#113: From Good to Great: Transforming Renewal Conversations
Regardless of where we are or what the economy is doing, renewal conversations with your residents can be challenging. But renewals are so important because it is easier to keep the residents you already have living at your community than to go after new ones. But how do we keep them?
In this episode, we delve into the crucial topic of renewal conversations in multifamily housing and uncover practical strategies to make every day a renewal opportunity. From personalized touchpoints to surprising and delighting our residents, we'll learn how to create a meaningful connection with them throughout their stay. The biggest key: building equity.
Let's transform the way we approach renewals and make each conversation a positive and enriching experience.
Building Equity
Take for example two communities. One community consistently invested in positive interactions with their resident, from the prospect stages to move-in and throughout their journey at the community, checking in, interacting on socials, and having great conversations, thus accumulating equity in the bank. Another community doesn’t put a ton of equity in. Throughout the process perhaps they do a few things right, but there is little communication, and they drop the ball. There is no equity left. All that goodwill that had built the little bit that was there, to begin with, is completely gone. So when the time comes to renew, and there is rent raises, and the resident has to make a decision, is there value added? Is there a relationship? How’s the bank? Is there equity to collect on? Is that renewal conversation going to be easy?
Which community are we? Are we building a ton of goodwill? Are we doing things wrong or not doing enough?
“Our rate of renewal is a reflection of the sum of all our interactions. ”
Sample renewal designs from the Sprout Membership
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Each Issue Contains:
Resident Renewal, Welcome Home and Appreciation Initiatives
12+ Event Ideas per Month (complete with Invitations, Social Graphics & Shopping Lists)
Monthly templated designs for resident communication: Notices, Calendars, Newsletters
Every design opens as a Canva template - just add your details.
Make Every Day Renewal Day
Every day is renewal day. Every day we’re building equity towards that renewal bank. So ask yourself these questions that can be asked in any phase…
What are we currently doing that’s working well?
Where are their bottlenecks and frustrations?
What basics do we need to do every time?
How can we add a little to the experience?
Make renewals personalized, but automatic too. Renewals start on day one, not just when it’s time to renew.
A few ideas…
Post Move-In Check-In - Check in two or three weeks after they’ve moved into your community. How happy are they with your community at that point? Impressions are most fragile here. But it gives you an accurate pulse of if you have to add more equity, or if you’ve already messed up.
Video Check-Ins - You can put together videos with FAQs. Or a welcome from the team. Or from your maintenance team tips to maintain their home or keep energy costs low. Make notes about what is important to that person. Take what you can and modify it to fit your circumstances to personalize their experience.
Anniversary Gift - At the six or seven-month mark, you can send something for their anniversary and make it personal. It’s a two-for-one- outreach, marketing, and retention. Even if it’s just sending a thank you card.
Ask for Reviews - Ask for reviews when residents are happy. A client that is brought into your community is more likely to renew because they’ve endorsed you.
GET YOUR COST OF MOVING DESIGN
This worksheet design allows you to crunch the numbers with your residents and compare renewing to potential moving costs.
Download this design and others in our FREE membership - click here!
PREP YOUR TEAM
As a team, discuss why price increases are necessary for the financial health of your community.
Get familiar with current market rates and competitor pricing.
List out any improvements that have been made in the community and remind yourself why people bought in the first place and how you stand out as different.
Do research on how much it costs to move in your area financially and emotionally.
Familiarize yourself with why you’ve lost renewals.
Practice. Practice. Practice.
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Insight leads to action. Action leads to refinement. Refinement leads to clarity. Clarity leads to momentum. And momentum is what we’re looking for. So friends, keep doing what you’re doing. Remember, you’re selling home, you’re improving you, and when it comes to renewals, remember, all of our interactions, they matter.