Village Green Cos. follows a similar structure. “Our sales people are 100 percent committed to renting units,” says Jonathan Holtzman, chairman and CEO of the Farmington Hills, Mich.-based firm with regional oversight of approximately 40,000 units. “There is no one better qualified than a manager to handle service requests, lease renewals, packages, and complaints. This frees up the professional salesperson to handle the new customer.”
The division doesn’t end there—Village Green leasing centers also have two separate doors: A prospect enters one door to meet with the salesperson, while the resident enters another door to meet with the manager.
2. Don’t Answer the Phone.
It’s the great multifamily debate: To use a call center or not to use a call center? An increasing number of firms are saying yes, hiring third-party call centers so their on-site staffs can focus on existing prospects and residents. “We had 60 percent of our phone calls going to voice mails,” explains Karen Kossow, vice president of sales and marketing at McLean, Va.-based Kettler Management, a regional manager of 13,000 units. “What do you do when you call a business and get a voice mail? Hang up.” Nearly all of Kettler’s projects now use call centers, allowing the on-site staff to focus on the here-and-now while the call centers collect detailed information from prospects. Leasing agents then use the information to take a customized sales approach when the prospect arrives for his or her appointment. Kossow notes that call centers do not equate to the need for less on-site staff, but rather a shift in duties.
Despite the success cited by Kettler and others, Village Green is adamant that call centers are not an effective leasing tool. “Village Green does not believe in call centers,” Holtzman says. “A call center is a person who reads from a script. They have no emotional, professional, or compensatory ties to satisfying that customer.”