This guest post is by Anastasia Masters. Follow her on Twitter at @anastasia_mm0.
Managing all of your responsibilities as a property manager is no easy task. You owe your staff, your buildings, and your residents a portion of your time. An easy way to improve your relationship with your residents is to become a better communicator.
Improving your property manager game with 4 communication tips
It’s easier than you think to improve your communication skills in order to better serve your residents and meet the responsibilities of your role. Improving your communication skills is one of the simplest ways to grow in your career, better serve your team, and improve your overall property management.
1. Use technology to your advantage
Technology has influenced everything around us from our phones to our refrigerators to our watches. In order to better communicate to your residents and simplify your role, take advantage of the technology available to you.
Consider implementing a resident portal for your building. These online systems give residents an easy way to contact you, log maintenance requests, and more. Additionally, these systems ease the life of residents since they provide them access 24/7, and they’ll be able to complete tasks no matter the hour. It will also simplify communication since, as a property manager, you’ll be able to send out all resident communication through this tool.
2. Stay professional and open
This may seem obvious, but it’s important in your communication with residents to keep a professional demeanor in your speech and your body language. Residents are likely to get angry and upset from time to time, after all you are responsible for their homes. In order to best solve their issues, stay calm when dealing with someone who might be fired up. Focus on finding a solution for their problem rather than arguing with them.
When speaking with residents in person and with your office staff, be mindful of your body language. Although not noticeable to you, your body language can give off negative cues to whomever you’re speaking to. Be conscious of how you’re carrying your body, the amount of eye contact you’re using, and even the tone you’re using to communicate. All of these, if negative, can turn others away.
In order to be open to your residents, consider suggesting that your management company make use of a call-center. A call center will make sure that calls are not directed straight to voicemail where potential residents could be discouraged from leaving a message. A call center can be used when your office is closed, or you can use it to free up your office staff for other tasks.
3. Prioritize listening
In order to best serve your residents, you’ll need to ensure that you are prioritizing listening when they talk to you. We all listen to others, but you’ll need to listen and understand their issues if you want to get to the base of solving them.
Listening is important when problems arise, but it’s also important to listen to the preferences of those that you work with. If your residents only like being communicated with through text or email due to the nature of their job, make sure to take that into account when reaching out to them. Paying attention to the small details can save you time and help foster a deeper relationship between you and your residents.
4. Keep it quick & personal
Your residents aren’t going to be happy if it takes you multiple days to acknowledge the problem that they need help with. A long turn around for issues can lead to a lack of trust and even potentially being removed by the board. Therefore, improve your communication with your residents by reducing the time it takes you to respond to their problems. Even if you can’t provide a solution immediately, ensure that you’ve heard what they are saying and that you are working to resolve it and provide updates as appropriate.
Personalizing your message can also strengthen the relationships that you have with your residents. Something as simple as adding their name when greeting them by text or remember to contact them during their preferred time can go a long way. Greet residents when you see them in the building or office. Everyone desires to feel recognized, so as a property manager, it’s important to try to keep everyone happy.
Communication is the name of the game
Improving in your role as a property manager can be as simple as just improving your communication efforts with your residents. With the tips listed above, you can make sure that you’re on top of the property manager game in meeting the needs of your residents. Remember, communication is ever evolving and something that you’ll need to work on in order to stay on your a-game.
Anastasia Masters is a Content Marketing Associate at G2.com and you can follow her on Twitter at @anastasia_mm0. In her spare time, Anastasia enjoys eating her way through Chicago’s different neighborhoods, planning her next trip, and binging a new show on Netflix.
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