There were a LOT of great comments throughout this chat — this recap is a bit longer than usual, but trust me, it’s all worth the read. Here are the highlights from the discussion:

Why is a crisis communications plan important? What should be in it?

• Heather Whaling: There’s a saying in PR about crisis: If you’re not quick, you’re not relevant.
• Heather Whaling: Crisis plans should include: Crisis team, spokesperson, contact info (internal & external), approval/protocol process.
• Heather Whaling: Plans shld also include responses/messages for potential situations. Prepare ahead of time for to mitigate damage during crisis.
• Lesa LaRocca: Level headed on site team who manage their emotions and get authorities and corp exec immediately in the know.
• Heather Whaling: Think about a variety of tactics: letters, emails, “town hall”-style meeting, video blog update, etc.
• Heather Whaling: (When asked about an acceptable response time) Quick depends on the specific situation. Typically, 24 hours is way too long …
• Justin Dunckel: Designate one Media Spokesperson and stick with it. Communicating w/ residents via website bulletin board or txt message is huge.
• Heather Whaling: In crisis plan, you should ID internal & external audiences. Residents, media, maybe greater community or investors?
• Justin Dunckel: Create a manifest…know who is impacted and follow-up a ton. Overdeliver information and updates.
• Heather Whaling: Think through a variety of tactics. The situation will dictate what’s effective.
• Heather Whaling: PM, reg. managers & corporate should work together before crisis to develop a plan. Preparation is key.
• Gillian Luce: Brainstorm worse case scenarios, prepare hypothetical responses and implement them in2 ur crisis management plan. (i.e. Fire)

Who do you recommend for spokesperson? Same for residents vs media? (from Laurel Zacher)

Heather Whaling: Doesn’t have to be the same person. For media, needs to be someone who can do well in front of a camera.

Unfortunately, many props don’t have good email lists, and many don’t have blogs. Any recommendations? (from Lisa Trosien)

Heather Whaling: Traditional communication still works. Letters in the mailbox are still effective.

What do you do when the media contacts you? How do you respond?

• Heather Whaling: Before a crisis, property should identify an “official” media spokesperson. Seek professional media training if necessary.
• Jonathan Saar: There should be standard response statements in place.
• Heather Whaling: Employees shouldn’t interact w/ media during a crisis. They may not know all the details. Instead, direct media to spokesperson.
• Misty Browning: Everyone in the company needs to know the one person they can direct the media to. Do not have many diff people communicating.
• Lesa LaRocca: Keep it polite & professional, never speculate. Allow residents their privacy & designate one exec team member / PR rep.
• Heather Whaling: Spokesperson needs to answer questions honestly. No “spin.” Emphasize steps being taken to fix the situation.
• Gillian Luce: Need 2 prepare, ask what ? is & deadline. Call back w/statement. IMPORTANT to represent co in best way!
• Apartments.com: If U already have relationships w/ local reporters, turn 2 these trusted sources to help get your message out.
• Heather Whaling: I’d suggest not having a third-party PR person as the “official” spokesperson to the residents.
• Lesa LaRocca: Keep list of residents who are witnesses as they will become a media target at some point. Keep close to that situation.
• Heather Whaling: In crisis, things move quickly. Give reporters fact sheets or other documentation to make sure they have the facts.
• Justin Dunckel: Waiting for “legal” people only puts you that much further behind in crisis recovery.
• Heather Whaling: Before the crisis, ID what kinds of problems req legal counsel & have initial statement approved.
• Heather Whaling: “No comment” should always be avoided.

My property had a rape and its all over the news. How do I handle the press? The residents? The prospects?

• Heather Whaling: 1) Cooperate w/ legal authorities.
• Gillian Luce: Need 2 inform residents & share what measures are being taken 2 keep them safe. A ‘town-hall’ style meeting would be gr8.
• Heather Whaling: 2) Stay in constant contact w/ residents. (This is why social media [blog, FB, Twitter, Ning] is so important!)
• Heather Blume: There’s a prop in my college town that has been fighting this for over 13 years. they educate the residents @ MI
• Erica Campbell: First and foremost you need to make your residents feel safe and that the issue is being handled by law enforcement.
• Heather Whaling: 3) Re: press: Explain that you’re cooperating w/ authorities; priority is finding suspect & that u r taking steps to increase security.
• Erica Campbell: Make residents aware of any support groups that might be offered.
• Heather Whaling: 4) Perception = reality. Be proactive. Can you add lighting or add’l night-time patrol to make residents/prospects feel safer?
• Heather Blume: What the prop in my college town did was work with a”campus escort” system already in place – exten the service to the prop.
• Lesa LaRocca: What about informing your closest competitors so they have accurate info and not fabricate?
• Sean Williams: Be sure you tell the truth, no speculation. Push attys on this – they typc’ly want to clam up.
• Lesa LaRocca: What may grow from the experience is closer community, resident ambassador program, crime watch program. Find the good.

Most crisis situations happen when the corporate office is closed. What do I do when I’m ‘on the spot’ with no instruction?

• Apartments.com: Crime can happen anywhere. Educate residents on how 2 prevent crime by locking doors, don’t buzz anyone in you don’t know, etc.
• Heather Whaling: This is why a crisis plan is necessary. Scenarios & responses should be thought out in advanced whenever possible.
• Misty Browning: That is y it is so important to have a point person to deal with the press. Your first priority is your residents.
• Laurel Zacher: We’ve given our teams 4 safe responses if pinned down and my cell to call 24/7.
• Heather Whaling: Don’t ever say no comment … even if you’re put “on the spot.”
• Heather Whaling: That’s the difference btwn a good PR person and a not so good one. Good PR understands social, too.

What do you do if your owner/boss makes a boneheaded remark? Like Horizon Realty did with the ‘mold tweet’? (from Lisa Trosien)

Heather Whaling: Apologize if possible … be proactive and aggressive w/ the “right” communication going forward.

Can the media camp out on my property? Can I make them leave?

• Heather Whaling: Media can’t camp out on private property. But, they can be in the streets, on sidewalks, parks, etc.
• Heather Blume: Yes you can make them leave… but make sure you understand ramifications of your actions & do it in a PROFESSIONAL way.
• Heather Whaling: Don’t make a situation worse by creating a scene. Tell media when & where you’ll have info to share.
• Justin Dunckel: In my opinion the quicker you ask them to leave, the longer they stay and dig. Get the story,report facts, move on.
• Heather Blume: One side note on the media thing – don’t forget that anyone with a cell phone COULD be a camera man… this includes your residents.
• Heather Whaling: *Most* reporters aren’t out to “get” you. They want facts. If you’re quick & forthcoming w/ info, you’ll be better off.
• Sean Williams: TV lives on visuals – calm, collected and respectful makes lousy TV – so that’s what you give em!

How do you ‘recover’ from something like a murder, assault or fire at your property?

• Justin Dunckel: Not a plug for our blog at all, but I believe you can recover by taking this stuff head on. http://bit.ly/c0meaG
• Heather Whaling: It takes time to rebuild trust. Couple strong communication w/ meaningful actions to show you’re making necessary changes.
• Heather Blume: Honesty honesty honesty – and be realistic about the time it takes to rebuild a reputation.
• Gillian Luce: Implement new safety procedures, comm on regular basis w/residents, be sincere & understanding. Ppl will identify.
• Heather Whaling: Put yourselves in residents’/prospects’ shoes. What can you do to rebuild trust and credibility?

Other good nuggets from throughout the discussion:

• Erica Campbell: Google RSS Reader is a great free tool to monitor all of your mentions -if crisis occurs be on top of reputation monitoring.
• Justin Dunckel: (Our) manual is bright red, yes it’s at every prop, and yes they sign off at orientation. Review all the time.

For more on PR and media relations, we encourage you to check out Heather’s blog at PRtini.com.

More resources:

• 5 Steps to Develop a Crisis Communication Plan (From PRtini.com)
• 3 Case Studies in Social Media Crisis Management (Shared by Apartments.com)
• Top 10 Simple Ways to Discourage Break-ins (Shared by Heather Blume)
• Full transcript from the April 9th #AptChat

Does your company have a crisis communication plan? Do you have regular media training in place? Can you share an example of a situation when your crisis plan worked like it’s supposed to? Leave your experiences in the comments!

(This week’s #AptChat included 401 tweets from 49 different contributors.)

No related posts.

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.)

Related posts:

• Free-For-All Friday!
• Blogging for Apartment Communities
• Managing ‘Fixed Costs’ at Your Property

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!

Related posts:

• All Things Amenities

This was one of our most active chats ever — people are clearly passionate about this subject. There’s a lot to cover, so let’s get right to it:

Do I need a blog for my apartment community? What are the potential benefits? Potential downside?

• Ann Padgett: Blogs are a great way to increase your digital footprint.
• Charity Hisle: Do you need a blog? Maybe. Depends on what your goals are.
• Judy Bellack: Blog benefits . . . connections with and among residents, enhanced retention, great communication platform, SEO opportunities.
• Jill Corya: Blogs build stronger relationships and brand loyalty.
• Resite Online: Blogs are a good way to handle FAQs and related topics for your residents.
• Ryan VanDenabeele: I wouldn’t say you “need” one but they are an added value for your clients, team members and prospects.
• Eric at Buildium: It depends on the community & its size. Blogs have both direct & indirect benefits. Need to weigh them.
• Justin Dunckel: View a blog as an amenity, especially if content is local, relevant, and interesting.
• Elysa Rice: Benefits: increase content for search engines & local involvement; Downside: must keep current, no blog is better than ignored blog.
• Jill Corya: Blogs, in an intranet environment, can be an excellent way of sharing knowledge within the organization.
• Gillian Luce: Blogs: Gr8t way 2 get content in virtual space, increase brand awareness & engage current residents (& prospects) providing value!
• Mark Juleen: A blog can and should be the social media hub for your community.
• Eric Brown: Community Blogs can be Outreach on Steroids.
• Judy Bellack: Blogs not done well (lack of response to comments, stale content, etc.) can hurt rather than help.
• Trevor Henson: A blog also helps us keep ambient contact with the owners and investors of the building.

Where do you get the content? Who decides on ‘the voice?’

• Christian: The community, the employees, the company, qualified voices from your corner of the market.
• Ryan VanDenabeele: Content depends on your audience. Can be links from new papers, free article data bases, your people.
• Joe Foster: The great thing about multifamily blogging is that this bidness is already so incredibly personality-driven.
• Judy Bellack: Content has to be relevant, unique, fresh, interesting; and should utilize writers who know your stuff!
• Judy Bellack: You can use linked content, original content, content from residents, employees.
• Meredith Mobley: Talk to your residents. What are their FAQ? Start there…
• Charity Hisle: Ultimately, audience should become the voice. To start, anyone that cares, understands the audience can be the voice.
• Jonathan Saar: How about community site improvements, schedule of curb appeal updates, photos of changes?
• Elysa Rice: The great thing about blogging is content can be inspired from life, other blogs, movies, ads, emails, pretty much anywhere.
• Erica Campbell: Most communities already have content. Start with your newsletters, testimonials, interns, videos, photos, events etc.
• Nessel Inc.: Lists do very well. “Top 5 Places for Lunch”
• Erica Campbell: never replace your newsletter with a blog. Newsletter are so powerful and email drip marketing has so much to offer.
• Mark Juleen: Property teams can create the content. No excuses. Hire better people if you don’t think they can handle it.
• Meredith Mobley: Multiple voices can definitely be helpful. You dont have one type of renter, so its okay to have more than one voice.
• Elysa Rice: There’s a property that posts local business of the month — doctors, restaurants, all nominated by residents.

(Jason Falls also asked a great question about how social media sites like Twitter are impacting blogging. Are you focused more on blogging or social media? Are they two unique audiences? Tell us in the comments.)

Who should be the target audience for an apartment community’s blog? Residents? Prospects? Investors?

• Ann Padgett: I would think the investors would be a target audience at the PMC level, not the community.
• Judy Bellack: All of the above!
• Eric at Buildium: All of the above because information targeting one is indirectly pertinent to others.
• Mike Whaling: Have a blogger relations strategy. Who else is writing about the neighborhood? Link to them first.

Lisa Trosien asked about the goal of a community blog — is it to improve rankings in search engines or to increase engagement with your target audience? Here were some of the responses:

• Jennifer Kennedy: Our goal is both!
• Erica Campbell: Our focus is the on the user first then SEO second. Our SEO is other initiatives that are behind the scenes.
• Jason Falls: It depends. If SEO drives business, prioritize it. If engagement drives customer satisfaction, etc.
• Mike Whaling: Keywords & other on-site tweaks now account for less than 25% of SEO (per SEOMoz). Focus on creating great content.
• Charity Hisle: It is cheaper to keep residents, there should be a lead/retention balance in the strategy.

I’ve seen “fake blogs,” where a staffer pretends to be a resident. Is this a good idea?

• Eric at Buildium: Horrible idea. It’s usually pretty easy to tell. Bad image.
• Jason Falls: Never.
• Erica Campbell: This is a bad idea. That is not begin transparent and can come back to haunt you in the long run.
• Apartments.com: It’s all about transparency. No need to jeopardize your company’s reputation.
• Ryan VanDenabeele: If you get caught doing something unethical these days, the consumer will spread it on social media and kill your reputation.

What about buying blog content from one of the content providers out there? Is there a transparency issue there?

• Ellen Thompson: How is posting local events and restaurant reviews from a third party unethical if blended in with messages from the property mgrs?
• Bob Gura: The bought content of newsletters doesn’t get read.
• Dylan Schleppe: Hard to be “your message” if you bought it, eh?
• Duncan Alney: Do you like canned newsletters? If not, why would you like a canned blog? No one like artificially anything (OK, well Nutrasweet maybe).
• Tami Siewruk: Buy content all you want as long as it’s appropriate for your target audience.
• Judy Bellack: Its all about balance; you can buy great content occasionally, and combined with hyper-local and original content, a great formula.
• Tami Siewruk: You have to mix the content with your own but buying is fine as a supplement as long as it focused.
• Erica Campbell: There is a huge difference between canned content and quality re-purposed content.
• Realty Data Trust: Rather than canned content, try elance.com or similar resource for copywriters.
• Elysa Rice: I much prefer [Urbane Apartment's] route of having residents create content than repurposing other stuff.

When it comes to blogging, what’s the biggest challenge facing your organization? Scalability? Motivation? Buy-in?

• Ellen Thompson: The biggest reasons customer say they are looking is lack of time and writing skills a the property level.
• Erica Campbell: Finding appropriate ways to monetize it.
• Eric at Buildium: Blogs are not scalable… if you are writing original content then they take time. Biggest challenge is time.
• Tamela Coval: Answer may be “Trust” in the blogger.

There really were TOO MANY great comments and side conversations this week (we had 572 tweets from 62 different contributors!) — ranging from measuring success, to search engine optimization, to your favorite blogging tools. For all the good stuff, check out the full transcript.

Some example apartment community blogs submitted by #AptChatters:

• Lincoln Property Company
• The Green in the Village (Lincoln Property Company)
• The Place on Millenia (Lincoln Property Company)
• Paragon Life (Paragon Apartments)
• Coastal Orange County Living (Surterre Properties)
• The Urbane Life (Urbane Apartments)
• Regional blogs (Village Green Apartments)

Finally, there were a couple links to studies about the benefits of blogging that were shared during the conversation:

• Blogging Businesses Experience 126% Higher Lead Growth Than Non-Blogging Businesses
• HubSpot Study Shows Small Businesses That Blog Get 55% More Website Visitors

So what do you think? Are you blogging for your apartment community? Are the example blogs provided getting the job done? Got a link to another great apartment community blog? Share your thoughts in the comments!

Related posts:

• 2010 Resolutions for Multifamily
• All Things Amenities
• The Numbers on Craigslist

Have any of you used a service to fight your property tax bills? We are considering it, but paying out 1/3 of the savings seems high.

• Kimberly Madrigal: Yes, I used a fixed-fee service. Waiting to hear from County. Can do youself. Not complicated in L.A.
• Kimberly Madrigal: Had worked w/ them before during last recession and were successful w/SFR property tax reduction. Still waiting to see . . .
• Will Clark: Use it everywhere. Many good services out there for appeals. Can be complex (IN) but adds value to property.
• Kimberly Madrigal: Paperwork here is very easy. Don’t know abt where you are. Consider going to county office or check online and looking at forms.
• Will Clark: Get appraisals, cash flows, BOVs (Broker Opinion of Value), fire damage report, anything to show reduced value.
• Will Clark: LIHTC is particularly vulnerable to high appraisals. Assessors do not understand income limits.
• Lisa Trosien: I would guess that values have definitely fallen in most markets. Do you know the value of your property today?
• Will Clark: Check all your parcels. Are they correctly classified (improved, vacant, commercial, etc)?

One of my highest costs is payroll. How can I effectively cut staff without cutting service to residents? (You had a LOT to say about this!)

• Bob Gura: Trading services such as painting units rent credit is an area we are exploring.
• Heather Blume: Outsourced contract workers can be a major money saver dep. on the cost of benefits, but they’re not as stable always.
• Jeff Sandell: Hire only strong multi-taskers. No one can just be one thing and one thing only in this market.
• Heather Blume: If you (hypothetical), cut one leasing agent job right now, & then used staffing over the summer, you might come out ahead.
• Eric at Buildium: One example, posting online virtual tours may cut time spent on property tours, thus reducing staffing needs.
• Will Clark: Watch OT, explore flexible scheduling. Open late to prospects, give staff time to complete admin work. Use floaters.
• Charity Hisle: It’s important to evaluate staff carefully, to see if they ‘fit’ your company culture and values. If not, cut.
• Tamela Coval: Technology like iPhones for Service Techs is an efficient way to manage time therefore $$.
• Heather Blume: Another solution is to bring in a company like Community Northwest or CARES who can handle the retention side.
• Bob Gura: Outside of resident retention, there isn’t many things more important to take time for than property tours.
• Elena Ferranti: Change to a Wed to Sun work week to eliminate need for weekend staff. Maintenance continued Mon to Fri.
• Will Clark: Identify where people spend time and look for efficiencies. LIHTC apps, invoicing, non-resident svcs that are time sucks.
• Lisa Trosien: One company here in IL is cutting ALL benefits but keeping on all staff. Is that a solution?
• Kimberly Madrigal: UDR is using commission-only leasing agents.
• Jennifer Kennedy: I think you are better of retaining your best employees and keeping them happy – no cutting benefits.
• Heather Blume: Pay people well and APPRICIATE them, and they are more likely to be higher performers for you.
• Eric Brown: Many cuts in expenses may seem short sighted, but we have never seen economic times like these.
• UMoveFree: If you use commission-based leasing agents, make sure they are trustworthy and ethical or it could damage your property’s reputation.
• Darcey Forbes: Most companies are looking at how to reduce/consolidate staffing due to the implementation of programs like Level One or Crossfire.
• Leigh Curry: Use a health insurance auditor. Good auditors can find up to a 10% discount in total medical insurance costs.
• Bob Gura: We are coming up on one year with Crossfire and I am not impressed with the results. Our staff is much more engaging.
• Lisa Trosien: I have seen companies who do not reduce staff because they add a call center, but simply don’t replace staff who leave.
• Bob Gura: Don’t downplay stability at properties. It really impacts retention. Don’t be penny wise and pound foolish.
• Heather Blume: The owner/CEO of CSI took total pay cut my last year there in the hopes of not laying off people. Breeds loyalty.
• Lisa Trosien: REIT salaries of top execs are published; interesting to see if there’s any difference in year to year.
• Will Clark: As an owner, a good PM is always worth the NOI hit. I love seeing familiar faces and not retraining to my style and goals.
• Katie Roncadori: I think you can, as long as you have quality staff in place that actually cares about the community and the residents.
• Jonathan Saar: Broad question- but I don’t ever feel people going will aid resident service.

As a follow-up, Lisa Trosien posed this question:
Do we all believe the old rule of 100-1 units to staff doesn’t hold anymore? Thoughts?
Here’s how you responded:

• Will Clark: I can be persuaded that 1.5:100 is the new standard. Depends on age, turnover, needs of property.
• Laura at GABP: That rule didnt work when it was the industry std. How many U need depends on the quality of your people.
• Lisa Trosien: I think the # of people depends upon the level of service you provide and your tech sophistication.
• Elena Ferranti: Number of staff can also depend on history of prop. A problem prop needs much more staff.
• Bob Gura: Redesigning jobs to broaden responsibilities and staggering shifts can create a leaner more focused environment.
• Eric Brown: The number of people required verses the level of service can be overrated, More people doesn’t = better service.
• Eric at Buildium: I agree that 1 can’t manage 1,000. But a quality person will find a way to do a great job with limited tools.

We wrapped up the conversation with our picks for the Big Game — it looks like the #AptChat audience will be a house divided on Super Bowl Sunday.

There were a lot of interesting comments along the way about the training, technology, personality and motivation required to help onsite staff succeed — make sure you read the discussion, and leave your own comments below. Here’s the link to the full transcript — we had 338 tweets over the course of the hour, coming from 57 different contributors.

What are you doing to keep your expenses in check? Tell us what you think!

Related posts:

• All Things Amenities
• 2010 Resolutions for Multifamily
• Get More Out of Your Property Tours

What’s your resolution, how can you put it into place, and how’s it going to work for you?

• Kim Cory: My resolution is to take my knowledge in SM (social media), set goals & use practical tools to build a bigger picture for my brand.
• Buildium: Our goal is to improve our communication. We are in the process of making this a S.M.A.R.T. (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Timely) goal.
• Niman: My New Year’s Resolution – Get all tenants to pay rent online.
• Erica Campbell: My first resolution is to clean my Outlook which is currently a hot mess:)
• Jennifer Kennedy: My resolution is maximize all of the wonderful resources we have. Focus on utilizing all of our tools to their potential.
• Jonathan Saar: Goal is to get my peeps on board with Social Media & to use it regularly.
• Jonathan Saar: Social Media had definitely helped with our brand awareness and in 2010 that path will continue.
• Houston Apartment Association: Engagement is our key #resolution for 2010; planning to hire a SM/online brand person for HAA.
• Justin Dunckel: Goal is to expand the business a bit more & create some jobs….seriously!
• Tim Grace: Pretty much only one resolution re: Apts.com – delight more users in 2010. All other great things will come from that.
• Kristi Fickert: My goal = my site folks HAVE 2 understand SM, how it works, how to market w/ it (even if someone else does it for them).

Obviously, it appears that a lot of folks are looking to integrate social media tools further into their businesses in 2010 … I guess we shouldn’t expect anything less from this bunch! (Personally, I also appreciate that there was a strong focus on serving our customers better.) In fact, besides the Houston Apartment Association, a number of other companies are bringing on additional staff specifically to help with social media, including Worthing Southeast Management, For Rent Media Solutions and Village Green Apartments. (Here’s the job description for the position at For Rent if you want to get an idea of the skill set they’re looking for.)

How are everyone’s budget’s coming? Leaner than last year? What’s the word on those?

• Kim Cory: Budgets for 2010 are similar to 2009, but with a few minor cuts. We had strong cuts in 2009.
• Kim Cory: (My budget) was cut about 9% in 2009 and in 2010 I worked hard to not cut anymore, so same amount in 2010 for marketing.
• Erica Campbell: I completely reallocated my budget today for a whole new strategy than i had a few months ago.
• Jonathan Saar: It’s not the time to stop investing in what works – keep plowing forward.
• Elysa Rice: I think look at all marketing avenues & see which are producing & which aren’t. Don’t cut based on numbers, cut based on results.

Any major lessons learned from 2009 that changed your outlook for 2010?

• Lisa Trosien: Just don’t labor under the belief that Social Media is free. It’s clearly NOT.
• Buildium: One thing we would like to do in 2010 is give our interns a voice. One option we’re using is CoTweet.
• Erica Campbell: Big lesson- LOCAL CONTENT IS KING.
• Tami Siewruk: 2009 was about learning social media. 2010 will be about figuring out how to use it well.
• Erica Campbell: Lesson 2: Media fragmentation has produced a fundamental conundrum.

What are you doing to improve retention?

• Elysa Rice: Engagement, engagement & engagement!
• Erica Campbell: Bundling packages & adding value add services.
• Kim Cory: We would like to have our residents more involved, feel part of the process & decisions made at the community.
• Kim Obert: Treat people nicely (i.e. “service” in customer service).
• Claire Collins:Look for opportunities for engagement. Interest groups, etc.

Take the time to read the full transcript — there were a lot of great side conversations and insights shared throughout the discussion.

I leave you with this: As Lisa noted during the chat, “your goals are more easily achieved when a) you put them in writing, and b) you have an audible or visible means of tracking them.” You took the first step by putting your goals in writing. Now, what are you going to do to make sure you follow through on them in the coming year?

On behalf of Lisa, I’d like to thank everyone who has made the Apartment Chat what it is today. Thanks for a great year — we look forward to seeing you again in 2010!

Related posts:

• Blogging for Apartment Communities
• All Things Amenities
• Resident Retention with SatisFacts

Here are the questions that were discussed:

• Why does controlling resident turnover matter?
• What matters most to residents when considering renewal?
• How does technology impact resident retention?
• When does resident renewal decision begin?

Check out these interesting stats provided by SatisFacts during the discussion:

• Average cost of turnover = $4500 per move-out (Includes avg. rent, vacancy loss, wages, ads, promo, concessions, repair/replace, etc.)
• The average resident turnover for 2008 at properties nationwide was 59% (According to the NAA).
• If a 5,000-unit portfolio can reduce turnover by 9.5%, that portfolio’s NOI can increase over $2 million.
• The same 9.5% improvement in the same 5,000-unit portfolio can increase asset value over $26 million.
• 60+% of turnover is controllable, primarily by improving office staff performance and responsiveness.
• Communication from staff and work order resolution are generally more important to residents than apartment appearance and condition.
• 60% of residents want to communicate via email. That has DOUBLED in the last two years! Yet, on average, property managers only have about 15% of their residents’ email addresses.

You can calculate the NOI impact of reducing turnover with the SatisFacts Turnover calculator.

Here’s the link to the transcript (over 600 tweets!) … feel free to share this info with your team.

What are you doing to improve resident retention at your property and throughout your portfolio? Leave your ideas and share your experiences in the comments.

See you next week, everyone!

Related posts:

• Managing ‘Fixed Costs’ at Your Property