Your tenants are an invaluable source of information when it comes to improving your rental business.
If you’re wondering how to increase tenant satisfaction, why not ask your tenants? Chances are that your tenants are more than willing to tell you what they like and dislike about you and your properties. All you need to do is give them the opportunity.
Some landlords may worry that resident feedback won’t be useful. They think that when asked what could be improved, tenants may make unreasonable requests given their budget or time frame (e.g., a pool, a fully renovated kitchen, a different location, etc.).
However, if you focus on specific questions, tenant surveys can gather crucial data for your business. In contrast to a formalized request for reviews, informal surveys take less time and are more likely to get responses.
Here are a few reasons to make regular resident response surveys part of your rental business.
They Improve Tenant Loyalty
Regular surveys send the message that you care about your tenants’ experiences.
By providing regular opportunities to give feedback about yourself and your properties, you also demonstrate your willingness to accept criticism, a positive attribute in any landlord. Tenants will appreciate your dedication in preparing the survey and considering feedback.
Regular surveys also increase tenant loyalty and decrease turnover. If you’re already working to improve your tenants’ experience based on their needs, why would they move?
They Encourage Transparency
Open communication is a valued skill in any business. The best landlords are transparent with tenants.
Regular tenant surveys encourage honesty and transparency between you and your tenants. Knowing about a potential problem through a survey is much better than finding out about the bad experience when a tenant decides to move out.
Don’t wait for things to go wrong to get feedback from your tenants. By being transparent in your willingness to accept criticism, your tenants will be more open with you.
They Prevent Negative Reviews
Too many negative reviews can impact your reputation. Without consistent positive reviews on popular listing sites, your business loses credibility.
While you can’t prevent tenants from posting negative reviews online, you can work to direct the flow of criticism. This is where tenant surveys come in. If you give tenants a chance to vent, they are less likely to post a bad review online.
They Offer Perspective and Awareness
Finally, tenant feedback helps you gather insight for improving your rental business. Without your tenants’ perspectives, you won’t know where to focus your resources in the future.
Tenant feedback also helps you stay aware of issues that may have otherwise gone unnoticed. A tenant might not feel that a problem is significant enough to message you about, but a survey presents an easy opportunity to bring the problem to your attention. Surveys help you keep tabs on your properties and prevent small problems from escalating.
Tips for Collecting Feedback
If you’ve decided to implement tenant surveys in your rental business, here are some tips for gathering useful feedback.
Make it Anonymous
Tenants should feel safe providing their honest opinions without fear of repercussions. Keep all tenant surveys anonymous, or tenants won’t complete them. Assure your tenants that their identity is private and that you won’t punish criticism.
Incentivize Your Survey
Not all your tenants will jump on the chance to fill out a survey. Many will be busy, forgetful, or simply not interested in providing feedback. For this reason, you may need to incentivize your survey.
For instance, you could offer tenants who complete the survey a chance to win a gift card or other prize.
Ask Specific Questions
General feedback is less useful than specific answers to carefully crafted questions. Before you distribute your survey, decide what precisely you want to know about yourself and your business. Otherwise, you give tenants free rein to ask for all kinds of improvements outside your ability to fulfil.
Use Property Management Software
Surveys can be a regular opportunity throughout the lease term. However, it’s also helpful to prompt tenants with an exit survey when they move out. Many property management software platforms allow you to present tenants with an exit survey before they pay their final month’s rent.
You can also use your software to keep track of your company metrics and compare them with your survey results over time.
Survey Says: Use Resident Feedback to Improve Your Rentals
It never feels good to receive criticism about the business you’ve worked hard to create. However, acknowledging that you have opportunities to improve is a sure sign of a mature rental business. By taking resident feedback into account, you can build a loyal tenant community while improving your rentals.
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