Time to Turn Complaints into Compliments?

I’m sure many of us in property management have noticed that our landlords and tenants are becoming more educated and demanding than ever. The skills of a property manager now need to extend to far beyond a collector of rent or a coordinator or repairs with expectations of a property manager higher than ever. This is partly because our client’s are easily educated by the internet, are persuaded by stories in the media, and are able to communicate both positive and negative experiences far easier amongst their community through social media.

Thanks to this, those we perceive to be “difficult clients” are far more prevalent in our day to day dealings and situations with potential for conflict are arising more often. At Real Plus our most common request for training is on communication and conflict resolution. What we see is that even experienced property managers in general are not always equipped with the communication and conflict resolution skills needed to cope with these increased demands, expectations and knowledge.

The most successful agencies we work have ongoing training plans into place to grow and develop their teams and business to both educate themselves, but also find ways to educate their clients, therefore becoming the expert in their field. Ongoing training will also enable them to add an array of communication techniques and training into place to help their teams avoid conflict and turn potential complaints into compliments. Some tips for ensuring you are staying one step ahead include:

• Stay educated – Ensure you know what your clients know so that you can proactively tackle any potential issues
• Keep training – Undertake ongoing internal and external training so that skills are continually being developed to deal with ever increasing client needs/demands 
• Peek out of industry – some other industries such as retail and hospitality can bring some great communication, conflict resolution and customer service skills to the table
• Look to improve – don’t assume that because it’s been done a certain way for a long time that it’s the best way to do it
• Listen – the best advice anyone working in property management can take on board, often we don’t actually listen and this is the root of most potential issues

If you are Real+ member, click here to visit Real+TV where you can watch our webinar Communication Concepts: From Complaints to Compliments