Get the insight you need to improve your community

To keep occupancy rates high and retain residents, you need to know how renters perceive your community. Do they rave about the amenities to their friends? Does the responsiveness of the on-site team meet their expectations? Do they think the units need a refresh?  You have to seek feedback to improve your community and outperform competitors.

6 tips to get more from your surveys

Intuitively, you may know what questions to ask. But figuring out how and when to ask the questions can be the trickier part. We have six tips to keep in mind as you develop your survey strategy.

1. Customize for each property

You don’t need to reinvent the wheel when it comes time to surveying your residents. There are many standard questions that apply to all communities. But it is important to think about the needs of each specific community and customize the questions for those residents.

2. If you aren’t collecting your Net Promoter Score, start now

Net Promoter Score is one of the simpliest measures of customer or renter sentiment. Track the score over time to understand how sentiment changes. A Net Promoter Score, or NPS Score, splits your reviewers into three main categories: Promoters, Detractors and Passives. So you could even create surveys geared to those three audiences. Aim to understand what makes Promoters so happy, what would move passives to promoters and what needs to be improved in the eyes of detractors.

3. Set it, and forget it!

If your surveys aren’t automated, you will never collect responses consistently. Make sure that your survey tool integrates with your PMS so that surveys will automatically be sent during key phases of the resident journey.

4. Map surveys to the renter journey

To get comprehensive feedback, make sure that your survey strategy accounts for key points in the renter journey. Survey leads after they tour the property. Survey residents after move-in. Survey residents after a maintenance request is completed. Survey residents mid-lease. And survey residents when they move out.

5. Don’t rely on email alone

Soliciting feedback via email alone won’t result in the highest completion rates. Make sure that your survey strategy includes text as well as email.

6. Make sure survey reporting is actionable

Select a survey tool that makes it easy to slice and dice the data. You will want to see trends specific to a property but also across your full portfolio. Consider if survey tools allow you to visualize data and track resident sentiment.

Bonus: Turn survey responses into reviews. Encouraging survey participants to leave public feedback is another important part of the process. Consider directing people to leave a review as a final step of the survey process.

RentRep. surveys provide actionable insights via multifamily-specific, automated, customizable surveys. Learn more.