Phones have been around for over 140 years, so answering the phone is nothing new – or is it?
Having a great telephone conversation is one of the best and most powerful apartment marketing/leasing techniques in our industry.
It sets the stage for the rest of the leasing experience for your apartment prospect. Are you putting your best foot forward?
In the apartment business, a successful prospect call is one where we turn the telephone apartment inquiry into an appointment. What are the best ways to turn a phone call into a apartment tour appointment?
These are my
top favorite tried and true phone leasing techniques
to turn that apartment telephone inquiry into an apartment tour appointment:
- Once you have identified yourself, find a way to let your phone prospect know how happy you are that they called TODAY. – If your caller says they are looking for an apartment, you should respond with, “I’m so glad you called today!...” and follow-up the comment with your specials or other related comment. “I’m so happy you called today,” is a great way to pause the conversation and inject some personal positive attention to your caller.
- What’s in a name? EVERYTHING. If the caller gives you their name – use it. If they don’t, ask them for their name – and use it. People love to hear their names – it acknowledges the fact that they are an individual and not just another caller. It will help you bond with the person over the phone. Using someone’s name is very intimate. Get the name and USE it.
- If you are comfortable, assume that the caller wants to set an appointment, and give them a couple of choices of times you have available for an appointment. With all the information available on the internet, most of your callers already know enough about your apartment community/complex to be ready to set an appointment for the leasing tour. – Assume they want the tour and work on scheduling it. If you are not comfortable with assuming your caller wants an apartment tour, then ask them if they would like to schedule a tour.
- At the end of each call, always thank your apartment prospect by name for calling you!
Your call should go something like this:
RING RING!
You: Thank you for calling ABC Apartments, how may I help you? (smile!)
Caller: I’m interested in finding a 1 bedroom apartment.
You: My name is Daisy – Can I get your name?
Caller: My name is Jane.
You: Jane, I’m so happy you called today! We have some great looking 1 bedroom apartments that just became available. Do you have any particular preferences you want to share?
Caller: I want to be on the top floor.
You: Great! I have 2 apartments on the top floor overlooking the park, and …
…(more conversations, get prospect info, bond, etc.)
You: I have appointments available this Thursday at 10:15AM, 4:30PM or Friday afternoon or Saturday morning to tour our apartment community and see the apartments we have available. What time would work best for you?
Caller: Saturday morning at 10:00AM.
You: Jane, thanks so much for calling today, and I can’t wait to show you our community on Saturday at 10:00AM!
There are lots of telephone leasing techniques out there. The objective is to schedule that apartment tour. These are my favorite phone tips, what are yours?
By the way, I’m so glad you read my blog post today! THANK YOU!
Don’t GET IT? RENT SODA! GET IT!
-Daisy Nguyen in Minneapolis, Minnesota MN
CEO/President
Offering Apartment Marketing, Apartment Business & Operations Consulting & Apartment Industry Training
Web: RentSoda.com Email: Daisy {at} RentSoda(.)com
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Good post Daisy. Cheers.
Thanks Ryan! Have a great weekend!