When it comes to Property Management, the title of the TV series, “Nightmare Tenants; Slum Landlords”, clearly summarizes that there are two sides to the same coin. However, in reality, the main cause of conflict in rental disputes stems from poor communication.
Communication is believed to be the key to any great relationship, whether romantic, professional, familial or even the humble relationship between Landlords and Property Managers, with Property Occupants wedged snugly in between.
As a Property Manager, your biggest part is to act as a middle-man between Landlords and Property Occupants renting out their property.
As a Property Manager, your biggest part is to act as an intermediary between Landlords and Property Occupants renting out their property.
Occupants send in a service request to the Property Manager. The request is forwarded by the Property Manager to the Landlord. After being accepted, the Property Manager assigns it to the Field Service Supplier for repairs and maintenance work.
Sounds simple, right? Unfortunately, that’s not always the case!
Why Effective Communication Between Property Managers & Landlords Is Important?
Increases the Life-Time Value of a Customer
Keeping properties occupied can be highly valuable as it contributes directly to the bottom line. In short, this is the main function of managing properties. It is evaluated that, when you successfully retain one Occupant itself, the business can save an average of $1,750 per unit per month from Occupant turnover costs like administrative work, vacancy, and advertising & marketing.
For a property that has 100 units having 95% retention rate, Property Managers can save nearly $2 Million annually.
For a property of 100 units with a 95% retention rate, Property Managers can save close to $2 Million per year.
Builds Trust & Unity
Following up with the Landlords regularly helps you to build a long-term relationship. They will be more invested in their properties. Building positive relations will also lead to more harmony and fewer conflicts that Property Managers would otherwise need to dedicate their time and effort to.
Reaching out to your Landlords regularly with relevant information is crucial to improving their experience and perception of your company. Your business is in a better position to build a positive reputation and revenue growth.
To Ensure the Safety of Landlords & Their Properties
Many property communities are subject to disasters due to human or natural factors. Being proactive and letting the Landlords know about the situation is critical to ensure safety and saving lives. With the ongoing pandemic, Property Managers must remind Landlords about sanitization measures, safety protocols, amenity policies, and contactless payment procedures. Having the right information at the right time strengthens trust in your service and gives landlords peace of mind.
Talking to your Landlords frequently is critical to improving their experience as well as how responsive they perceive you as a company. This positions your business well in their minds, strengthening your reputation as well as bottom line.
Enhances the Reputation of your Company
We live in a world of social media, and today everyone has an online voice and an opinion to match. With the basic fact that you cannot please everyone coupled with the growing demand for perfection and people having their ‘rights’ met, we are seeing an increasing number of consumers vocally critical of the services that they receive.
We need to accept that those social media complaints are standard, and getting a bad Google review can occur easily (especially from a disgruntled Landlord who didn’t get their whole bond back). It’s all about your response to complaints and bad online reviews that’ll determine the end result, not the complaint itself.
How To Overcome The Challenges Faced When Communicating With The Landlords?
Respond to Landlords’ Requests in Real-Time
Landlords expect their inquiries to be answered in real-time. They don’t prefer to wait for a long time on the phone or for days at a stretch for their calls or emails to be answered. Effective and prompt communication with Landlords will make them happier and enhance their customer satisfaction.
Property Managers must update about anything that occurs with the rental property, such as rental payments, maintenance issues, or if the Property Occupant has given the notice to vacate.
Whether the request is as simple as a slowly dripping tap or a full-fledged new shower installation, it’s always good to instantly respond to service requests without keeping landlords waiting. Similarly, you will be required to get this info back to the Landlord quickly and smartly.
Be Friendly, Approachable & Professional
A Property Manager has to stay dedicated, act promptly, be inventive and productive, to get along well with people; particularly, an ability to communicate effectively will help him prevent possible disagreements that can later cause them trouble.
As you expand the business, your regular clients will keep calling for advice over matters related to housing, including zoning problems, how to deal with borders, and the best practices in achieving their goals. No matter how hard your work is, don’t let your Landlord & Occupants feel like every time you reach out to them, it becomes a huge disturbance in their lives that they really could have done without.
Be friendly and open-minded, and never be “too busy” to discuss with the Landlords if their request is genuine and reasonable. This will simply create hostility and mistrust amongst all the parties involved.
Be Aware of Your State Regulations and Codes of Conduct for Property Managers
Make Use of Smart Technology
This is especially true if you are handling a number of properties for many clients, like most property managers. Without the help of technology, keeping tabs on everything can be difficult. Having a system in place tracks everything that happens to each of the properties you manage.
A Property Management Software helps you achieve this as you are free to leave the office and be literally anywhere and still stay in the loop.
You can log in anytime and keep a track of all in-progress tasks with ease. Furthermore, by saving time from following up over the phone, your business can improve team efficiency, overall operations, and revenues.
The i4T Global Software, helps Property Managers increase their revenues and productivity by improving the communication between the Landlords and enhancing customer service, and building strong relationships.
i4T Global Platform allows you to reschedule appointments and automatically send text message reminders that the Landlords and Occupants can easily reply to for last-minute inquiries or further instructions. Therefore, you can manage all your appointment confirmations, cancellations, and rescheduling in a single, user-friendly interface as well as get full visibility into your assignee’s daily workload.
Hot off the press!
With our cutting-edge technology and in-depth knowledge of how the Field Service Management sector operates, the i4TGlobal Team loves to share industry insights to help streamline your business processes and generate new leads. We are driven by innovation and are passionate about delivering solutions that are transparent, compliant, efficient and safe for all stakeholders and across all touch points.
