It was while writing an article about going the extra mile for your tenants and doing little extras to make them feel special that the truth really dawned on me. I realised that the business practices I used which guaranteed loyalty, referrals and repeat business actually had nothing to do with special gestures. And although special gestures will make your tenants happy, the memory of that special moment will quickly fade if these other, super important ingredients aren’t present in your landlording business.
This is quite possibly THE MOST IMPORTANT piece of information when it comes to providing customer service for your tenants – and is the real honest route to receiving loyalty, referrals and repeat business. “Repeat business in a HMO??”, I hear you cry in disbelief! Yep, when you apply these practices to your own landlording business, you WILL have repeat business and more…
Reflecting on the different tenant experiences I’ve had over the years, I’ve noticed that any tenants who have left bearing a grudge, could have left giving referrals had I put more focus into one or more of the practices detailed below.
In contrast, when I’ve applied all of these important ingredients for great customer service, even the tenants I had ‘politley asked to leave’, thanked me for being a great landlord.
My longest tenant has lived in one of my houseshares for ten years, and I regularly have tenants stay for 4 or 5 years (and this is in larger – 5, 6 and 7 bed HMO’s – typically more difficult to maintain longer tenancy terms than in the smaller mini-mo’s).
Referrals have been too many to keep count, and I’ve had repeat tenants on multiple occasions. A tenant who became a property owner, then asked me to manage her property for her when she moved to London for work. And an ex-tenant has come to me for guidance on purchasing his first HMO investment property.
None of this would have occurred had I not developed strong ties with my tenants through delivering great customer service. So without further ado, here’s the SenecaRooms “Real honest route to tenant loyalty, referrals and repeat business”.
Respect
This is number one! You. Must. Treat your tenants with respect. They absolutely must have the feeling that you see them as more than just a pay check.
Responsiveness
Efficient response to issues. This helps customers to feel heard, valued and respected. I often hear landlords advise others to switch their phones off after normal business hours, but I disagree – to a point. Your professional tenants are mostly home on weekends and after 6 or 7pm at night, so those are the times they are going to notice and report issues. So be available for your tenants for a couple of hours at night and until a reasonable hour on a Saturday at the very least. I understand not all landlords want to be giving up their personal time in the evenings, in which case, I recommend hiring a Virtual Assistant or a property manager, or setting up automation systems or a chatbot to ensure tenants receive a response to any issues and feel heard.
Responsibility
Take responsibility for your business, your actions and inactions, admit fault when you are in the wrong and apologise where necessary.
Approachability
This is where friendliness helps. If tenants feel you are approachable, they will offer valuable feedback, as well as letting you in on any breaches that might be happening around the house (someone smoking in their room, someone’s other half at the house every night etc). If you’re not approachable, or you don’t respond to your tenants in a timely manner, they won’t bother to communicate with you.
Reliability
Be dependable and reliable. When you say you will repair a leak within 24 hours, make sure it’s done within 24 hours. If you can’t guarantee a repair within 24 hours, give a longer lead time.
Transparency
Be open and honest about your business terms, processes and fees. If there’s one thing I’ve learnt, it’s that tenants either forget, don’t understand, or simply don’t pay attention to the terms in their tenancy agreements. This invariably causes issues either during or at the end of the tenancy when damages, fees and notice periods become relevant. To combat the dreaded End of Tenancy Dispute, I have started to provide an increasing level of transparency about these topics to my tenants. Actually, I talk about a situation which inspired greater transparency in my processes in this blog post.
I know it’s not a legal requirement to go out of my way to provide greater transparency to my tenants, however I’ve found that, no matter how fabulous your tenant’s experience has been with you thus far, a lack of clarity or understanding of a tenancy agreement or regarding repairs costs can completely spoil your tenant’s view of you and your property.
So there you have it. Respect, responsiveness, responsibility, approachability, reliability and transparency – the essential ingredients you NEED to master in order to deliver a real honest customer service experience for your tenants.
Whenever you have a less than glowing review from a tenant, think back over your interactions with them and consider which of the different ingredients for great customer service may have been a bit lacking, and work to improve that ingredient for future interactions/tenants.
Get this stuff right, and I guarantee you will have extended years of loyalty, referrals and repeat business from your tenants.
Want more?
At SenecaRooms, we love the subject of customer service and have multiple decades of experience under our belt. If you feel your landlording business could benefit from an injection of better customer service values, contact us to arrange a strategy session at live@senecarooms.com to find out how we can help.