It is fascinating to chat with multi-family executives across the nation about their Brand. Every business has a brand recognition, even if a bad one. Every property has a brand recognition. Your Brand is not what you think it is, it is what your resident thinks it is, it is what your employees think it is and it is what your vender's think it is. Lots of companies clamor that their employees are their number one asset, are you ready to hand over what you tout in your marketing material randomly to your employees. Are you ready to hand your brand over to your vendor? But the group with the most influence is your resident. If they were designing your brochure, would it have the same or similar message as the one in your clubhouse?
You are creating an experience for your residents at every touch point throughout the resident life cycle. That experience, which is not owned by you, is what your brand is. In the not so distant future, all you will have to do is log onto Yelp, or any one of the other commanding rating sites and you will be able to read just what your brand is, and if you are not participating in the conversation you may be left out in the cold. It will certainly be much more efficient, and perhaps then, we may all choose to actually listen long enough to be aware of what we are portraying everyday by our actions and behavior.
Create a Remarkable Resident Experience; What are the key ingredients of a Remarkable Resident Experience?
Remarkable, as defined by the legend Seth Godin;
• Remarkable doesn't mean remarkable to you. It means remarkable to me. Am I going to make a remark about it?
• Being noticed is not the same as being remarkable. Running down the street naked will get you noticed, but it won't accomplish much. It's easy to pull off a stunt, but not useful.
Is the experience you are creating for your resident remarkable and does your resident find value in the experience created? Are you matching your Brand to a Targeted Experience. “Service excellence, just as with beauty, is in the eye of the beholder”! Take some time to evaluate what will Engage and Delight your resident based on your Brand. We were at the local Mini Cooper dealership a while back and they openly invite customers to bring in their beloved pets to the dealership, which some folks get excited about. It works for Mini Cooper, but you likely would not find that at the Jaguar showroom. Mini Cooper is matching a Customer Experience to their Brand and this example has no correlation to Luxury and does not get better by adding more money. Southwest Airlines, you either love them or hate them with the cattle call lines, no assigned seats, no frills. Yet true blue Southwest Customers like, enjoy, laugh with, and have a favorable experience with, Southwest. Herb Kelleher somehow figured out how to deliver a consistent, value driven experience, and permitted his employees to fix it when it was not.
What experience you are creating for your residents? Let us know your thoughts and stories here,
