company, said she understands Shelton's approach.

"We no longer can afford to waste time by covering everything all the time with everyone," she said.

She has adapted an approach to training that focuses on her client's specific needs and on teaching that delivers information only on selected subjects determined through research with the client.

"I design and deliver curriculum that does a better job of instructing people on what they really need to know in as short a time as possible," King said.

Dorothy Long, an Atlanta-based recruiter, has another point of view on the industry's reliance for strong people. Though she earns her living by replacing employees for her clients, Long said clients must be cautious during a down cycle.

"We believe that retaining good employees is also part of our responsibility," she said.

She is not shy about cautioning her customers against making quick employee changes. Long also endeavors to match employee personalities with the community or company where they are being placed.

"When the cycle goes back up again," she said, "companies need to have good employees in place."

Beyond Basics

Sharon Burkey, President of Roseland Properties in Short Hills, N.J., has her own opinion on the Back to Basics movement.

"We can't do what everybody else is doing in the marketplace," said Burkey.

Instead, she explores creative new ways to increase the traffic to her communities. Roseland has allocated a position for outreach marketing to solicit corporations, Roseland is remarketing its communities by pulling guest cards from the past 12 months and calling back with a Preferred Customer program that invites prospects for another visit. She said onsite concierge services are providing communities with a new marketing tool to drive traffic.

"When it was [healthy], everyone had great days," she said. "Now, we have to go out and pull prospects into our leasing office."

Going beyond basics, Shelton said that the company has realigned its operation with regional marketing directors. Each focuses more intensely on the marketing and sales at properties in their own area, being actively involved in everything from onsite training to employer outreach, while still managing the advertising and promotion.

One of its innovations was to "take a retail attitude" with a recent 13-Hour Sale, which runs from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. on consecutive weekends at one of its Dallas properties.

"But, it still all boils down to meet, greet, qualify, demonstrate, close and follow-up," said Shelton. "It's amazing how sometimes people have a tendency to forget that."

Morrison designed an entire marketing campaign based on dosing and follow up. He helped Legacy communities launch a What Will it Take? campaign. His staff wears buttons that bear that phrase.

"When prospects ask what the button means, we'll answer, `What will it take for you to become one of our residents?' and for existing residents `what do we need to do to make you a happy resident," he said.

At Archstone-Smith, Fredda Steinberg said her company has completely revamped its sales program, making its approach more customer-centered rather than a hard-sell strategy. Leasing consultants don't interrogate prospects on the phone, even holding back on questions about the marketing source.

"It's all about finding out what they need first," said Steinberg, "and earning the right to ask them for information. It's quite different from what our industry normally uses."

But the concept is spreading. Legacy, for example, takes the approach that today's residents are looking for a comfortable feeling when they enter the leasing office. Prospects are responding better to leasing staffs that are laughing and having fun and are "genuinely concerned about you."

Legacy's leasing staff is more likely to ask apartment shoppers what they like to do for fun, instead of how many will occupy the apartment.

"Where a person chooses to live is a very personal decision," Morrison said. "Food, shelter and clothing are the essentials of life. We provide shelter, but [we must realize] there are a lot of other places to go."

Just ask Cindy Smathers at Eastwood Village. She could probably find something for you.

Conference Speaker

Robert Hammond will present The Price is Right: Negotiating Win-Win Contracts at the 2002 NAA Education Conference & Exposition in Orlando, Fla. It will focus on the act of negotiation as an art, as well as a science, offering insight valuable to vendors and management staff. The session runs 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. Friday, June 28.

Robert Hammond is the Principal of his own consulting firm in Atlanta. For more information visit www.roberthammondconsulting.com.