HRAC Coffee with Caroline Forehand

Hope you were among the many who joined us for last month’s awesome Morning Coffee session hosted by Spring Water Apartments and sponsored by Signal 88 Security. The speaker for this event was The Franklin Johnson Group’s Caroline Forehand and the topic was on Resident Retention through Maintenance. The key points that Caroline wants to make sure you keep note of are that maintenance know a lot about what goes on at our communities and it is critical that you listen to them. It is so important to keep our maintenance teams engaged and encourage them to take every opportunity to showcase their customer service and personalities as they are one of our greatest assets. Just think, maintenance are typically the ones with the most personal interaction with our residents so make sure they are leaving the right impression.

Resident retention will be even more important in the coming months as more and more new communities open their doors. Reviews can make or break a community, and great maintenance can make ALL THE DIFFERENCE! Social events for your residents that include your service teams are crucial for increasing renewals and long term resident satisfaction. Caroline suggests that you not only host events at your community but also offsite like a bowling night with free shoe rental for residents for example. Engage your residents by including them in philanthropy projects like coat or food drives. Building a community takes everyone and service teams play a big part of that! Consider upgrades on renewals or services like hanging ceiling fans for customers, offer programmable thermostats, accent walls & carpet cleaning on renewals. Most of all, talk to your residents, call them when service is provided and make sure it was done to their satisfaction. 

Be sure to join us this month on Friday, November 21st at Waverton Denbigh Village for the topic of Attracting & Retaining "A" Players to be sponsored by Servpro. To register please log on to www.vamaonline.org/events and while you are there check out all the other great events still ahead!