The number one reason why residents leave is the perceived value for rent paid. This is more than just the dollar amount paid — this requires positive interactions with community personnel and feeling a sense of community. Read on to learn how you can improve resident retention.

Best Practices: A Guide to Understand Value-Add Strategies

The top five drivers for value according to multifamily residents are: sense of community, social media, apartment appearance and condition, community events, and neighbors. These drivers also allow you build a prioritized strategy for improvement, brand reinforcement, and outreach based on what’s missing and what you’re already doing well.

Three Ways to Increase Community Value

  • Create a personal connection with residents: get to know them on a first-name basis, follow-up on a service call, and celebrate holidays and birthdays with them.
  • Keep your apartments clean, repaired, and up-to-date: Apartment appearance and condition is the number one practical and optical value behind rent money, and will be mentioned in the majority of any online review published.
  • Host events: Keep events simple, well-executed, and designed for the residents. Some of our favorite events are virtual bingo, cooking classes, sip and paint classes, and food truck parties.

Communication

Every staff person should be considered a go-to expert when a resident needs assistance or has a concern. Encourage trust and reliability with communication policies. Be sure to keep residents updated on repairs, safety measures, community updates, and policies. We recommend encouraging anonymous tips and suggestions so that residents feel more open to share feedback. Don’t just use canned responses: use every opportunity you can to build trust and rapport with honest, open, and reliable dialogue.

Social Media Management

As many as 74 percent of all consumers rely on social media to guide purchasing decisions. Comprehensive social media campaigns are more than just owned or paid media. What social media really does well is give you opportunities for earned media —  what people say to you and about you online. Earned media also shows current and prospective residents the worth of your community, and the worth of following your community on social media.

Three Tips for Managing Social Media

  • Monitor channels closely, with a branded social media strategy
  • Regularly post new and creative posts
  • Invite consumer-generated content

Are your social media channels and posts worth following, liking, and sharing? A few of the best practices to increase channel interaction include community improvements, new pictures, features, resident referral incentives, and community events.

To learn more about the role of reviews, social media, and surveys in your resident retention strategy, download our webinar “The Secret to Resident Retention and Your Reputation” in partnership with SatisFacts.