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Supervisors & Employees: Take Advantage of Your “Open Door” Policy

Jan 20th, 2010
by daisynguyen.
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Are you a supervisor with an “open door” policy? Are you an employee that works for someone that has an “open door” policy? Are you maximizing the “open door” policy to be a better supervisor or better employee?

“Open door” policies are not just for dispute resolution. A true open door policy is a communication process where employees and supervisor feel welcomed to discuss business or employment topics together openly.

Why am I discussing this in a blog for the apartment industry? In our industry, more so than any other industry, there is A LOT of opportunity to advance. It is not unheard of for a caretaker or leasing agent to advance through the ranks and become a Community Manager, Regional or even CEO! But very rarely is there time to learn (and seldom do our own supervisors advise us) on how to be a good supervisor or a good employee. A key to being a good supervisor or a good employee is expanding and taking advantage of the ”open door” policy.

Doors are BOTH entrances and exits. There is opportunity on BOTH sides to take advantage of having an “open door.” Let’s take a step back, and ask ourselves, as people (whether you are a supervisor OR an employee being supervised), what does YOUR door look like?

(Left picture provided by h-k-d and right picture provided by roboppy on flickr through creative commons license.)

As supervisors, here are 5 things that we can do to encourage better communication:

  1. Set aside time for each individual employee, and meet with them consistently. This could be a weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly meeting. Whatever works best for you & your employee. Don’t let too much time pass between meetings. I recommend one-on-one meetings at least monthly, if not more often. Always let you employees know when the next meeting is, so that they are not surprised or scared when you request a meeting.
  2. Discuss all kinds of topics during your one-on-one meetings. If you are just starting out with a scheduled one-on-one meetings, keep the topics light and positive so that you can establish an environment to encourage communication. Topics can range from goal oriented topics, like the previous week’s leasing activity compared to the goals, to discussing upcoming educational opportunities, to working on a spreadsheet together or encouraging them to attend upcoming networking events.
  3. Listen at least as much as you are talking. Conversations are 2-way streets! Make sure to ask your employees for their input, their ideas, give them opportunities to express them, let them make decisionsm and support those decisions.
  4. Let you employees know that if they have something to discuss in between meetings, they are always welcome to stop by (or if you don’t office in the same building) to call at anytime.
  5. Every once in a while, monthly or quarterly, take your employees offsite or out of the building. Do a breakfast or lunch meeting. These “once in a while” meetings can include other members of the team – but keep it small, so that there is still opportunity to talk and listen. We all love taking a break from our normal environment!

Remember: These are ways to encourage and establish that your door IS truly always open to your employees. Spend quality time with them, learn about them, mentor them, and watch how much your employees will give and succeed in return!

If you are an employee and would like to have the kind of relationship described above with your supervisor, don’t fret. You can take advantage of the “open door” policy too! Especially if you are a new employee, it is extremely  important if your supervisor hasn’t spent much time with you, for you to find ways to spend time with your boss. It is extremely important to your success to know what the expectations are, how you are doing, and what you can do to succeed or improve. Here are 5 things we can do to be better employees and encourage good communications with our bosses:

  1. Communicate with your supervisor that you would like to meet with them to discuss your progress. This could be progress on a recent assignment or a weekly assignment like your weekly leasing goals, this could be progress towards the goals outlined during your last performance review. If there aren’t any recent assignments or reviews to discuss, let your boss know that you are in the process of setting goals for yourself, and would like their input. Whatever the case, make your case to meet with your boss.
  2. During your meeting, keep topics light and positive. Find ways to give your boss the opportunity to know you. Discuss your goals, bring up educational opportunities that might be coming up, etc.
  3. Listen as much as you are speaking. Don’t just hit them up with a long list of demands YOU want for YOURSELF. Ask for your supervisor’s input. – Whether you are setting goals for yourself, or wanting to attend an upcoming class, ask your supervisor what they think, bounce your ideas off your supervisor, find ways to engage your boss in your progress, and in your success. If you ARE making a request for something, find ways to tie your requests back to a company goal, talk about what the benefits are for you supervisor and the company.
  4. Especially if you are new, or working on a new project, get permission from your supervisor to come back after the meeting if something comes up that you would like to discuss with them. 99% of the time, your supervisors will say YES! – However, always get their permission to set the stage for you to come back and discuss anything.
  5. Know that communication, like doors are 2 ways. YOU have the ability to improve the communication and relationship YOU have with YOUR boss.

Whether we are supervisors or employees, ask yourself, is your open door really open door?

Don’t get it? RENT SODA. GET IT!

-Daisy Nguyen in Minneapolis, Minnesota MN

CEO

RENTSODA-small

Business & Marketing Consulting to the Apartment Industry

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

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Apartment Marketing: Print Advertising for Dummies

Jan 18th, 2010
by daisynguyen.
4 comments

 I was recently invited to be a “pro” for an event at the local apartment association in my area, MHA. One of the recurring questions was, “What elements make up a successful marketing plan?”

 For me, marketing apartments is a multi-step process. A successful marketing plan must understand the different steps, set goals for each step, and find ways to achieve those goals.

 For this blog article, I’m going to focus on Print Advertising as one element of a marketing plan. Your apartment community may or may not have a Print Advertising element, but if it DOES, you’ll want to read this article.

 What do you think the purpose of your print advertisement is? When I ask this question, most managers, leasing agents, marketers tell me, “the purpose of print advertising is to lease apartments.” To some extent, yes, however, the real goal of print advertising is to 1.) STAND OUT, 2.) BE MEMORABLE, 3.) GET YOUR PROSPECTS TO SEEK MORE INFO. (i.e. get your prospects to your website!)

(Picture provided by TMAN2003 on flickr through creative commons license.) 

The end goal of ALL of your marketing & leasing efforts should be to lease apartments. Your Print advertising has to do the 3 things outlined above.

 Have you looked at a FOR RENT Magazine or APARTMENT FINDER Magazine lately? (I am not affiliated with either FOR RENT or APARTMENT FINDER in any way.) In my area, there is probably 200 different choices of apartments in the magazine. As a prospect, the magazine is AWESOME, as it aggregates many of the available choices. However, from YOUR apartment’s standpoint, you should start thinking about HOW DO I 1.) STAND OUT, 2.) BE MEMORABLE, 3.) GET PROSPECTS TO SEEK MORE INFO. (i.e. get your prospects to your website!)

 Last year, I did a focus group at an apartment complex and asked the renters, what they wanted to see out of advertisements. They came up with the typical list of about 10 items long, including pricing, location, amenities, etc. Makes sense. When you look at an apartment magazine, most of the ads have several bullet points highlighting what they feel is best about their apartment community.

 During this same focus group, we asked the renters to leaf through an apartment magazine and pick out the advertisement that they were most drawn to. 100% of the focus group selected an ad that had nothing but a BIG fancy picture, the website, phone# and the name of the apartment community.

 What we found: What people want and what they are drawn to (i.e. sticks out, is memorable, makes them seek out more information) are 2 DIFFERENT things. We then decided that the goal of our print advertising HAD to be 1.) STAND OUT, 2.) BE MEMORABLE, 3.) GET PROSPECTS TO SEEK MORE INFO. (i.e. get your prospects to your website!)

 I’m not advocating that you take the pricing out of your print ads (maybe your pricing IS the memorable thing) - what I AM saying is that YOU must decide what the purpose of your print ad campaign is, and find ways to meet THAT goal. (And you can have more than 1 goal for an element.) Once you figure that out, go back and discuss ALL the elements of your marketing campaign, outline goals for each step, and try to meet THAT goal for THAT step. Don’t try to lease apartments when what you need to do is CAPTURE someone’s attention and get them to WANT to find out more about your apartment community.

 Here are some sample goals that have worked in the past:

 1.) Goal of print advertising is to drive people to our website.

 2.) Goal of our website is to get prospects to pick up the phone and call us.

 3.) Goal of the phone call is to get prospect to commit to a tour.

 4.) Goal of the leasing tour is to get the prospect to lease the apartment.

 Depending on your community, your marketing resources, you may have different elements, and different goals. Decide what those elements are, how to make them successful, and meet your marketing goals!

Don’t get it? RENT SODA. GET IT!

-Daisy Nguyen in Minneapolis, Minnesota MN

CEO

RENTSODA-small

Business & Marketing Consulting to the Apartment Industry

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

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Your Apartment Community’s Facebook Page Needs a Vanity URL

Jan 11th, 2010
by daisynguyen.
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Your community’s facebook page should have a facebook username, also known as a vanity URL.

Why? Being able to choose the URL for your facebook page is like a vanity license plate – it not only makes it easy to remember (and hence share with others), but helps you claim a little piece of facebook space as your own. Why let someone else (facebook) randomly set your URL, when you can control how people find you, remember you AND how google ranks you?

(Photo provided by aprilzosia on flickr through creative commons license.)

What am I talking about?

Most facebook URL’s are something like http://facebook.com/profile.php?id=123456789  – that’s hard to remember!

Now take for example, RENT SODA’s facebook URL: http://facebook.com/rentsoda – WAY easier!

In terms of SEO, having a facebook vanity url will help your facebook page rank higher in google searches than pages without a vanity url.

Follow these steps to claim your facebook vanity URL for your apartment community:

1.) First, carefully think of a username you want to use. Once it’s been selected, you won’t be able to change or transfer it. Usernames need to be at least 5 characters made of only alphanumeric characters. A period (.) is also allowed.

2.) Go to http://facebook.com/username  . Follow the prompts for your profiles and each fan page administered by your profile. For fanpages, facebook requires that your page have a minimum of 25 fans.

Don’t get it? RENT SODA. GET IT!

-Daisy Nguyen in Minneapolis, Minnesota MN

CEO

RENTSODA-small

Business & Marketing Consulting to the Apartment Industry

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

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Land of Opportunity or BUST! Do You See the Land of Opportunity?

Jan 6th, 2010
by daisynguyen.
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Have you ever noticed the people who complain about the lack of opportunities are also the ones that are the first to say they are too busy to join, have too much work to do, can’t take on another project, and are the ones turning away perfectly good opportunities? Complain, complain, complain, blah, blah, blah. If I were ole “Opportunity,” I would knock on another door too.

(Picture provided by Dominic’s Pics on Flickr through Creative Commons license.)

How can you position yourself to invite more opportunity?

1. Stop Complaining. Not only is this a negative, unproductive opportunity, you can’t hear when opportunity DOES knock.

2. Choose one of the following statements for the day:

A. I make things happen!

B. Things happen to me.

Hopefully, you chose option A. You’re one step closer to inviting more opportunity! If you have chosen B, there’s no one who can help you. Go back to bed. Wake up tomorrow and choose A.

3. HELP yourself. If there is a lack of opportunity in your life, stop and figure out WHY. Take some responsibility on WHY you are in this situation – and take a step to move yourself OUT of the situation. If it’s because you don’t have a degree, sign up for 1 class. Small step, but BOY, you’d be 1 class closer to a degree than you were yesterday. If you’re looking for a job, and the only place you are looking is on monster.com – you’re missing out on the majority of the job market. Most jobs never hit the classifieds! (CNNMoney.com reports over 80% of jobs are never advertised.) Figure out what you’re missing and find a way to GET IT! Stop finding excuses, start finding solutions. Make it YOUR business to be IN business. ENGAGE yourself fully!

4. Forgive yourself for any mistakes, and know that YOU are WORTHY of success beyond your wildest dreams. Most people sabotage themselves – the reason most people don’t succeed isn’t for lack of trying, its lack of belief in themselves. My favorite quote, “Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t, you’re usually right.” (Henry Ford) Why not be right about your success?

How does this apply to our apartment industry?

With this economy, so many people are singing the blues. I GET IT. It’s a tough market. So what? We’re all in this market together. If both you & I are operating in the same market, all’s fair. Go through steps 1-4 not only for yourself, but for your apartment community, for your team, for your career, for your staff. Stop complaining about the market and making excuses. Start finding solutions. Engage in your community’s success. Participate and engage in your community. Forgive yourself, your staff for not being able to run it like it WAS, and run your apartment community the way you CAN, and not the way you CAN’T.

Winston Churchill said, ”

“A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.”

Do you see difficulties or opportunities in your future? Do you see the Land of Opportunity?

Don’t get it? RENT SODA. GET IT!

-Daisy Nguyen in Minneapolis, Minnesota MN

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!

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TWEET TWEET: Twitter for Business Users and Apartment Marketers

Dec 23rd, 2009
by daisynguyen.
11 comments

I’ve been following the whole TWITTER phenomenon very closely. At first, I was VERY confused. Who would use twitter and why? More importantly, why would I use twitter, and what would I tweet? After months of following tweeters, tweeting, searching tweets, reading tweets, re-tweeting, something dawned on me: Not all twitter users are created equal! In order to best understand and utilize twitter, I had to decide what kind of twitter user I was or wanted to be.

Most twitter users fell in the following 4 categories:

Tweeters – These guys have something to say, and they are out there sharing IT with the world, or at least, the twitterverse. In the real world, these would be your authors, writers, politicians, radio personalities, teachers, educators, speakers, advocates, socialites, personalities, class clowns, etc. Instead of a book, magazine, stage, forum, class, radio, soapbox, etc. – they use twitter to get their message out.

Followers – are exactly that. They follow the tweeters. They are the audience. In the real world, these would be readers, subscribers, students, supporters, etc. In the twitterverse, there is more opportunity to INTERACT with their tweeters than in the real world. AND, almost more importantly, that INTERACTION is shared with all fellow followers AND the twitterverse.

These are the TOP 2 types of twitter users. In the business world, and in our multi-family apartment industry, the following 2 lesser known types are KEY to marketing and sales:

Listeners – these are not just followers – these twitter users are out there listening for very specific topics or trends. In the apartment industry, we must learn to listen on twitter. Find out what our customers, clients, competitors are saying – especially what they are saying about our apartment communities, our markets, and our competitors! That’s a LOT of listening! Listening is one of the KEY components to effective communication, and as an interactive communication tool, it PAYS to listen on twitter. Listening is akin to being in a busy restaurant and overhearing someone at the next table talking about your apartment community! Except on twitter, the next table is the entire twitterverse. Listeners who are active and respond to the needs of their customers can help in strengthening an apartment community’s brand, image or message and extending the customer service arm. You listen, you respond = YOU CARE. Now THAT’s something to tweet about!

Miners – these are the most diligent and proactive business users. These guys, not only listen for specific topics or trends, they are mining the twitterverse to FIND prospects and leads! In the real world, this would be similar to standing in a busy restaurant and hoping to hear someone mention they are looking for an apartment – being the diligent manager/leasing agent you are, you quip in and let them know that you work for an apartment community down the road and give them your card and contact info. On twitter, you don’t have to be anywhere and wait for the stars to aline to catch this conversation. You can use twitter search engines to mine for prospects and leads by searching for key words such as “apartment hunting new york,” – and then sending those prospects a direct message with a link to your property’s website.

I should mention: I don’t think mining for prospects should be an apartment community’s only marketing plan – however, there probably aren’t that many prospects out there who just happen to mention your key words “apartment hunting new youk,” but if your traffic is slow or nonexistent, being proactive and mining instead of waiting for propsects to walk in the door, might not be a bad option.

I’m still learning more and more about twitter every day, and have learned to LOVE it. Love how fast it moves, LOVE all the random and not so random things I have learned following others, listening for trends, and when it DOES happen, finding those leads.

The most active twitter users participate in all 4 categories. Everyone is focused on tweeting and following. For apartment marketers & leasors (or any business’ marketing/sales personnel for that matter!) the biggest opportunities are in listening & mining.

How have you used twitter for marketing your business, apartment community or services? What type of twitter user are you?

tweet tweet? 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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How do you FEEL? Success – It's all in the details.

Dec 18th, 2009
by daisynguyen.
3 comments

Consider these 2 statements:

1.) Things happen to me. 2.) I make things happen.

A small change in a statement can make a STATEMENT! A very subtle change to the sentence, but the way you FEEL when you say sentence #1 vs sentence #2 makes a WORLD of difference.

We are all so concentrated on the BIG picture and global problems of our businesses that many times, the little details can become forgotten or lost. Everyone is worried about their vacancy rate and their cash flow. You might have 20 apartments to lease, you’re thinking about how to stretch your budget, put together a resident party and conduct employee reviews. Who would have time for the little details – especially RIGHT NOW?

But, consider this: It IS the little details that can get you from good to GREAT, it is the little details that can make you FEEL good or feel NOT so good. If a small change in a sentence can make you FEEL so different, what kind of small changes can you make in your business that can make you, your customers, your vendors, and your staff FEEL as empowered as statement#2: I MAKE THINGS HAPPEN ?

The most basic detail we are overlooking is how we feel. Take a fresh look at everything that effects your business, and ask the question, “How do I feel when I look at this?” Because if you ask that question and can find a truthful answer, how you feel may very well be how others feel when they look at you, your product, your office, your apartment community, your business.

Let’s take for example your office/leasing space. Clear your mind and stop thinking about the million of things you have to do, need to get to, or wish you could do. Instead, clear your mind and walk into the front door of your leasing office and ask yourself, “how does it make me feel?” Does it feel warm and inviting? Does it feel cluttered? Does it feel peaceful? Is it noisey?

Take a look at these three pictures of leasing offices and see how you feel about the office and desk:

PIC#1:

 If this looks like your desk, we need to talk. The good news is, some small changes can make a HUGE difference. When I look at this picture, I feel ANXIOUS, CLUTTERED, claustrophobic, disorganized, overwhelmed. What do you feel? If your office looks even remotely like this, just think how difficult it is to lease apartments when your prospect feels anxious and disorganized when sitting in your office? Additionally, they could be thinking, “If I turn in my rent check, is she going to loose it? If I have a maintenance request, will it get completed on time?”

PIC#2:

This office looks better, but only when you compare it to office #1. There is good lighting (which makes a HUGE difference on how a space FEELS), there is seating available for prospects, BUT, the seat is covered with “stuff.” When look at this picture, I feel UNWELCOMED, BUSY, confused. This person clearly knows what they are doing, as it is somewhat organized, but it makes me feel like an intruder, as I’m not sure how I fit into this setting. (Where do I sit? If I DO get to sit in the green chair, I feel like I could be disrupting this person’s “organized chaos.” If I am a resident here, I would still feel unwelcome in this office. This is not how a prospect OR resident should feel when sitting in your office.

Pic#3:

This office is the best one of the bunch. Any clutter is neatly organized in drawers or behind screened cubes. The color pallet is soothing. The lighting is good. When I look at this picture, I FEEL calm, organized, welcome. This would be a great office to ask for that sale, sign leases, meet with residents. You can’t tell from this picture, as this office is so small that we had to get into the closet to take this picture – there IS a desk that fits and feel as calming and soothing as this office wall. There are a few small details I would recommend on this office to create an even greater sense of calm and welcome – 1.) Paint the wall space between the credenza and upper cabinets the same calming blue/teal color that is in the upper cabinets. This will create a focal point away from the printer/scanner, and away from the overhead files. 2.) Hide the wireless router. It’s wireless, it should still work in a drawer or even under the credneza. 3.) Hang the art horizontally along that wall – centered between the upper cabinets and the credenza. Again, to create a calm, soothing focal point that leads the eye away from anything that can be percieved as not calm – i.e. the printer & scanner & hole punch. Just think how many apartments can get leased in this office vs #1 or #2?

Do this exercise with your models, your print ads, your curb appeal. How do these things make you FEEL when you are looking at it? However YOU feel, you can expect your prospects, residents, visitors, and vendors to feel the same way when they walk in. It’s hard to do business, conduct business, sign leases, if people feel anxious, confused or unwelcome. Make the changes necessary for your business to be successful.

If you are having a hard time clearing your mind and doing this exercise, take pictures of the space in question, and show it to your friends, co-workers, business network, and ask them how THEY feel. From there, work on making some small adjustments to get your spaces feeling calm, inviting and soothing. If all else fails, call in an expert like an interior decorator or feng shui expert. It is amazing how some inexpensive adjustments like rearranging furniture, creating focal points, creating mood with paint, hiding/organizing clutter in drawers/behind screens, etc can make you feel. This doesn’t need to be an expensive exercise by any means.

If you still don’t believe me, repeat these statements again:

1.) Things happen to me.

2.) I make things happen.

How do you feel? What will you choose? Make something happen TODAY!

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

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

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Mid-life crisises don't just happen at MID-LIFE anymore…bring back Mary POPPINS!

Dec 8th, 2009
by daisynguyen.
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Do you feel the need to get more done? Do you have long to-do lists? Are you doing “stuff” but still can’t get “anything” done?

If you answered “yes,” you could be headed to a mid-life crisis. These things start small, and then they snowball….take for example:

I had a conversation with a woman yesterday that BLEW my mind. She’s young, beautiful, smart (she’s my “go-to” person when I need info), socially connected, socially conscious, and someone who gets STUFF done. I’m talking A LOT of stuff. She juggles a demanding job, participates in the local apartment association, fun/loving family woman, successful - one word AMAZING. (Let’s call her Mary Poppins going forward.)

Mary Poppins said to me, “I need to find a way to get more done. I want to take a class on prioritizing and how to get more done.” WHAT? I was so surprised. Get MORE done? MARY freeking POPPINS? WOW.

I recently took a class on MOLD. The one thing I learned in this class,  was this: Address the problem, not the symptom. So, in the mold case, the problem was moisture, and the symptom was mold. Treat the moisture problem and the mold will disappear.

For Mary, her sypmtoms included keeping long lists and feeling dissatisfied with all that she had done. As we talked more, I was able to uncover the real problem – lack of motivation.

We’re not talking about the momentary lack of motivation where a simple PEP talk would cure you. We’re talking about a full-blown lack of motivation. The kind that if left unaddressed, leads to a MID-LIFE CRISIS. The kind of crisis where you wonder who you are, why you’re here, and why you gave up on your dreams. All the sudden, you buy a fast car, join a band and dye your hair pink – try to live the dream all in one fell swoop. This doesn’t cure it either. Mid-Life Crisises don’t just happen at mid-life. They can happen to anyone, anywhere, anytime. They take time to build up.

How do we address a lack of motivation before it becomes a full blown mid-life crisis? Before you quit your job and dye your hair pink?

In talking to Mary further, I found that in her attempt to get more done, she had cut out many of the things she  enjoyed – singing happy songs, painting as a creative outlet (she had always wanted to be an artists!), and yoga. In the time that she used to read books, paint and practice yoga, she replaced those with career oriented activities – meeting with MORE clients, analyzing traffic patterns, and learning about the widget building process (and how to turn widgets into socially conscious “green” widgets), the list goes on and on. FUN? NOT.

I encouraged Mary to treat herself - allow herself the outlets that she so desperately needed. Take a class on painting! Join a choir or singing club! Find a yoga group – not only practice yoga – but talk yoga! I promised her that is she did so, even 1 hour a week, she would find that she would be so much MORE motivated at work. (Let’s bring the POPPINS back to Mary!)

I also encouraged her to find a way to bring those parts of her outlet to her career, if possible. Was there some way to intertwine yoga & the multi-family industry? Was there some way to intertwine her love of painting and her career? Could she start a singing club on site? How much happier would Mary be if she could?

Why do I mention this on a blog for the Multi-Family industry? Because Mary is not just one person, she is almost everyone person I meet in this industry. In the Apartment (multi-family) industry, it’s serious business. So serious that many of us have sucked all the fun out of it and replaced it with 100% serious business 24/7. We’ve all gone from Mary POPPINS to plain Mary!

I think the opposite. The Multi-Family indsutry is one of the most exciting, most diverse, most fun industry I have ever and will ever participate in. There are TONS of avenues that we travel where we can bring the fun. WE are our own worst enemies- we have chosen to cut the fun out in order to make room for more work. Let’s choose to bring the FUN back in.

When I was on-site, I once taught a cooking class, hosted off-the-hook FUN events (complete with aerialists, acrobats, and fire-slingers – email me if you don’t believe me and I will send you a link to pictures!), hosted “neighborhood socials,” had the oppotunity to pick out FABULOUS art for my community, hosted “jewelry” parties and fashion shows all in the name of WORK! Did my boss tell me to do these things? NO. Did I get in trouble for this? NO – in fact, my property won 5 MADACS awards for all the fun we had. My goal was to make the property successful. To do that, I brought the FUN to work. Here’s a picture of us on our 5th award at MADACS gala. Looks like fun, huh?

In the Multi-family industry, I believe we have so much more opportunity to bring the FUN into our lives than most other industries. Whether you like to cook, network, party, admire art, wear jewelry, read books, juggle fire, play music, whatever tickles your fancy – YOU have a greater opportunity than many in other industries to bring THAT to work. Whether you are a site manager, leasing agent, maintenance man, bookkeeper, caretaker, vendor, service provider, you NAME it, YOU have the opportunity to bring IT to work. – then see how much you can get done! In the words of Disney’s Mary Poppins, “A spoon full of sugar makes the medicine go down!”

What kind of FUN have your brought? Leave a comment and see how much fun we could all be having!

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

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

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Leasing: 10 Steps From SAD to RAD!

Dec 6th, 2009
by daisynguyen.
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Here in Minnesota, we blame the leasing slow-down to the weather – we tell ourselves that no one wants to move when there is snow on the ground. (And who would really?)

It’s not the snow. It’s SAD. (Seasonal Affective Disorder) And it happens EVERY year, EVERY where. So let’s not get our undies in a bunch! If you can plan it right, you’ll forget about being SAD and become RAD (Rocking All Day!)

Below is RENT SODA’s 10 step program from SAD to RAD:

  1. ACCEPT that SAD does happen. Your prospects get SAD, and they don’t want to move. Your office is afflicted by SAD, and it’s hard to keep a positive attitude. First step is to ACCEPT that SAD happens!
  2. The second and MOST important of the 10 activities, is to GET OVER IT. SAD happens to good people! Let’s stop whining about how bad it is, how bad it might be, how bad it’s going to be, how bad the economy is, stop worrying, stop attracting that negativity! It’s one thing to accept it, but let’s not wallow in SAD-ness! GET OVER IT.
  3. Every time you accomplish one of these steps, cross it off your list! Now that you’re over IT, breathe in, breathe out, and print out this list to be used as your CHECKLIST.
  4. Update, refresh, renew your ILS listings: This is a great time to look at all of your ILS’s. Who are you using? What new features have they implemented that you may not have taken advantage of? Many times, our ILS vendors are responding to our feedback and requests. They are constantly changing their programs, adding features to meet our needs. TAKE ADVANTAGE of their new features. Don’t just glaze over something. Look over it, review it, assign it to someone on your team, and take advantage of all the new features your ILS has to offer!
  5. Evaluate if your current ILS’s are doing what you need. If not, change it up. Add new ones. There are new listing services coming on-line all the time. Many are extremely affordable. Some are free!
  6. Take a look at your Craig’s List adds. NO, STOP, take a REAL GOOD look at them. Some of those craig’s list ads are embarrassing. These look nothing like your brand, your image, or your other internet listings. Now is a good time to design, tweak, and change those ads to match your image and brand. Tired of posting craigslist ads? There are a TON of services that will post them for you ALL at an EXTREMELY affordable price. (Usually under $40.00/property/month!) If you need a list of providers, email me.
  7. Join a networking group in the industry. You local apartment association is a great place to start. Getting involved in a committee or group is an awesome opportunity to be around other people in the industry. It’s so easy to get caught up in our own thing and forget there’s a WHOLE world of ideas out there! Get out there and collaborate, share, and learn through your participation in a group other than your own employer. If there isn’t a local apartment association in your area, join a networking group that interests you. There are tons of marketing groups, young professionals groups, political groups, etc. You name it, there’s a group out there that you can join, share, learn from and grow with! Ask around for recommendations, and if all else fails, try http://www.meetup.com/
  8. Refocus on resident retention. During the spring/summer months, your leasing agents spend a lot of time doing call-backs to follow-up on ALL those prospects. Now that the prospect list has dwindled to a few a week, use that time to have your leasing agents call on current residents. Call them to follow-up on maintenance items, call them to say thank you, call your residents to wish them a happy new year. Whatever the reason, your residents probably don’t hear from you very often – except during an emergency or if rent is overdue. Use this opportunity to create a positive, no pressure interaction.
  9. Work on boosting your apartmentratings.com ratings. If you have had any positive interactions with any of your residents during this time, follow-up with a personal phone call (don’t just send them an email) and invite them to write a review on apartmentratings.com.
  10. Shake it up and shake SAD out. Smile, shake hands, hug someone, wave, say “Happy New Year!” dance, laugh, giggle. Shake it up and shake SAD out.

Use this SAD time wisely, and in doing so, you can turn leasing from SAD into RAD! (Rocking ALL DAY!)

Do you want to add steps to Leasing: From SAD to RAD? Post a comment or email me and add to the 10 step program.

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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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

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

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What should we be "facebooking?" in the Multi-Family industry?

Dec 1st, 2009
by daisynguyen.
1 comment

OK, so now that we’ve established that facebook does have a positive ROI, that we SHOULD be “doing it,” the question naturally becomes, how/what should we be “doing” on facebook?

This is PART III of a 3-part series. You can read the intro here:

Intro: 3 facebook questions everyone asks when starting out… 

OR Part I: The ROI of Facebook – the Value of Creating Community

OR Part II: Facebook-itis: Addressing the Fear of Facebook head-on!

This is a loaded question, as many times, in our industy, we are focused on leasing apartments. We naturally want to tout our advatanges and post our specials – the way our traditional marketing avenues with print advertising and ILS’s have allowed us to do. Please keep in mind that for our industry (as we have now discussed on the ROI of facebook – the Value of Creating Community), facebook CAN be a marketing tool, however, it is first and foremost a connecting and communications tool to creating and fostering community. Facebook is NOT traditional, so to be able to use it as a marketing tool, we will need to think about it non-traditionally. Throw away those ideas of just blasting what your community is about, “advertising” specials, or listing prices. To better help you determine what you should be “doing” on facebook, let’s address a couple of basic questions:

  1. Who do you think your community’s “friend” or “fan” is?
  2. Why do you think they are would accept a “friend” or “fan” request from you?
  3. What do you think your “friends” or “fans” are there to see/hear?

These are the questions you SHOULD be asking and answering to determine what SHOULD go on your facebook page. IF your facebook page consists of 100 eager prospects just waiting for a rent special so that they can finally sign a lease with you, than by all means, advertise your rent specials.

I don’t think this will be the case for 99% of sites out there!

I’d like to open this up for discussion. Please leave a comment that answers the 3 questions noted above. If you don’t feel comfortable leaving a public comment, email me! (Daisy {at} rentsoda(.)com) My next article will compile all your private and public comments to share with all. (If you email me privately, I will leave include your comment, but won’t quote you. If you leave a public comment, I may quote you & link to your company. – OR tell me how you want it handled!)

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

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

Follow RENTSODA on Twitter!

Be the first to like.
Unlike
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