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Dear Apartment ILS: KISS! (Keep It Simple Silly!)

Dec 1st, 2009
by daisynguyen.
3 comments

We all have a love/hate relationship with our apartment ILS’s. We love them for everything they do, and we hate them for everything they do. Yes, I’m talking about Rent.com, ForRent.com, Apartments.com, Move.com, ApartmentFinder.com – those are my big ones, but I’m sure I’m not mentioning dozens of other ones. I’m talking about ALL of them! Don’t get me wrong, I love all my providers! They bring me traffic. Traffic is king these days. The provider’s sales agents are great – friendly, helpful, a HUGE resource to apartment communities. But, the actual services all lack something EXTREMELY important - make it easy for the prospect! KISS! (Keep-It-Simple-Silly!*) (*I hate calling anyone stupid, so have replaced stupid with silly)

A recent blog post I did and two recent discussions on Multi-Family Insiders got me to thinking:

Give the prospect what they want. In the end, they are our customer.

To read the recent RENT SODA blogpost and discussions on MFI that got me to thinking, click below:

There’s a MARKET for THAT! (my RENT SODA marketing blogpost)

Advertising on Yours (and Others’) Good Names : an MFI discussion started by Mike Whaling

The ILS Conundrum – an MFI blogpost by Mark Juleen

Why can’t the ILS model be more simple, and cater to the prospect? Make it easier?

If they get THEY want, you get more traffic, and you drive more traffix to US, and we get WE want…everyone’s happy!

I’ve been a renter before, and as a renter, or anyone looking for a service for that matter, I love it when:

  1. …someone else has aggregated all the information for me into 1 BIG list. i love LISTS! I’m lazy, I have limited amount of time, and I need to find the RIGHT apartment without spending all my free time looking for an apartment. Come on, I have a life that I want to live. Being a professional apartment shopper is not my gig!
  2. …once I’m on your site, make it simple for me to find my dream home. (i.e. if I’m looking for Minneapolis, don’t give me all the listings out in the suburbs! REALLY? Do you think that providing me with listings all the way out to Timbuktu serves me in anyway?) The more time I spend frustrated on your site, the unhappier I become.
  3. Provide me with reviews. REALLY. Amazon does it, ebay does it, Best Buy does it – everyone and their dog allows for comments and reviews. I want to hear what other people like me who have done this before think.
  4. Link me to the property. Come on, I know you want me to stay on your website so you can provide a report to those that pay you on how long the average user stays on the website. But REALLY? Once I have narrowed down the list of who I want to visit, I want to VISIT them. Make it easy for me!

What do YOUR prospects and renters want from an ILS? As a renter, what do they want to make the experience easy and enjoyable? Please leave a comment with your thoughts. In the end, we should give the customer what they want, and they’ll continue to come back for me. Let’s see if we can get the attention of the ILS’s!

Dear Apartment ILS: KISS!

Don’t Get it? RENT SODA. GET IT!

-Daisy Nguyen in Minneapolis, Minnesota

CEO

RENTSODA-small

Business & Marketing Consulting to the Apartment Industry

Web: RentSoda.com   Email: Daisy {at} RentSoda(.)com

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Thankful for Thanksgiving!

Nov 23rd, 2009
by daisynguyen.
2 comments

Thanksgiving is around the corner. I’m going to take a break from my 3-part series on facebook, and be thankful. I’m  thankful for some of the hardest working yet most underappreciated people in our industry – the vendors of the multi-family industry.

I should also point out, that as an industry, WE, ourselves, are vendors. We are vendors to every person who rents an apartment from us. Knowing how bad it feels when a renter takes out their frustrations on us, why do we do that to our vendors? We know that it takes time to learn about someone in order to sell our value proposition (remember all those questions from the guest card?), and how frustrating it is when our prospects say,  “just tell me how much it is,” and yet we’re always asking this of our vendors all the time. (Remember when you asked your sales person to *JUST* give you a number, without taking the time to explain what you want?) How hard is it to sell on value when you prospect says, “Well, ABC Apartments down the road is giving away 2 months free rent,” and we turn right around and tell XYZ contractors their bid is 2 cents too high. Our renters don’t buy IT, as we aren’t buying IT ourselves. Kinda sucks when the shoe is on the other foot, huh?

Don’t get me wrong – smart business is still smart business. We definitely need to know where the market is and demand competitive pricing from our vendors. Whether the service is software, advertising, carpeting, screening, information, bulk purchasing, etc., beyond asking that vendors be competitively priced for the market, the secret to my success has been carefully choosing the right business partner for my needs. THIS is the exact intersection point where smart business becomes GOOD business. The “smart” business person in me would have squeezed that extra 2-3% savings out of a vendor. The “good” business person in me realizes a 2-3% savings will be repaid back ten-fold through a healthy business partnering relationship. The right business relationship can mean the extra competitive edge it takes to succeed in today’s economy.

Back to being thankful…

November 23rd, 2009

Dear Business Partner, (you know who you are!)

Thank you for all the things you have done to make me successful including:

  • giving me competitive pricing so that I can in turn be competitive
  • service with a smile (even when I have been less than helpful!)
  • answering my calls – even after hours
  • providing me with several options to choose from
  • pointing me to the best options for my situation
  • getting me the bid asap (i.e. yesterday)
  • bidding it 4 different ways with 2 different options = 8x’s more work for you, just so I can make a decision
  • wanting me to succeed
  • servicing my needs so that I can spend more time servicing my residents
  • providing free information in your field of expertise
  • delivering what you promised, and then some!

Thank you for partnering with me on our road to success.

-Daisy Nguyen in Minneapolis, Minnesota

CEO

RENTSODA-small

Business & Marketing Consulting to the Apartment Industry

Web: RentSoda.com   Email: Daisy {at} RentSoda(.)com

Become a fan of RENTSODA on facebook.  Connect with RENTSODA on LinkedIn!

Follow RENTSODA on Twitter!

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