We live in an unforgiving world that demands stellar customer service. One false move, and you have a negative review on social media. That minor mistake could become magnified and live online for eons.
If you feel like your business could do better, you might get your inspiration from your property manager or landlord.
Most people don’t think of their landlord as a muse, I realize, but I’m the owner of a national franchise property management company. That’s my wheelhouse, and if you think about it, if you have a landlord or property manager, whether they are wonderful to work with or something of a nightmare, every time you interact with them, you’re constantly being taught lessons in customer service (even if they’re an accidental landlord trying to figure things out on the fly).
So, if you’re looking for ways to improve your business’s customer service, or if you happen to be a property manager who wants to be better, you’d do well to pore over the blueprint that the best property managers and landlords seem to follow.
Communicate well and relatively often.
Nobody wants a landlord who doubles as a stalker — but you also don’t want to feel like you never know what’s going on in your own home. The best property managers send emails or texts or use some sort of social app to communicate with their tenants when new issues crop up. Will the building’s electricity be out for four hours in two weeks due to some scheduled maintenance in the neighborhood? Is a main hallway or lobby going to be painted? Will somebody be coming into your home to work on the plumbing?
You want as much advance notice as possible.
If you have a good property manager, you aren’t going to be living in a world with a lot of surprises. Just as businesses send coupons or reminders of sales to loyal customers, the best property managers let their tenants know that they care. Some might have an annual “get to know your neighbors” barbecue for anyone who wants to come. Others might send the occasional email or social media messages simply reminding tenants that if they have an issue, they shouldn’t be afraid to mention it.
Tenants and customers appreciate when business owners make it clear that their door is always open.
Be a human being.
Rules are rules, and they exist for a reason. You have a date that the rent is due because if there was no date, you’d likely never get any rent. You may have restrictions on when people can play loud music because, well, you have other tenants who have rights — and enjoy sleeping at 2 a.m.
If you have a store, you have plenty of policies, such as customers not being able to take the store’s merchandise into a restroom.
Some policies obviously shouldn’t be broken, and others maybe can be bent a little. If somebody’s going to be a few days late with a rent check and lets you know beforehand, obviously you’ll have a stronger relationship if you can tell them that that’s OK and don’t come off as if you’re going to send somebody named Knuckles to their door to collect it. In the same way, if somebody comes to your store one minute after it closes, you might decide it’s good business to reopen the doors and let that customer in, if they can be quick.
That’s common sense, but I’ve seen plenty of property managers on both sides — where they enforce rules as if they are immovable, and others who recognize that sometimes offering a little wiggle room can create a lot of gratitude and loyalty from a tenant. In the same way, business owners who manage policies, rather than allow the policies to manage their own behavior, usually end up with happier and more loyal customers.
Get good at background checks.
You might not think it would be important to a tenant that a landlord properly vets everybody who moves in, but nobody wants neighbors who are always disturbing the peace and unable to get along with anyone. If you have a property manager who is good about making sure they bring in people who have a history of being good tenants, it’s better for everyone who lives there.
In the same way, business owners need to make sure they’re always careful about who they hire. One terrible employee can potentially bring down an entire business.
Be effective.
If somebody asks you to fix a problem or get information on an issue, do it — within reason, of course — as quickly as you can.
It’s easy for landlords and business owners to ignore those little issues from tenants or customers that, in the grand scheme of things, may not seem very important. Maybe a tenant has a question about pets that goes unanswered, or a customer at a store asks for help finding an item on a shelf, and because you and your staff are extremely busy, that help never comes.
Maybe the tenant and customer go on about their business without any disappointment or anger toward the property manager or business, but you’ve still missed an opportunity to help someone — and in the worst-case scenario, you are sending a message that the tenant or customer doesn’t matter much, and that your property manager or business isn’t very proactive about solving problems.
Sure, it might seem silly at first to look to your property manager as a business mentor, but you can learn a lot from even the worst of them. That may be at least some solace to you as you move out and find a better place to live.