#AptChat

Yes, it’s the middle of March Madness, but that didn’t keep us from our regularly scheduled Friday chat. Our latest topic for discussion: Shopping the Leasing Team. There are no shortage of passionate opinions on this subject, and this discussion didn’t disappoint. Here are some of the highlights from the chat:

Are “standard” shopping reports fair? Should companies customize their expectations in their shopping reports?

• David Kotowski: Companies should customize their shopping reports based on what/how they train their associates.
• Jennifer Kennedy: I think customized shops are better than standard, but I think standard are fair.
• Patrick Nelson: There should be a minimum standard for our industry however I think each company should customize when possible.
• Heather Kattelman: Def customize! If we are going to hold them resp for leasing polc that’ what we shop for.
• University Pines: Ours shops via phone 1st scoring out of 100 pts, then actual visit scoring out of 200.
• David Kotowski: The old saying “inspect what you expect” comes to mind here. It’s unfair to inspect more than you’ve told someone you expect.
• Janet Rosseth: Custom reports should follow agent job description closely. If u expect your brand sold a certain way, it should be on there.
• Jennifer Kennedy: Customize – because we have special programs that give us comp. adv. and we want our teams to talk them up.
• Richard George: You should only customize to test specific behaviors that you want to encourage.
• Elysa Rice: We think it’s important to have an industry standard to compare against. mgt co can customize in addition to standards.
• Janet Rosseth: Most shopper services allow for companies to customize around the standards.
• Elysa Rice: Questions like response time should most certainly be compared.
• Joanna Ellis: Most companies we work with (hundreds) customize shop reports to their training programs laying out guidelines and expectations.

Should auto-responders get the same ‘rating’ as a Leasing Pro generated response?

• Patrick Nelson: No. Nothing like a response from a live person.
• Matt Adler: I’d say no. The autoresponder should be counted as a PART of the process but doesn’t replace personal interaction.
• Elysa Rice: Industry standard is 40% NO response at all on internet leads – so by all means auto is better than nothing.
• Joanna Ellis: Many companies send auto resp but also require agent to follow up with personal email and/or call.
• Janet Rosseth: Auto responder is nothing more than an out of office tool. It can be written to engage prospect until agent connects though.

Many companies today are ‘training to the shop’. Is this realistic?

• Kim Cory: NO-what are we training robots here?
• Zack Kestenbaum: I’m an idealist, I think we need to hire quality people and trust them, measuring is good but don’t “train to the shop.”
• Janet Rosseth: Shops should measure the effectiveness of training programs, not to point out faults in our agents.
• Tamela Coval: As a former leasing agent, the shop rep was 1st presented to me as a constructive tool-I carry that positive approach with me 2day.

What if all shops simply had the one question: Would you have leased today based upon the leasing pro’s behavior? Yes or No.

• Carmen Krushas: That’s why the big Q are the benchmark Q’s. need to jazz it up a bit?! totally stagnant. (I do like your question tho)
• Lisa Trosien: My former mgmt co always shopped us 2x on our ‘shop day’ as they believed shoppers had bad days. Wanted to be fair to us.
• Jennifer Kennedy: I don’t trust the shopper on that. They might have said “yes” to everyone because they aren’t truly moving.
• Zack Kestenbaum: Too subjective, what happens if shopper is having a bad day?
• Joanna Ellis: One question is good but sales does require technique too. If you don’t ask, you may not receive!
• Kim Cory: Some also like seeing formal evaluations even all-stars. Shops should B explained & used as a tool 2 help.
• University Pines: That 1 question’s important but responder really needs to be specific & descriptive in the answer 2 get anything out of it.
• Heather Kattelman: I would question this b/c I’ve seen many shops that this 1 ans just doesn’t “fit” w/ the overall opinion of the rest of the report.

Should you ever terminate a leasing pro for a bad shop? Why or why not?

• Kim Cory: NEVER!
• Jennifer Kennedy: No. Sets a bad precedent. Only exception is if they did something illegal during the shop.
• Zack Kestenbaum: Don’t fire based on a shop, fire based on results.
• University Pines: Anyone can have a bad day…not a good reason to “punish” & def not to fire…good learning tool tho.
• Carmen Krushas: Get the dead weight off and shop. Nothing wrong with firing for the right reasons. Who cares if they had a bad day? not customer.
• David Kotowski: For one bad shop? NO!! For consistently bad shops? Maybe. Regardless of the #’s, everyone eventually has to show they know.

Other notable comments and questions to get you thinking:

• Patrick Nelson: How frequently should the team be shopped?
• University Pines: frequency: i think no less than once a month…
• Elysa Rice: We have a client that uses their reports as competitive motivatrs for agents – they win vacay time, bonuses, etc based on reports.
• Janet Rosseth: If 55-65% of our first contacts are from Internet, we should be “shopping” there more frequently.
• Joanna Ellis: Shops are used primarily as training tools but also serve as a form of accountability. “Do they not do or do they not know?”
• Lisa Trosien: Is a ‘national benchmark’, such as what Ellis uses, helpful? It shows you how you stack up…I like it.
• Justin Dunckel: Ellis bechmark is great. Even cooler that they customize results for our small Co. so we can compare vs. the big guys.
• Eric Brown: If I were a leasing consultant and my company shopped me I would seek employment elsewhere, Measure me on Results, not a witch hunt.
• Joanna Ellis: Large co shared how shop drives results-100% shop = double lease bonus per lease. Do I hear “commission sales people”? Results!!!
• Lisa Trosien: If shops are used constructively as a training tool, they are *not* witch hunts.
• Joanna Ellis: Companies shopping regularly can spot trends and use information individually and globally to redirect training. Goal: Consistency.
• Tamela Coval: As Trainer on both owner/manager & vendor side, I used Shop Rep as Training Guide. Not 2 teach 2 the test, but 2 set expectations.
• Megan Yasenchack: It (shops) would help me to improve my skills, being new in leasing I want to learn as much as I can 2 get better at what I do.
• Justin Dunckel: We’re kind of all pretending these shops are 100% subjective about the LC. I sure gain more info than that on mine.

Additional Resources:

• Sample shopping report (provided by Matt Adler)
• 2009 last qtr’s Net Mystery Shopper benchmark (Provided by Elysa Rice, representing 536 shopping reports)

What’s your opinion on secret shops? Good? Bad? Helpful? Are you customizing the shops based on your training program, or are you using a “standard” report? And how does your bracket look so far?

(This week’s #AptChat included 307 tweets from 46 different contributors.)

One topic that always seems to stir up a lot of debate in the apartment is that of amenities. What do residents want? What generates the most interest along the property tour? What amenities are going out of style? We decided to throw the topic to you, and as usual, you didn’t let us down. Here’s what you had to say about amenities:

Do we really need a business center? I’ve been touring properties lately and they are JAMMED with residents!

• Heather Blume: You need a biz center – faxing at least and WiFi.
• Eric Brown: Why wouldn’t you invite everyone into your business center?
• Mike Whaling: It’s an opportunity for people to test drive your community.
• Erica Campbell: Biz Center doesn’t even make our top 30 amenity list on @AptsForRent.
• Justin Dunckel: We find a lot of move-ins use our business center to sign up for renters insurance, utilities, etc. while there.
• Heather Blume: A printer is a must have. A lot of people don’t have their own anymore with the shift to more paperless work.
• Nessel Inc.: You can’t assume all residents have a laptop … computers in biz center still needed, providing wifi not enough.
• Doug Chasick: Cost of broadcasting WiFi over entire prop much more $ than to biz center.
• Leigh Curry: From my studies of business center and fitness center usage – only about 10-15% of residents use biz center, but they use a lot.
• Tim Grace (Apartments.com): Concur w/ @ericacampbell – less than 1% of our users search for biz center.
• Lesa LaRocca: Common area needs to have great resident energy. Lap top checkouts, avail printer, wi-fi all must haves.
• Lisa Trosien: My tours of new construction are showing larger and more lavish biz centers than ever before. Big social impact.
• Doug Chasick: Bottom line – if it saves one resident, is it worth it?
• Nessel Inc.: We ask residents to supply their own paper and bring their own mugs to the coffee bar.
• Mike Whaling: Our designs would be in line with what you’re seeing on your tours. Still big investments being made in biz ctrs.
• Nessel Inc.: We went so far as to post resume tips and local job openings in the biz center.
• Lisa Trosien: New Lincoln property has a Mac and PC area for their biz center. Largest Mac section I’ve seen yet.
• Tami Siewruk: Biz Centers R very expensive to maintain & NOT used. Better off with an Herb Garden!
• Lisa Trosien: Putting big emphasis on social aspect as well is important. Making it about meet and greet, too.
• Ellen Thompson: One of the communities in Philly suburbs had a biz card exchange in their biz center, speaking of meet and greet.
• Lisa Trosien: Archstone calls theirs “Click Cafe”. Nice name, great ambiance.
• Carmen Krushas: Partner w/fedex and set up satellite biz offices for real ancillary income.
• Mike Whaling: Why not host a tweetup or Yelp meetup?
• Eric Brown: Our @Urbane_Space, a clubhouse converted to a cowork space, has become a buzz of activity.
• Eric Brown: Co Work space has been the biggest draw we have done, absent community wide Free Wi-Fi.

Should tennis courts be repurposed? Removed? Lots of older assets have them.

• Heather Blume: Personally, I love the tennis courts. But I like to play, and I think they make a great space for outdoor events.
• Nathalia Cruz: If they are in an area where the climate lets you use it 365 days a year, YES, if not, waste of time and space.
• Doug Chasick: Depends on your profile; 4 me question is should they be lit for nite play!
• Christian Flickinger: I think youd have more residents that are happy with a “village green” (no pun intended), dog park, etc rather thn a tennis court.
• Justin Dunckel: Remove, remove, remove. Maintenance costs are incredibly high vs. usage. Agree w/ @spoons … get a Wii.
• Kristi Fickert: Heard abt tennis courts being repositioned for roller blading/skate parks. Prob depends on demographic.
• Ellen Thompson: I think this really depends on the geography. Courts are a must in FL, I think, but maybe less so where they aren’t 4-season assets.
• Lisa Trosien: @MBrewer tore his out and put in an outdoor movie theater for his residents. Smart move!

Should tanning beds be removed as an amenity? Or added? They are VERY popular!

• Kim Cory: Ours runs all day!
• Jonathan Saar: They cause cancer—out!
• Heather Blume: Tanning beds get leases out here. That would be because of the absence of sun, so it might be a regional thing.
• Erica Campbell: Personally I like them but they have 2 be sanitized properly & u just can’t rely on residents 2 do that all the time.

Other great amenity ideas and comments along the way:

• David Kotowski: I’ve become a huge fan of salt water (saline) intead of cholorine. It’s green and cheaper to maintain.
• Justin Dunckel: There’s a big cost difference in providing global Wi-Fi in 1 highrise or midrise vs. 30 garden bldgs.
• David Kotowski: I wish some space could be set aside for a fenced dog area. Pet walks are huge!
• Heather Blume: List yourself as an available meeting space on www.meetup.com.
• Tami Siewruk: There is no blanket answer 2 amenities it is all location & profile, case by case strategy.
• Mike Brewer: Highly trained – highly professional – highly responsive people are the key amenity…all else pales in comparison.
• Heather Blume: Just allowing DOGS is huge for student communities. The dorms don’t let you have them.
• Doug Chasick: Partner w/ local biz that offer the amenities you need to compete.
• Zachary Kestenbaum: How about the “community” amenity? Encourage socializing, events, etc.
• Heather Blume: A good amenity that you can create – Guest Suites – by setting aside a couple of apartments.
• Mike Whaling: Why only promote events to residents? Why not introduce your property to other locals?
• Zachary Kestenbaum: Make the most of your amenities by letting residents view availability and reserve online.
• Joe Goers: I would think a Nintendo Wii in a clubhouse or the New Playstation Move in a clubhouse would be an Amenity.
• Heather Blume: An in-house loaner closet is a great thing to have – rug doctor, games, jumper cables, etc.
• Eric Brown: Marketing takeaway: Understand your target demographic, and what they want, and build your brand around them.

Resources:

• Blog post: Is The Apartment Gym Useless in Resident Retention?
• ForRent.com’s Top 15 Searched Amenities in February

You can read the full transcript here.

What do you think? What did we forget? Are there amenities that are working particularly well for you? Are there time-honored amenities that don’t seem to generate the oohs and ahhs they once did? Share your experiences and observations in the comments!

(This week’s #AptChat included 443 tweets from 53 different contributors.)

There has been a lot of conversation recently about apartment companies using social media communication tools, so we wanted to explore how organizations are managing this process and their employees’ actions on these sites.

We started the chat by taking a quick poll to see how many companies have social media policies in place. During the chat, we received 21 votes. Over half of you (11) already have a social media policy in place at your companies, 3 of you don’t have any kind of policy, and 7 of you said your company is currently putting its policy together now. ForRent, Century 21, Property Counselors Management Group, Ellipse and J.C. Hart Communities all shared that they already have policies in place, so you might want to connect with someone from one of those companies if you have questions or are looking for advice.

As for the rest of the discussion, here’s the recap:

What are the most important issues that a social media policy should address?

• Doug Chasick: Policy is for consistency and guidance – s/b flexible and based on trust – wish I could say common sense but . . .
• David Kotowski: In addition to outlining expectations for proper communication w/ customers, I think it should also address personal SM pages.
• Ryan VanDenabeele: That they are acting on behalf of the company and and will be held accountable.Transparency is good but don’t share corp. info.
• Sue Burness: We are seeing examples here of poor judgment with posts & inappropriate dress. And then owners want to shut all Social Media down.
• Brandon Hammond: We’ve included a committment to learning and improving usage as a part of our company’s SM policy.
• Gillian Luce: How bout ‘the opinions expressed on site are my own & do not nec represent those of [comp name]‘ per @theaptnerd SM Policy?
• Zachary Kestenbaum: Policy: I) what do you hope to gain, II) what are you afraid of – both are important.
• Eva Panagiotopoulos: Strict policies block personal connectivity. Like we said, it’s common sense and there must be trust.
• Social Web Strategies: Top issues for SM policy (not prioritized): legal, training, web/sm presence, listening.
• Doug Chasick: Boundaries and guidelines, training and consequences and monitoring are best we can do IMHO.
• Mark Juleen: The best written policy in the world cannot prevent people from posting what they want.
• Brandon Hammond: Coaching is absolutely important. The truth is that the VAST majority of workers in our industry are very new to SM.
• Social Web Strategy: The policy that’s missing is from the c-suite for the whole org. That takes clear view of SM impact on each part of the org.
• Social Web Strategy: SM policy has to give framework for the org to handle integration of SM tech by every dept and division. SM tech will flow into ops.
• Chris Schmeid: Our policy isn’t about loss of productivity, it’s about protecting the brand.
• DiChristy: Be smart about protecting yourself, your privacy and your co’s confidential info.

Is your organization’s social media policy focused more on DOs or DON’Ts? Tell us about it.

• Jonathan Saar: Some companies are creating such vast rules that the staff are on pins and needles.
• Jonathan Saar: Do’s … lots of experimenting and measuring still to do.
• Ryan VanDenabeele: It’s open as SM should be to actively engage. But we don’t want people acting like drunken sailors either. Accountablity.
• Eva Panagiotopoulos: Both I think the DOs help sustain a positive outlook on how social media can be beneficial. DO make friends and listen to others.
• Brandon Hammond: “Policy” probably addresses more DON’Ts, “Strategy” would address more DOs.
• Doug Chasick: Train to the “Do’s” and most “Don’ts” never show up.
• Brandon Hammond: Policy should definitely encourage smart, constructive use! Encouragement to add value to convo!

Are there social media issues specific to the apartment industry that your policy addresses (or should address)?

• Heather Blume: Resident privacy.
• Doug Chasick: Fair housing, libel, slander, copyright infringement and really bad profile pix.
• Ellen Thompson: people are very cavalier about violating copyright laws with use of images, in particular.
• David Kotowski: Management changes are a MUCH bigger deal than you think. NEVER, EVER talk about them until after they actually happen.
• Brandon Hammond: Good place to start is thinking a/b most SM posts as marketing messages, and treating them as such re: FH (Fair Housing).
• Mike Whaling: I think the exact problem is that most SocMed posts are treated as marketing messages.

Who is driving the social media conversation in your organization? Marketing? PR? HR? Customer service? Who should?

• Jonathan Saar: Everyone should have a role all though on different levels.
• Doug Chasick: Marketing and customer svce for us and I think that’s who should – primary stakeholders.
• Meredith Mobley: Marketing and PR at @aptsforrent.
• Brandon Hammond: I think everyone should drive the conversation in our organization–especially our residents!
• Gillian Luce: Marketing drives our corporate account w/PR professional @mmobley assisting. Customer service also has account @ForRentCS.

We’ll leave the poll open, so feel free to contribute to the survey:

Here’s the breakdown of all the responses we’ve received to date:

Additional Resources:

• Full transcript of the original discussion
• J.C. Hart Social Media Acceptable Use Policy
• Database of social media policies
• Policy Tool for Social Media
• More resources related to social media policies

Does your company have a social media policy? If yes, what does it focus on? Is it working? If not, do you think you need one? What other questions or comments do you have about social media policies? Let us know if the comments!

(This week’s chat had 408 tweets from 64 different contributors.)

Typically, a Free-For-All Friday means that we don’t come to the discussion with any particular topics in mind, but this past week, there was an interesting debate about call centers over on Lisa’s Apartment Expert Facebook page. Mark Juleen noted another call center discussion over at Multifamily Insiders, so we led off #AptChat by throwing the question to the group. Other topics discussed included concessions, human directionals and resident referral programs. It’s good to see that you don’t have strong opinions on any of these subjects.

Are call centers good? Do you like them?

• Nessel Inc.: We love being able to market that you will get a person 24/7.
• Doug Chasick: Call Cntr great for overflow and emerg – concerned about outsrcng ALL calls to off-site, esp. resident calls.
• Heather Blume: When your residents call, they don’t want to call somewhere that isn’t the office.
• Sara Graham: We’re evaluating call centers this spring – Level One seems to be the 800 lb gorilla.
• Nessel Inc.: In our experience we’ve found the agents are quite successful at getting the caller to schedule an appointment. Which we love.
• Kim Cory: Not a fan of call centers. As a true sales person myself I have to feel, touch & be part of my product to really sell it.
• Lisa Trosien: I was, originally, anti-call center. Not anymore. Too many properties don’t answer the phone. This solves that problem.
• Tami Siewruk: Call Centers are necessary. Fact: People R looking for APTs when the office is closed. Trend: INSTANT GRATIFICATION.
• Eric Brown: Our original reason for using a Call Center, was folks weren’t answering the phone. We replaced them with ones who do.
• Mark Juleen: If you want your community to be sold like it is a commodity then call centers are fine.
• RealPage: Our research shows that our contact center answers 97% of all calls that you designate us to take.
• Bob Gura: After a year with a call center we have concluded that we are much more effective than the call center.
• Mark Juleen: Why are we outsourcing the face of our brands and our product? Why not outsource reports & accounting task garbage instead?
• Elysa Rice: As a resident (and previous prospect) I wouldn’t expect to talk to a person at midnight … that’s just weird.
• Realty Data Trust: Call centers aren’t just for calls either. Email leads can be handled by industry call centers.
• David Kotowski: I think call centers probably benefit our customers, especially as so many companies are still having to cut staffing levels.
• Mark Juleen: Real life example from a call center. Prospect – “Do you have a pool?” Center Rep – “Um, let me check.”
• Mark Juleen: Real life example from a call center. Rep – “The One Bedroom is 695 sq. ft.” Prospect – “That’s kind of small.” Rep – “Yes, it is.”
• Tami Siewruk: REALITY CHECK LP’s cnt answer every call we have them doing more than they cn handle, answer take away all the NON leasing items.

What about ‘culture’? Can a call center communicate the ‘culture’ of your sites?

• Heather Blume: Culture = personality, and some can, depending on how they hire. But usually, the flat tone conveys 1 thing – Apathy.
• Ryan VanDenabeele: You can’t train call center people to represent your brand. They just don’t care like you do. I worked in one when I was a kid.
• RealPage: Well trained contact center reps can capture the brand and the culture of each property.
• Mike Whaling: Is anyone providing their blog feed and social media info to their call center team?
• Doug Chasick: Prob is we try 2make Call Cntr what they are not — culture — instead of using 4 what they are — cover phone when we can’t.
• RealPage: We offer continuing education to help refresh information about particular properties and help represent the culture.
• Michael Cunningham: We work with the communities from day one to find out their preferences, amenities, specials, etc.
• Joe Youngblood: Maybe centers need to foster closer relationships? and property managers need to facilitate that with updated data?
• Lisa Trosien: I know that one of my clients meets 2x a year with the LP’s at the call center to make sure they ‘get’ the culture.
• Janet Rosseth: The best on-site agents know how to circle back with prospects handled by a call center to personalize the experience.
• Nashville Web Design: Call centers are impersonal but they are good to get prospect information for LP to call back.

Even more comments on Call Centers:

• Lisa Trosien: Typical LP’s on CCenters say they are in a ‘centralized leasing office’.
• Lisa Trosien: I don’t think it’s the solution for every property.I think you need to weigh the pro’s and con’s seriously b4 u make your decision.
• RealPage: According to Satisfacts, only 52% of calls will be answered during office hours.
• Heather Blume: A leasing professional CANNOT get EVERY single call. It’s just not realistic.
• Tami Siewruk: Part of the answer is staggered staffing hrs! Helps tremendously U know when U get the most calls & visits.
• Janet Rosseth: I had an internal call center. Awesome front line and x-tra hands, but overhead was too costly to go 24/7 and handle emails.
• Lisa Trosien: I’ve found a lot of the issues with call centers is getting the site people to call back on the leads from the call center.
• Kim Cory: leasing does not want 2 respond b/c no connection. LIke calling a guy after a date, must have connection 2 call again.

There were a few questions about companies that have successfully implemented internal call centers, with Equity, AIMCO and Mid-America all used as positive examples.

The conversation then moved to live chat, and there were strong opinions on this subject, too:

• Heather Blume: Live chat can be an excellent first contact point for a potential resident.
• Eric Brown: We tried Live Chat, but could not effectively manage it, nor did prospects like it, they were creeped out.
• Janet Rosseth: I think I heard a stat that L1 was converting 80% of live chats to appointments. If that’s correct, it’s staggering!

Who has kicked butt with resident referral programs? What’s made it successful? (Asked by Bob Gura)

• Sara Graham: At some props, we offer a tiered res ref model: 1st referral gets $250, 2nd gets $500, 3rd gets $750 and 4th gets $1000.
• Heather Blume: I had one woman in my session this week who was talking about how they have a resident who they almost PAY to live there.
• Lisa Trosien: Try having the referral fee be higher right after move in when their enthusiasm is very high.

Other noteworthy comments from the chat:

• David Kotowski: I worked for a company that had a policy of only hiring attractive people. I’m not kidding. Staffing meetings were odd.
• Bob Gura: Great personalities lease. Make the visit memorable!
• Bake Extra Cookies: We’re seeing our user’s online statistics DOUBLE. Might be indicating a slightly early leasing season…
• Lisa Trosien: So to summarize: human directionals in curling pants can answer your phones.

As you can imagine, this edition of #AptChat was a lot of fun for everyone. (This week’s stats: 512 tweets from 63 different contributors.) I couldn’t get all the great comments in the recap, so make sure you check out the full transcript when you get a chance.

So what do you think? Are you for or against outside call centers? If you’re using one now, or have used a call center in the past, what has been your experience? What are some of your best resident referral ideas? It’s your turn to show off … tell us what you know in the comments!

Have a topic you’d like to discuss on a future #AptChat? Tell us about it!

Last week’s #AptChat focused on the use of revenue management (RM) software solutions to efficiently determine rental pricing, while taking the emotion (and potential for overcompensation) out of the process. With representation from both Rainmaker (LRO) and RealPage (YieldStar) throughout the discussion and apartment operators on both sides of the fence, this turned out to be a very interesting, enlightening discussion.

First, it’s important to understand what a revenue management system is and why apartment operators might want to use one. Here’s how you defined revenue management software:

• Gary Katz: For those unfamiliar with RM systems, they price apartments kind of like hotels price their rooms. Prices can change daily.
• Keith Dunkin: RM systems provide the optimal blend of internal fundamentals and external data. Protects from over reacting to comps.
• Keith Dunkin: Improved Revenue Performance, Increased Visibility, Pricing Efficiency, reduced carry costs.
• Steve Matre: Classic yield mgmt, matches price to demand based on lease exp’s and historic traffic, system sets price.
• Gary Katz: The idea is too not price apts too low and leave $ on the table and not price them too high and leave them vacant.

We gave both Rainmaker and RealPage the opportunity to describe how they derive their pricing. Here’s Rainmaker’s response: “LRO optimizes rents based on supply & demand (traffic, leasing, availability, etc). Market response is measured & prices adjust.” Bruce Barfield also added that “LRO uses electronic web scraping technology to get dynamic prices.”
Janine Jovanovic answered for RealPage: “YS gets factual leasing data daily from 15k+ properties across the US + 5m MPF units + any data entered on site.”

On to the recap!

Are you using revenue management software for your business? If yes, why? If no, why not?

• Jennifer Kennedy: No….not sure that there is enough ROI.
• Donald Davidoff: Been using it for 9 years with multiple tests that prove the ROI.
• Heather Blume: I’ve worked with the software before, and talked to many clients who use it. Some love it, some don’t.
• Keith Dunkin: To echo Donald at Archstone, Rev Mgmt has been in place for years with proven revenue premiums to market in 2-5%, compelling ROI.
• Heather Blume: What mgrs have said to me is that they lose the push/pull ability and it’s difficult to stay competitive sometimes.
• Mark Juleen: Nearly 2 years now with Yieldstar.
• Janine Jovanovic: Managers and leasing staff have told us that they love it because it empowers them to sell more.
• Keith Dunkin: On the ROI comment RM systems have been measured consistently in up and down market and both solutions have proven out.
• Trachelle Spencer: We have been actively using LRO for over 6 years and would not go back to a manual process.

How long does an RM system take to ‘pay for itself’?

• Rainmaker Group: LRO typically pays for itself in a matter of months.

How many units before companies feel they need a “pricing guru” to over see the system? (Asked by Steve Matre)

• James Flick: I would suggest 50+ properties for a dedicated individual in YS. Otherwise, use the consulting services w/ RealPage.
• Janine Jovanovic: You can outsource pricing oversight to us. Makes sense to have your own internal resource at 10,000+ units.
• Trachelle Spencer: We have 44 communities currently on LRO; there are two of us managing them. Doesn’t include Lease Ups.
• James Flick: It is probably more cost effective to outsource to an experienced consultant at Realpage vs. a full time person in house.
• Chris Long: We have 150 properties and 3 dedicated resources.
• Trachelle Spencer: It is important to have pricing professionals and not have the system run independently.

How tough is it to renew someone when their rent can, in effect, go down one day after they sign their renewal?

• Donald Davidoff: Rents can go down in one day on manual systems.
• Janine Jovanovic: This is a function of market conditions not RM – happens with or without RM in place.
• Leigh Curry: What about the person who finsw out their airplane fare has decreased by $100 or hotel room by $50…fact of life.
• Mark Juleen: We have struggled the most with making renewals as fair as possible.
• Trachelle Spencer: We have processes in place to review renewals if necessary.

Along the way, there were a lot of great comments about implementation and the use of revenue management systems in general. Here are a few of the highlights:

• Mark Juleen: We played with it for the first year trying to override too much. We just let it run now.
• Mark Juleen: No more “concessions” or “specials” rents, just adjust both renewal and new.
• Mark Juleen: In 2009 our Rev. was up 2% in Indy while most competition has reported they are down 2%.
• Lisa Trosien: You have to know/learn how to ‘sell’ it to the prospect. It really does simplify the process.
• Janine Jovanovic: Prospects can do math. They like the “check writing” price. You can say “concession” is built into the price.
• Trachelle Spencer: Our communities do weekly competitive surveys. We are finding more accurate pricing online.
• Trachelle Spencer: We have classes offered by our Training Dept. Site Visits, 1 on 1′s, conference calls, webinars, etc.
• James Flick: Have we aligned incentives and compensation for managers and leasing associates to get them to embrace rev mgmt?
• Lisa Trosien: RM is great: it’s fair; it increases the bottom line; it creates urgency. It removes the ‘fudge factor’. I’m a big fan.

One advocate for revenue management, Mark Juleen, laid out in detail why he likes using the program over manual pricing. Here’s what he said:

• MPF does market surveys for us & plugs that data into the system (at least with Yieldstar). No need for bs market surveys.
• I can review pricing and approve changes in about 20 min. for our 12 properties.
• You set a sustainable occupancy and if your team performs average you will usually sustain that.
• If your occupancy dips below the sustainable, then you probably have a people problem.
• If you outperform your sustainable then prices go up and you know your team rocks.

Even though Mark is a fan of the system, he still thinks there’s room for improvement (and others seemed to agree). For more comments on this, and for the rest of the discussion, check out the full transcript.

What do you think? Are you using a revenue management system to set pricing? If so, what has been your experience so far? What can RM systems do to improve their models? Are you evaluating your options? Let us know what you think in the comments!

This week’s #AptChat included 354 tweets coming from 53 contributors. Thanks to all those who contributed this week!