Accommodating Every Need In his plan to turn the Farmington Hills, Mich.-based Village Green Cos. into a service company, George S. Quay, president and COO, not only wants to offer residents speedy maintenance and efficient move-ins, he wants to give them a wide variety of choices in lease terms and apartment styles. “When you walk in the door of Village Green, you should be able to say what you want, and we can give you a price,” he says. That could mean asking for anything from a furnished unit on a two-month lease to an unfurnished unit on a two-year lease.
It is a concept Quay used during his tenure with Village Suites, the former corporate housing division of Village Green that he ran during the ,90s. The company is getting back into corporate apartments and currently has more than 100 units.
Getting furnished apartments running at these sites has not been as easy as Quay first expected. With furnished units, property management staff has to set up the utilities and furniture delivery. “We ended up tying up resources when the local team sits on the phone with the utility company waiting for confirmation,” Quay says.
Though the same leasing agents can sell both furnished and unfurnished housing, he learned the administrative burden of doing both types is vastly different. “We found that the corporate housing business is very administration heavy,” he adds “You are scheduling utilities, vendors, furniture, and housewares. The client requires a service level that’s different than the unfurnished resident. They are there for a much shorter period of time, and they are much more demanding.”
These higher expectations forced Village Green to bring on a second support staff for the unfurnished housing section. “We felt we could do it more cost effectively to set up a separate internal center to handle it,” he says. “Behind the scenes we handle the furnished and unfurnished parts of the business differently. But the customer knows no difference.”
This is the key to Quay’s push to customer service – make life easier for the customer by offering more housing options without adding hassles. Once this happens, Village Green will be one step closer to becoming the service company Quay envisions.
Village Green Cos. at a Glance
- Year founded: 1919
- Location: Farmington Hills, Mich.
- 2003 revenue: $250 million
- Number of units: 27,000
- Number of units in the pipeline: 1,000 to 1,500 per year
- Expected growth in units within five years: 30,000 to 35,000 units
- Geographic coverage: Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Minnesota, Texas, and Kentucky
- Revenue streams: Owner, manager, developer, purchaser, and third-party manager
- Number of employees: Approximately 1,000
