HRAC Morning Coffee - Effectively Communicating with Comps

This month’s HRAC Morning Coffee topic was "Effectively communicating with Comps" and the discussion was led by everyone’s favorite presenter, Patrick McCloud. Streets of Greenbrier was our gracious host and breakfast was sponsored by Rolyn. Here are some of Patrick’s tips for successfully opening communication with your competitors: We need to build relationships with our comps in order to get valid information. Having a relationship builds trust and is a way to break the ice for market surveys. Sending your community’s info by fax/email after you call for comps info gives them the feeling of open communication. Start an email thread with your comps to discuss market surveys, traffic, specials, what works for them, ect. Inviting your competitors to come by for tours, coffee or lunch is a great way to build on your relationship. Most importantly we need to start treating comps like neighbors so know what they have available so that you can refer to residents who cannot go to sister communities and they will be more likely to do the same. Prospects are the main focus, if we cannot help them you need a relationship with your comp to try to help the prospect. Good word of mouth carries a long way and bad word of mouth is worse. You may not have what they need, but you helped point them in the right direction and they could refer a friend to you. Calling your comps for advice on resident complaints, neighborhood issues, or just general advice can be a great resource as well. Having a good relationship ensures that the information you receive from them is accurate.

Here are a few random ideas: One property has a resident of the week who gets lunch at work for them and coworkers. Properties can use postlets and Weblisters to post their Craigslist ads. Weblisters has a fee of approx $99/mo but is well worth the cost. Having a good corporate outreach program brings great traffic. Sentara and the Shipyard have work programs and websites listing communities that offer discounts. Remember technology is great, but a personal touch is always needed!

Thank you again to everyone who came out to this fantastic event! Hope you caught Donje from Signature Management’s presentation on Managing Digital Reputation hosted by Arboretum Place on May 9th sponsored by Servepro!