Providing a positive resident experience at your apartment community is just as important to a property as their marketing strategy, list of amenities and any other operation piece of the apartment puzzle. Resident experience refers to the overall feeling and experience a resident has while living in your community including how welcome they feel around staff and other residents, communication style for leasing staff or maintenance, or even how clean the amenities and property stay year round. Any way you look at it, residents need positive experiences in your apartment community.
Why is Resident Engagement So Important?
At a simple level, resident engagement is important because residents rely on property staff to meet their needs daily at apartment communities. By meeting residents' needs, you’re creating a safe and positive living environment where residents feel confident about their home.
In addition, resident engagement offers supplementary benefits for operators on a business level. When property staff creates good communication to and from residents, they are more likely to stay living at that apartment community, and more likely to tell their friends how much they enjoy living at that apartment community. Similar to most property management organizations, resident retention is a key strategy and goal when looking to create positive environments for residents to live in. As mentioned before as well, when residents feel happy where they live, they do a little bit of word-of-mouth marketing for you as well.
Simple Ways to Improve Your Resident Satisfaction
Resident satisfaction can be boiled down to three main topics: updated amenities, good communication tools, and creating a positive living environment.
According to Apartments.com, the top items renters are looking for in a new apartment are a mix of digital and physical amenities. Insides units, renters look for smart home devices, virtual assistants, in-unit washer and dryer and more. Within the community, safe delivery package access, fitness center, extra storage and fast, reliable WiFi. These digital and physical amenities provide an extra touch of luxury to their life, and offer tools to create better communication between residents and property staff.
Beyond amenities, residents want to feel connected to the community around them. Apartment resident events are a great way for new residents to introduce themselves, meet and get to know their neighbors.
The Most Popular Apartment Resident Events
Throwing an apartment resident event party can be a big win for residents at your apartment community. Provide some free food or drinks, and people will usually find their way.
When thinking of a new event for your apartment community, think about ideas that a broad range of people will enjoy. Cooking hamburgers on a grill, pizza, ice cream, campfires are all a great place to start.
BYOBG! (Bring your own board game). Most people love board or card games. Have residents bring their own game, or set up a tournament for residents to compete and watch others play.
Top Resident Experience Apps and Software
As mentioned before, digital amenities are a great way to improve resident satisfaction and create a better overall living experience on a daily basis.
Multifamily news has compiled a great list of digital amenities that will keep your apartment community competitive to new and existing residents in 2023.
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Keyless Entry
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Security Cameras
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Smart Thermostat
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Reliable WiFi Connectivity
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Online Rent Payments and Maintenance Requests
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Electric Vehicle Charging Stations
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Upgrade Existing Tech
Interested in learning more about how smart technology and digital amenities can improve your overall apartment living experience? (P.S. that’s our bread and butter). Reach out to us!
