Mystery Shopping

The Apartment Mystery Shopping and Training Services You Need to Succeed

To get the best results for your property, you need more than just a way to evaluate how well you’re doing. You need to be able to take specific action to make improvements. Ellis’ apartment mystery shopping services give you all of the data and reporting you need to monitor your performance and measure it against your established expectations, past history and the performance of other properties, companies and markets across the country. We then provide you with the tools, training and resources you need to quickly improve any problem areas.

Ellis offers a variety of apartment secret shopping services and training enhancement services to effectively evaluate and improve every phase of your leasing process:

• Onsite Shop
• Recorded Telephone Shop
• Internet Shop
• Video Shop

As the leading apartment mystery shopping agency, we perform more onsite shops than any other company. Our onsite shop starts with the shopper conducting a telephone shop (which can be recorded) of the targeted apartment community or leasing professional. The shopper will then proceed with an in-person visit to the apartment community. Following the visit, the shopper will complete an in-depth evaluation of the leasing professional and an assessment of the community. This type of shop can be completed within seven to 10 days of the shop date and sooner in most cases.Each report is made available online and includes detailed scoring and benchmarking figures that identify specific strengths and weaknesses in a particular area of the leasing presentation and/or within certain areas of the property management’s portfolio. Reports also include targeted training links that help leasing professionals address any identified deficiencies while reminding the leasing professional of specific techniques that are useful in their day-to-day leasing presentations.Results are easily summarized by performance category (i.e. telephone, greeting, etc.) and by such categories as vice president, regional manager, city, etc.

• Sample Onsite Shop Report.
• Sample Recorded Onsite Shop Report with Recorded Telephone.

A telephone shop is a recording of an actual telephone presentation conducted by an onsite leasing professional. This type of shop is the most economical and generally can be performed within five days of order placement. Included with this shop are a written report, the recorded call and online access that provides data summaries of all shops.

• Sample Recorded Telephone Shop Report.

An Internet shop begins with the shopper completing an online form (through your Internet advertiser) linked to the targeted apartment community, with the intent of evaluating the timeliness and quality of response sent by the leasing professional.In addition to the customer service analysis, this type of shop is useful in verifying the technical functionality and accuracy of the community’s online operations. For example, we have discovered issues related to spam from various property management companies as well as emails being directed to the wrong property. This type of shop is generally performed within five days of order placement and includes online access to reports summarizing the results of a client’s shops over time.

• Sample Internet Shop Report.

Carried out onsite by shoppers equipped with a hidden camera, video shops offer the most comprehensive glimpse into a leasing professional’s performance. Ellis will professionally edit and deliver a copy of the video via a secure link to our website. Unlike our other apartment mystery shopping services, video shops do not come with the standard written shop report, but rather a brief summary of the 10 Ellis Benchmark questions. For an additional fee, Ellis will produce and include the written shop report.Particularly beneficial to management companies located far from their properties, video shops offer clear views, not only of the leasing professional, but also the actual community. However, this type of shop requires more lead-time given the logistical coordination of equipment and specially certified shoppers, as well as the professional editing and production process. Ellis also requires its clients to sign a consent form, given the legal situations present in most states. The average delivery time for video shops is three to four weeks.

• Sample Video Shop Report. (Download time will vary based on your Internet connection speed and can take 20-60 minutes to download.)

Training Enhancement Services

• Online Targeted-Area Retraining
• Results-Based Custom Coaching

As an added service to complement your telephone and onsite apartment mystery shopping reports, EPMS now offers you the option of a complimentary, personalized online training module tailored to the areas of the shop where the leasing professional may have fallen short of your expectations. If your target goal for a particular area of the shop is missed, the leasing professional who was shopped will be directed to a web-based reinforcement training session tied specifically to that area for improvement.As soon as the report is generated, links to each applicable target area for re-training will be directly accessible from the shopping report. The specialized training module includes written tips, video and audio samples as well as an element of “fun” designed to provide a memorable training experience. As management, you can use the shopping report to view the current status of each training component recommended for that particular shop so you can verify the sessions were completed as directed.This service is designed to be a fast and efficient way to attack common trouble areas within the sales process. While the program is not designed to replace basic sales training or your current processes for improving leasing performance, targeted retraining is a time-saving way to redirect and reestablish techniques to accomplish the ultimate goal: selling your customer on living at your community.

When situations arise that call for extra attention, you can call on Ellis for a personal coaching session. In this two-part service, you and the leasing professional who was shopped will receive a written report that addresses the leasing professional’s most recent “unacceptable” telephone or in-person shop. Then, the leasing professional will participate in a custom-planned coaching session via telephone with an experienced consultant in the multifamily housing industry.Prior to the call, we conduct research designed to paint a fair picture and support our ability to connect with the leasing professional, thus facilitating their “buy in” to the training and ensuring the optimum outcome. Previous shopping reports, personal experience level, and feedback from the leasing professional’s supervisors are all taken into consideration when creating the coaching plan. This personalized training is designed to help both new and experienced employees in any onsite office position.During the coaching call we will review previous written shop scores, look for patterns and frequently missed questions and listen to recorded calls together, asking the leasing professional to evaluate their own performance by highlighting their strengths and areas for improvement. We also ask probing questions to determine what they want to improve. This helps us to focus on additional problem areas not easily identified in the report’s results. Based on individual style and company-specific requirements, we will create a custom telephone script for the leasing professional that hits all the points needed to achieve a perfect score. During the coaching session we role-play this script and, at the end, we provide a copy they can use and further personalize.