Notifii reported a 50 percent jump in emails sent on the platform in March and April, when stay-at-home orders began. A recurring theme in the property management industry has been figuring out how to maintain resident engagement while adhering to social distancing mandates. A thoughtful digital communications strategy is more important than ever in resolving problems and ensuring resident satisfaction. Multi-Housing News teamed up with Notifii team Michael Baker, Software Sales Executive, and Sneha Lakkaraju, Marketing Director, to explore best practices for communicating with residents. Here are 5 ways to easily improve your digital communication strategy.
Maintain engagement by crafting the right message
Notifii Connect users have seen a near 50% open rate on average since the beginning of lockdown orders. Due to the heightened need for text and email, it is now more important than ever to preserve and build relationships with residents by crafting the right message. “Personalize it,” said Baker. “Your residents know who you are, so really cash in on that personal connection you share with your communities…anything that is relevant will drive more engagement.” It’s best to use relevant language that is specific to your community, while keeping messages short and sweet. To help your readers easily digest your content, bold, and underline key points. Adding a call to action in your messages gives your residents a clear picture of how you would like them to respond. Weekly or monthly newsletters are a great tool to address concerns about COVID-19 and how it’s impacting on-site operations.
Address issues immediately to avoid additional headache
The unprecedented six months has created a multitude of challenges for the property management industry. The most common being difficult conversations about non-payment or late payment of rents, health guidelines, and tension among residents. Baker recommended that property managers address all issues quickly and professionally while staying calm and collected “The sooner you tourniquet the problem, the better off you’re going to be”. During this time, it would also be helpful to create community-wide reminders to outline new policies and potential penalties for not following them. Now that we know how quickly events can get out of time, it is important to consider spending time on emergency planning and preparing templates for specific situations or time-sensitive scenarios. For instance, Baker noted one client in Texas experienced a flash flood but was able to evacuate everyone from the community safely, in part because they had an evacuation template ready to go and were able to send out the email quickly.
Consider your audience to stay relevant
Catering to the right audience can dictate the amount of engagement you will see. For example, texting is more effective for millennials than email. Luckily, most people under the age of 60 respond well to texting. Response rates for text messages are 60 percent higher than for email and 90 percent of texts are read within about three minutes of delivery. Segmentation helps to keep unsubscribe rates down because relevant messages ensure higher engagement.
Don’t forget to remind your residents to add you to their contact list to stay out of their spam inbox.
Always respond to reviews, even the bad ones
Prospective residents love reviews and you want to make sure to pay attention to all reviews, especially bad ones. “Always, always respond, whether it’s a bad review, a good review, or one that someone didn’t put a lot of thought into it,” Lakkaraju noted.
In responding to any review, start by saying thank you for the feedback. This shows that you are invested and care what is said about your community. When responding to a negative review, thank them for the feedback and let them know you are sorry for any frustrations they felt. Be sure to have team members reach out via email or a phone call as soon as possible. Once the issue is addressed and someone has spoken with the person, leave a message on their comment to thank them for communicating with you and to say you’re glad that you could work things out.
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Grow social presence to gain brand awareness
Social media is an important way to build your brand that can often be overlooked. Property managers should be using any platform necessary to gain interest from prospective residents.”If you’re looking to drive more leases and drive more sales definitely get on social media.” said Lakkaraju. Social media gives the opportunity to paint a picture of what it is like to live at a particular property. The key is to keep a fun and friendly tone while consistently posting content. Interacting with other social media accounts is an easy marketing strategy that many companies ignore. This includes liking, sharing and commenting on posts that are relevant to your property. This creates an opportunity to capitalize on someone else’s social presence. For example, one of your residents may share something about life on your property directly on their page and you can use that to your advantage.
Improve your digital communication strategy and more with Notifii Connect.
Notifii Connect gives the opportunity to create effective messages and send them to the right people while addressing issues in a timely manner easily via text or email. The automation tools and software can transform your property management business by streamlining repetitive, time-consuming, and labor-intensive marketing tasks. With extra time, you can concentrate on building brand awareness and finding new residents.
Schedule a demo today to learn more about how Notifii Connect can improve your property management operations.