It’s Valentine’s Day. You might be considering buying flowers and chocolates for your sweetheart… but have you ever thought of using the day as a springboard to showing your clients some love as well?
Busy property managers spend a lot of time responding to residents. You always strive to give them good customer service, as part of running a robust business. But you also need to demonstrate excellent customer service for the property owners who engage your services, of course.
Too often, serving your residents promptly and reliably may seem like enough client service for the property owners. It is an important part, but it’s not all. After all, it’s your clients that determine how much you get paid!
There are many great ways to show your appreciation for the folks who entrust you with overseeing the day-to-day operations of their properties. Here are 11 ways to wow your clients, on Valentine’s Day or any other day!
#1: Send Flowers
Use the holiday discounts you’ll see this month! Sending flowers can show client appreciation directly and thoughtfully. Everyone likes to be remembered. Josh Cohen, CEO of the Junkluggers, says: “Each year for Valentine’s Day we have the guys on the trucks pick up some roses and deliver flowers to every customer.” You can take this idea and also add a note expressing how happy you are to have them as a client.
#2: Send Candy
Another venerable Valentine’s Day theme is a box of candy with a note conveying your appreciation. Candy is great if your client works in an office, because it gives them something to share… and garner appreciation in turn.
#3: Buy a Gift
Another way to show appreciation is buying a gift. It can be tailored to something the two of you have in common, like an interest in historical architecture; or a book furthering their business goals, such as how to flip houses.
#4: Send a Handwritten Note
Because so many of us are online frequently, a lot of your communication with clients may take place via email. As a result, handwritten notes pack a lot of punch. They come across as personal and thoughtful. Send a handwritten card expressing your appreciation for being entrusted with their properties.
#5: Post Appreciation on Social Media
Property managers and owners frequently have social media channels. Post an appreciative message to your owners on social media! You could highlight your pleasure at working with them, or choose a relevant fact or statistic. Were the properties renovated or made more energy-efficient? Call it out with praise on social media.
#6: Share One of Their Social Media Posts
If your client posts on social media, carefully choose one of their posts to share or retweet. A great example of this is by Warren CAT, who gathered photos of kids who mastered CAT-inspired Halloween costumes last year. Parents love showing off how cute and creative their kids are, so this is a double-win. As a property manager, you might want to direct a member of your team to keep an eye on your client’s social media accounts so that they show them a little love this Valentine’s Day!
#7: Buy Them Lunch
Make a date to take your clients to lunch. Make clear that it’s a gesture of your appreciation; but you can also use it to learn more about their pain points. Pain points are areas of a business that are either a challenge or an outright problem that your client can’t seem to fix. Good property managers alleviate their clients’ pain points. Are vacancy rates an issue, for example? Offer to research methods of cutting them to zero, like aggressive vacancy marketing campaigns.
#8: Host a Get-Together
If you have several clients, host a holiday-themed get-together. It’s a nice way to break the ice and learn more about people. You can go for a theme, like Escape Room, a game in which people must strategize how to break out of a room. Business bonus: Escape Room lets you see how people think and solve problems, which can be invaluable for your work relationships.
#9: Remember Birthdays
Show client appreciation all year ’round. According to William Bauer, Managing Director of ROYCE Leather, “We utilize birthday specials to convey customer appreciation.” You can include a handwritten card or a small gift, such as a gift card. It illustrates your thoughtfulness and attention to detail, while underscoring your ongoing relationship with the client.
#10: Demonstrate Excellent Customer Service
Make a chart of your customer service efforts for residents and the property over the course of a year. Include what the issues were and your response time. Leaky faucets? Frozen pipes? Metricize how quickly and effectively you’ve solved problems over the last year, then show your clients the chart. It helps them to visualize what day-to-day life in their properties is like, and to see how valuable your services are.
#11: Communicate Frequently
While it’s important to handle things on your own, have a schedule for communicating with your clients. A brief email or even a property newsletter geared to your clients will keep you in robust contact, so that the appreciation events are part of an ongoing dialogue.
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Show love to your client base when Valentine’s Day comes. These 11 client retention ideas for property managers will help you to show appreciation for the people who have hired you to manage their properties.
How do you show your appreciation for your clients? Which gestures have been most successful for you? Let us know in the comments!
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