Dedicated to a freezing cold below zero Michigan Morning on February 2…a few years ago…..with Katie Bolger Vondra and her team. The only thing better than Property Management Minutes, are Property Management Memories.
Breakfast On The Go is a quick and easy resident appreciation event. . Organizing the leasing and maintenance team at the property entrances with coffee, juice boxes and packaged pastries offers a smile and breakfast treat for your residents as they leave the property for their morning commute.
Ground Hog Day
One year we used Ground Hog Day for our theme. As we handed out the breakfast treats we asked each carload for their vote. Would the ground hog see their shadow or not? On a cold Michigan morning we spent more time explaining which way the shadow meant, long Weiner or short until spring. Everyone laughed and star acted the day with a smile.
As the final cars left the property, we. called a local radio station that was talking about the groundhog shadow thing. We offered our votes….of the 115 people we polled at the gate for Homestead Apartments, 76 votes for seeing shadow, 49 votes for no shadow.
That little comment planted an advertising seed. We got to mention our property name and location on the air. Even a 30 second ad would have cost hundreds of dollars.
At the same time, we offered our snacks to our residents laughing with smiles. We weren’t asking about lease terms or reminding them to pay their rent. Just giving them a snack to start their day.
Resident Retention
Resident retention is more than lease renewals. A resident retention/ resident appreciation program builds customer loyalty. Residents appreciate knowing they are more than a “unit number” or a “rental payment.”
Breakfast on the GO can be an anchor for your resident appreciation program. Scheduling the event for the same day each month, first Tuesday, second Thursday, or even once a quarter can build systems and schedules to help them team make sure this important customer service attitude does not get lost in the busy-nes of our days. General Note…Mondays and Fridays, are more difficult days for this event.
It might take a few tries to determine best day, but in a short amount of time it can grow to be an expected event. Residents with a breakfast snack in hand can easily start talking about where they live when they arrive at work.
Creating resident activities can be frustrating. Best efforts of planning, purchasing supplies and scheduling staff can experience a handful of residents in attendance. The benefit of BOTG is we take the event to the residents. The challenge of scheduling conflicts, forgetting the event and RSVP regrets because after work can just be too much ..are all eliminated, because the event is literally placed in the travel route of the residents leaving the property.
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