Mystery Shopping and Customer Loyalty

The mystery shopping report is long established as the objective tool for measuring performance of your onsite leasing personnel… BUT in giving you that glimpse into an interaction with a potential customer you can also see behaviors that contribute to engaging and building the kind of trusting relationship that leads to loyal customers as well.

If you have a shopping program in place or are interested in starting one, consider the following:

• Does the mystery shopping report allow for the shopper to comment openly on their experience rather than just answering a number of Yes/No questions?
• Do you utilize audio and video recordings to observe the interactions between the mystery shopper (AKA customer) and leasing professional?
• Are you asking the “right” type of questions about the customer interaction?  A successful sales approach includes technical and emotional components.  Do your questions gauge the level of engagement by the customer?   Do your questions identify if and how the relationship between a customer and leasing professional is unfolding?  What about the “technique”?  Are these “technique” questions direct and focused on ensuring the leasing professional is taking specific action as part of the sales presentation?

The sales approach is about balance – balance in the sense of directing and persuading the customer to do business with you while also establishing the beginning of what is hopefully a long term relationship.  Just think, if the customer does not enjoy their experience, connect with the leasing professional,  or understand the value of living at this community, you probably ALSO lost their recommendation to a friend or family member!

Should I ask a mystery shopper for this kind of feedback – or – should I ask a real customer?

The answer is BOTH!

 

Your real customers may be inclined to give you their brief feedback on a limited number of touch-points, provided they don’t feel their time is wasted. The best practice is to keep things SIMPLE for them if you want to elicit their buy-in, and hence their support, to provide you with valuable information about their experience.

 

With a mystery shopper, you don’t have to worry about those considerations. You are paying for this service, and the shopper must provide you with all the information you request. With a shopping report built to mirror your internal sales training, the shopper can address whether or not your onsite staff are delivering according to company protocol and expectations to your telephone, onsite, and even Internet customers.

 

When you ask the shopper to share their feedback and accept their perspective as you would the real customer– embracing the shopping report as an opportunity to improve – then you get not only a tool to measure against your established training program and company expectations, but you gain insight from an objective and non-emotional perspective.  While the shopping report captures a moment in time, it allows a deeper understanding of how the sales process is being delivered to potential customers.

For almost three decades, Ellis has been the premier mystery shopping company for the multifamily industry, offering an array of shopping products that can be customized to fit your specific needs, and providing you with training and other references to help you build the best onsite leasing team possible. We also offer a resident feedback program that goes far beyond traditional surveys – helping you understand who your customer is, where you can improve at the property level to increase the perceived value of those customers, and ultimately increase retention and profitability.

Ellis wants to be your partner in success!

Five Reasons for Mystery Shopping Your Apartment Properties

All companies believe in measuring and monitoring a property’s performance through the monthly financials. Doesn’t the same concept apply to the sales and leasing efforts of the on-site staff? Shouldn’t you know for sure how your rental prospects are treated? And shouldn’t you know how your on-site team presents your community?

Mystery shopping has been a staple practice of the apartment industry for more than 20 years and is a valuable tool for evaluating and training on-site leasing personnel. It is the practice of sending a specially trained individual “undercover” to an apartment community posing as a qualified and willing rental prospect. The shopper participates anonymously in the leasing presentation and then completes a written report evaluating the leasing professional’s sales skills and compliance to company and fair housing policies, plus an assessment of the community.

Without shopping, you may not be aware of lackluster leasing efforts or poor resident relations at one of your apartment communities, costing you money in lost leases, lower rent offers, and lost renewals.

With that much at stake, it is critical that you monitor leasing and resident relation activity to identify those on-site team members who may need encouragement, training, reprimand, or dismissal (if necessary).

Aside from money (and it’s hard to avoid that reason), here are five reasons why many of our customers use mystery shopping as a management and training tool.

1. Obligation to Owners/Investors to Maintain High Standards

All companies have the responsibility to owner/investors to maintain competent on-site leasing professionals. It’s all about accountability! An accurate and comprehensive shop provides documentation of leasing excellence on all of the communities a firm manages. In other words, the shopping report is proof that the company is committed to providing a strong sales and leasing effort.

2. Document Ongoing Portfolio-Wide Leasing Excellence

More and more management companies are under a high-degree of scrutiny from investors, asset managers, and advisory groups. They must show they can and are performing. Again the shopping reports verify a dedicated and competent leasing staff.

3. Monitor Performance and Training Efforts

Mystery shopping allows a company or property to measure ongoing performance. Not just “How are we doing?” but “How well are we improving?” The test of any training program is the measurable results of the personnel who are shopped. In other words, does shopping result in better leasing skills and effectiveness? Using shopping reports along with additional training and positive recognition, many companies have vastly increased their closing ratios and have put more people into apartments!

4. Troubleshooting and Identifying Potential Challenges

A mystery shop can uncover problems and challenges on-site such as curb appeal concerns, office environment issues (i.e. staff attitudes), as well as poor sales and personal skills. A shop can identify one who might actually be creating sizable losses in revenue due to their poor leasing and overall indifference toward prospects.

5. Training and Feedback

Perhaps the best way to look at a mystery shop is that it is the quintessential training tool. An on-site professional can go to seminars for years, read all kinds of sales books, and discuss the subject forever. But until he or she gets into the heat of the battle and receives a complete written evaluation of their “real” presentation, you don’t really know the level of their sales ability.

Each shop a person reads is like a mini-seminar on leasing. And if one’s company already has an effective training program, shopping will further enhance that ongoing training. If a company does not have the luxury of a trainer, then the shop will become one of the most important training tools! Good employees respond to their shop by addressing their weaknesses and improving their presentation.

It’s clear that mystery shops are a reasonable tool to help measure, monitor, and control potential revenue loss. There is just too much potential downside if you do not monitor the activity of your on-site personnel throughout your portfolio. Yet, more importantly, there is so much to be gained from shopping the on-site personnel – so much more that can positively impact the economics of a property.

Are you employing mystery shops on your properties? If so, how have they benefitted you? If you’re considering employing mystery shops, what’s holding you back? Share in the comments below.