How often and in what capacity should a landlord communicate with its tenants?
Communication is an important component to any relationship and most people have mastered this with family, friends and spouses. But when it comes to communicating with residents, landlords often question what they should be doing. Most know they need to immediately communicate an item or event that will disrupt their regular routine. For example, residents need to know if an elevator will be shut down or the water will be turned off. But the communication landlords don’t think about revolves around fostering and developing a relationship with residents.
Buildings that have very low to non-existent vacancy levels often communicate and engage residents on a friendly, regular basis. Whether it’s through social media, a superintendent that goes the extra mile to help residents or social events that are held at the building, all of the extra-curricular interactions with residents create a recipe for low turnover.
The time spent communicating really depends on the end goal and the time available to dedicate to the task. The best thing is to sit down and map out a plan that meets a goal, and then tailor a communication program to suit it. As for time, daily communication is best in a damage control situation, whereas weekly or monthly communication is sufficient for relationship development.
Carissa Drohan is an account manager at Gottarent.com.
Carissa,
Communications is key to maintaining tenant satisfaction and engagement. It makes all aspects of a tenancy run smoother and with less conflict! Sometimes the barriers of communication are very difficult for both tenants and management to navigate but there is an increasing number of technology-based solutions that aim to decrease this kind of friction.
Not to be too self-referential but I currently work with Domum Link, a property management portal that offers a robust communications module that connects all people at all levels of a rental tenancy:
tenantemployeelandlordmanagement. The communications dashboard is centralized, but information/messages can be disseminated through online notifications, e-mail, customizable SMS, and customizable voice calls.
We have found that this model allows tenants to feel better heard by their management, and for management to more efficiently address tenancy concerns. It’s really a win-win.