Houston-based REIT Camden Property Trust, meanwhile, seems to have struck a happy medium. Hesitant to turn over all of its calls to a third party, Camden rolled out an in-house alternative this past summer. The center is staffed by 13 Camden employees from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., after which the calls roll over to RealPage’s Contact Center. “This ensures they are getting a Camden customer experience when they call, as 80 percent of the people have worked on site at Camden communities,” says Laurie Baker, vice president of fund and asset management for Camden, which owns 63,286 units nationally.
3. Tear Down the Walls.
Traditionally, a large desk separates a leasing associate from the prospect. That barrier is being removed as apartment firms attempt to make the prospect-leasing agent relationship a more intimate one. The result? Smaller, more comfortable gathering spots scattered throughout the office.
“The walls are coming down,” Baker says. “We used to have true offices in a leasing center, but where we have a large enough footprint, we are designing open-concept leasing offices that allow for areas where you can sit and have private conversations.”
At Cleveland-based Forest City Residential, those conversations are happening far away from the leasing office. The goal at one of its newest projects is to make the leasing office actually disappear from prospects’ sight. At The Presidio Landmark, scheduled to open in San Francisco in July, a small office tucked away in the back corner of the building’s lower level is to be solely used as a space for signing papers and answering phones. Instead, the leasing staff will greet the prospects in the building’s high-end lobby and promptly give them a property tour—with a laptop on hand to review available units and pricing.
“We are seamlessly integrating the staff into the experience of the building,” says Scott Villani, director of marketing for Forest City Residential, which manages just over 36,000 units in 23 states. “We don’t need an office door with an open sign. We are always open now. We have a 24-hour front desk, and we want people to be able to access whatever information they need at any time.”
4. Go High-Tech.
Still, not every potential resident wants to talk to the leasing staff. Whether at the airport or grocery store, customers crave self-service. The same goes for renting an apartment. The solution? A marketing kiosk. More multifamily firms are installing kiosks in their leasing centers or, in some cases, large, flat screen TVs with touch-screen capabilities to search real-time unit availability, pricing, floor plans, photos, and even the option to print your own PDF with customized pricing information and floor plans. At some communities, kiosks even offer portals where residents can pay rent online and submit service requests.