Tenant communication is one of the most important aspects of property management. It has a direct impact on your business performance and ultimately, the financial health of your company.
Forward thinking, thoughtful and progressive tenant communication can help you keep tenants happy and engaged. And with that comes better service delivery, higher occupancy rates and ultimately higher revenues for your business.
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What is Tenant Communication
Tenant communication is simply the practice of communicating with your tenants. The purpose of tenant communication is keeping everything in order. This means making sure that your tenants are meeting their contractual requirements, are well informed, and of course, satisfied.
Tenant communication is a vital part of running a successful business, as it can make or break your business over time if not done properly. It’s about managing your tenant’s expectations, being open and honest about any issues that may arise, ensuring they understand the rules and regulations in place for them at their property, and making sure that you listen to their concerns too!
Why Is Tenant Communication So Important?
Tenant communication can substantially improve your business performance.
There are so many benefits to having strong tenant communication, but these are the main ones:
- Tenant retention. If you can keep your tenants happy, they won’t be tempted by other properties in the area that might have a lower rent.
- Tenant satisfaction. Happy tenants give you more money and stay longer if they’re satisfied with their living conditions, security, maintenance and other aspects of renting from your company.
- Tenant loyalty. Renters who feel like members of an exclusive club or community want to stick around because it feels good to be part of something special and unique. They’ll also tell friends about how great it is at your property so that word keeps spreading!
- Tenant referrals – satisfied customers will refer others who may be looking for a good landlord/agency relationship as well! You’ll never know these potential leads until you ask them directly though…so do ask!
10 Golden Tips for better tenant communication
- Let Tenants Know You’re Available – Ensure that tenants know how to reach you. If you are a landlord with a third party managing your properties, make sure they have the property manager’s contact details and have a system in place to submit their requests and questions. If you are a property manager, make sure tenants know how to reach you, either by phone or better yet, by a designated tenant portal on your property management App.
- Minimise Maintenance Visits – Reduce the number of maintenance visits by giving your tenants clear instructions on what repairs should be done by professionals, rather than left up to them. For example: if there’s a leaking tap, tell them exactly where it is and include photos in written correspondence so they know exactly what needs fixing when they arrive home after work each day; don’t leave this task up to guesswork!
- Respond Quickly to Repair Requests – Respond promptly (within one business day) when tenants report problems such as faulty appliances or leaky faucets—even if there isn’t an emergency situation at hand yet!
- Establish Trust – This one is simple. As far as dealing with people goest, always say what you mean and mean what you say.
- Give Tenants a Heads Up – Give advance notice whenever possible about upcoming inspections or maintenance visits so that people aren’t blindsided when someone shows up unexpectedly unannounced; furthermore let them know if there will be more than one person inspecting their home (for example). Be honest about why these visits need taking place: Don’t give false reasons for why someone needs access inside given no reason other than “it’s just routine maintenance.”
- Spread Good News – It’s important to communicate positive news. If you don’t, your business can’t grow. The more people know about what you’re doing and how you’re doing it, the better chance your company has at attracting new tenants and flourish.
- Offer Multiple Communication Channels – Offer diverse channels in which tenants can reach you in a time of need. The best thing will be to provide tenants with a private community portal, where they can easily submit requests or questions and be informed in real time when those are resolved.
- Keep Messages Simple – Keeping messages simple is the most important part of tenant communication. You want to make sure that the message you are sending will be understood by your tenants, no matter what language they speak or how old they are. Keep it short and sweet. Use plain language and bullet points when possible; use short sentences; use lists whenever possible; use simple words that are easy to understand by everyone.
- Hire a Property Management Answering Service – You will also want to consider hiring a property management answering service. A professional answering service can help you communicate with your tenants in a timely manner and keep your rental business running smoothly.
How can Pickspace help better manage tenant communication?
Whether you’re managing commercial real estate, residential units or coworking spaces, Pickspace provides your tenants with a smartphone friendly, interactive and advanced tenant portal. Smoothly manage all your tenant’s communications, automate countless tenant related processes and increase overall satisfaction.
With Pickspace you can create a supreme user experience and increase tenant satisfaction:
- View & pay invoices – Make it easy for your tenants to view all previous and upcoming invoices as well as pay rent in just a few clicks.
- Book amenities – Use our dashboard or App to enable tenants book amenities in advance.
- Entire leasing workflow– Manage the entire leasing process from tenant screening to contract amendments in one well constructed, simple and automated process.
- Real time notifications- Make it easy for tenants to communicate with you and with each other through our interactive tenant portal.
- Maintenance reports – Allow tenants to submit maintenance reports and when the issue has been resolved.
FInal Words
Now you understand the importance of tenant communication and the positive effect maintaining a great relationship with them can have on your business.
To Build a user friendly, easy to use portal for your tenants that fits their needs perfectly.
try Pickspace. A tenant friendly, cloud based, automated software, that has everything you need to take your property management to the next level.
Book a demo today and get your first 3 first months for free.
