How to increase your tenant satisfaction

Do you even think about tenant satisfaction? Well, you honestly should because a tenant is your customer (sadly, many real estate professionals still do not feel this way). When you offer your customers top-notch service to make them happy and satisfied, you get loyal and long-lasting customers.

The above applies to all businesses, and indeed it also applies to the rental property market – now more than ever. Why is that, and what can you concretely do to increase tenant satisfaction and retention? Well, this very topic is our daily bread and butter, so we have a lot to say about it. Read on.

The growing importance of tenant retention

Why are we fussing about the importance of tenant satisfaction and tenant retention, especially now? Firstly, the way we live is dramatically changing. Home, as we traditionally used to know it, has become more of a fusion of home and workplace. We want to live in a more and more sustainable yet urban way. We want to experience rather than possess. We want to be surrounded by like-minded people. All this has created an exploding growth of circular and sharing economies. 

At the same time, our lives have gone seriously digital, whether we like it or not. We steer significant parts of our lives online. We are used to getting fast, high-quality and digital service anywhere and anytime we might need it. And we won't settle for anything less anymore. 

What’s in it for you?

With these changing living standards and requirements, today’s tenant has become the king. And if the king is unhappy, they find a better place to live. You want to keep them as your customers – so you need to focus on tenant retention.

Without customers, your properties are not homes but just empty, unproductive, echoing walls. Satisfied tenants want to live longer in their rental homes and even recommend their apartment buildings for others to live in. And for you, this means:

• Better tenant retention
• More steady and secure revenue for more prolonged periods
• Fewer costs caused by your vacant rental properties in between tenants
• Fewer costs caused by acquiring new tenants
• Higher Net promoter scores
• Higher profits 
• Achieving your financial goals.

How to start improving your resident satisfaction?

You can start from so many places, but the smartest thing to do is to start with finding out the current state of tenant satisfaction and your tenants’ existing needs.

1. Build a tenant satisfaction survey – Find out what your tenants think – otherwise, you might be spending a lot of time on improving something that you believe matters but that in reality has little or no importance to your tenants.
   
   
2. Analyze the feedback and calculate your tenant NPS and tenant CSAT. NPS is the net promoter score = how likely your tenants are to recommend their building as a place to live for others. CSAT is the customer satisfaction score = a degree to which a product or service meets customer expectations.
   
   
3. Identify the areas of most dissatisfaction among the tenants and make a plan on how you are going to improve these areas. Remember: even if the improvements require some investments from you, they will pay off multiple times in the future with satisfied customers and longer-lasting tenancies.
   
   
4. Listen to the needs and wishes of your tenant community. Make your tenants feel seen and heard and that their opinions and happiness matter.
   
   
5. Perform a new resident satisfaction survey at regular intervals. See the NPS and CSAT numbers going up, leases getting longer, and the churn going down.

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Do you need inspiration for building a tenant satisfaction survey? 

You can start quickly and simply by downloading our tenant satisfaction survey template. You can copy the template and use it as it is, or use it as an inspiration and starting point to edit and create your own survey that serves your property management needs in the best possible way.

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Do you want to do this properly?

In autumn 2022, we are launching a series of guides on how to increase tenant satisfaction. The guides will, among other things, cover in detail how to conduct a customer satisfaction survey, delve deeper into the meaning and implications of tenant satisfaction, introduce the NPS and CSAT scores, and include tools to calculate NPS and CSAT. 

If you want to be first in line to get the fresh guides directly to your email, sign up for our newsletter today!

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