A New Direction Still, the question remains: Why would Holtzman pursue Quay, 33 at the time, to run the business his grandfather started in 1919? One answer was simply Quay’s youth. Holtzman wanted someone who could relate to renters in their 20s and 30s.
Upon taking control of Village Green, Quay looked at underperforming departments and at the people who did not have customer service skills. “I understood that we were going to have to change some associates and bring others in from the outside who understood what service is,” he says.
In this process, Quay realigned some of the departments where he saw overlap. He streamlined the collections department, reverting many of its functions to individual properties. He consolidated executives in management, development, construction, and communications. They now report directly to him.
Quay reallocated about 20 percent of the 120-person corporate staff. Some managers wound up in understaffed departments. When employees were dismissed, Quay shifted some of their responsibilities to other areas and promoted associates to fill those positions. “One of the things that made Village Green very successful was the breath and scope of our management support department,” he says. “I consolidated and realigned the direction so there was less overlap and more specific accountability.”
Focusing on the Customer The centerpiece of Quay’s plan is customer service. And most of his moves were made with this goal in mind. His biggest asset coming into the job was his almost religious drive to satisfy each and every customer. Holtzman believes that for Village Green to achieve the greatest possible economic success, renters must be happy. Quay’s customer service record with Village Suites, one of Holtzman’s pet projects, proved to the chairman that Quay was up to the challenge.
Anyone following Quay’s career up to that point wouldn’t have been surprised that customer service was one of his first priorities. In the hotel industry, service is king. “In multifamily, you have a property that has five to 10 employees,” Quay says.
“You have corporate and regional oversight, but its off site,” he continues. “At hotels, you have hundreds of employees that have been in the business for a long time. It’s usually a very tenured business with your executives on site. They can manage the service process much better because they’re all there, and they all walk the same walk.”
Quay adds this personalized touch at Village Green by visiting each property manager with a copy of his or her customer service report. If a property has a problem with trash pick up, for instance, Quay will walk out to the dumpsters with the property manager to make sure that trash is not overflowing from the bins.
To further drive home the importance of customer service, Quay made it count for 20 percent of each employee’s performance review. He also established service benchmarks for each part of the organization. Leasing agents must sign 35 percent of tours to a lease and turn 70 percent of calls into appointments. Maintenance is expected to follow through on each request within 24 hours. Property managers are expected to keep bad debt at less than 0.25 percent of gross potential rent and maintain occupancy at above market levels in their class.
