New Building Manager Communications Toolkit
If you’re a building manager, connecting with your residents is one of your top responsibilities. Establishing a relationship early can make things much smoother and can help with retention and new resident referrals.
How To Write Your Introductory Email
HERE ARE A FEW TIPS TO MAKE YOUR INTRODUCTORY OR SURVEY EMAIL TO YOUR RESIDENTS REALLY POP!
– Copy our email example into a Microsoft Word file or equivalent so you can edit and personalize your message.
– People open e-mail based on the subject line. Makes yours juicy and compelling.
– Don’t make your e-mail one big paragraph and leave spaces. Use shorter paragraphs and leave spaces between the paragraphs.
– If information such as building rules, repair process, or emergency contact information is on another website or on another document, create links and insert them where appropriate. (How to create a link).
– Clearly describe changes, if any, in rent collection procedures.
– Remember the purpose of this e-mail. It’s to introduce yourself, share your contact information, and remind residents of the building rules and regulations. Keep it brief and to the point.
– Once you’re done editing (and you’ve triple checked it), copy it into your e-mail tool of choice, whether it’s Gmail, Outlook, or MailChimp.
Here Are The Items You Should Include In Your Introductory Email:
CONTACT INFO
Your email should introduce yourself as the building’s new property manager. You could include some brief biographical info if you choose. You should include your contact information, mobile phone #, email address, etc.. as well as your preferred form of communication (email, text, etc..) and give them an idea how long they should expect to wait for a return call/email from you. (I usually return call from residents in 2 hours…)
You might also include contact info for other key members of your staff such as building maintenance for example.
RULES & REGULATIONS
This initial email might also be a good time to remind your residents of the building’s rules & regulations. These could include rules pertaining to pets, visitors, smoking, parking, noise, trash, paying rent/fees. If these rules are posted to a website you could add a link to them in your email or if they are on a PDF you could attach it to your email.
REPAIRS & MAINTENANCE
Use this email to remind residents of the repair ticket process. Do they use email, phone call, web form to request their repair? Also mention the expected turnaround times for Maintenance to get back to them. Another important item to discuss is the building’s policy related to Front Desk personnel who provide access to your apartment for a repair person when the resident isn’t home. It’s always smart to review this with your clients to make sure you’re both on the same page.
COMMUNICATION
Include how you plan to communicate with the residents moving forward. Via email? Via phone or text? Is there a newsletter? Is there a resident web page for information or a private Facebook group where you can communicate with residents? Make sure to note the URLs and phone numbers clearly.
Always include info such as “referral program for new residents” or other programs that your residents should know about.
Here Are Examples Of An Introductory Email And A Survey Email
Introductory Email
Here is an example of an introductory e-mail:
SUBJECT LINE: New Property Manager – Introduction
Dear Residents of Sunrise Apartments,
My name is John Smith and I have taken over as Property Manager, effective today, April 8th, 2021.
For your convenience, my contact information is below my signature.
I look forward to meeting everybody. Here are a couple reminders that I hope will be helpful as we make this transition:
The Repair Request/Maintenance Process
Rules and Regulations
Emergency Contact Information
Emergency Procedure Protocol
Effective immediately, rent payments (check or money order. Do not send cash) can be mailed to:
ABC Management
Attn: Sunrise Apartment Office
123 Main st.
Blurb City, NJ
Checks payable to: ABC Management
You can also pay online via credit or debit card or online check at our website abcmanagement.com
Thank you for taking the time to read this. I’ll be in touch soon.
John Smith
Property Manager, Sunrise Apartments
Office Number: 555-123-1234
Cell Phone: 555-123-1235
John@john.com
Survey Email
Here is an example of a survey e-mail:
SUBJECT LINE: Thank you for being a resident. Are you satisfied?
Dear Residents of Sunrise Apartments,
In our efforts to provide quality service, we look to you for feedback.
We’ve created a short survey intended to understand what we’re doing right and where we can improve.
We appreciate your honest feedback; this survey should only take 90 seconds. Here is the link if you’d like to begin now.
Thank you,
John Smith
Property Manager, Sunrise Apartments
Office Number: 555-123-1234
Cell Phone: 555-123-1235
John@john.com
Survey Your Residents
Another idea is to send out a resident survey. Keep it short; 5-6 questions designed to help you get a sense of their overall satisfaction and giving you an indication of where to focus your energies to improve their level of satisfaction and odds of lease renewal.
Some of the questions you could ask are:
What is your overall level of satisfaction with (property name) 1-10 (1 lowest, 10 highest)
What made you answer with that rating (why wasn’t it higher or lower?)
How do you feel about the quality of ______________ (security, cleanliness, amenities, etc..)
There are no “wrong” questions to ask, the thing to keep in mind is to keep it short, a long survey is more likely to be ignored vs. one that can be completed in fewer than 60 seconds.
Check out our video to follow our step-by-step process to set up and send out your survey.
RESIDENTS’ EMAIL LIST
THE LIST
An up-to-date list of your residents’ email addresses is critical for your building’s success. If you don’t have a current list, creating this list should be your first order of business. You can store the email addresses in Outlook or a spreadsheet like Excel or Google Sheets.
The other option would be to store it in an email marketing tool such as MailChimp, described below.
MailChimp is a marketing automation platform that helps you share email and ad campaigns with clients, customers, and other interested parties. We’ve built a “quickstart” guide designed to help you use MailChimp. Once set up, you’ll be able to easily and quickly communicate with your residents via email.
Click on our quick video to learn how to use the FREE version of Mailchimp to help you communicate with your residents. For more informatoin on MailChimp, click on the link below.
Thanks, hopefully you’ll find this guide useful.
The Marketing Team @ Planned
Sales@PlannedCompanies.com
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Ps. We offer Janitorial, Security, Front Desk, & Building Maintenance services for multi-family buildings, if you’re looking for help with any of these, let’s talk.