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EnquiryBest practice - Tenant mailouts and the importance of choice
Hi Everyone!
It’s rapidly approaching Christmas - in fact I think at last count there is only about 7 weeks between now and the festive season. Time to start making that list and checking it twice... or more than twice given the state of the economy at the moment....
There are lots of you starting to think about taking breaks over Christmas (and if you’re not thinking about it and want a break, now might be a good time to start thinking about it!). Please don’t hate me, reminders are a good thing, really!
Quite a few of the account managers here at CRES have been recommending to our clients that doing a tenant mailout before Christmas is a great idea for a couple of reasons:
1. The more tenants using your chosen rent card system, the more automated your rent collection processes, the less manual work you need to do - AND the more time and money you can save by automating manual processes.
2. Give your tenants an early Christmas gift of the Ambassador Card - think of all the savings that they could get on Christmas goodies and shopping - and they would have you - their real estate agent - to thank for it!
So I thought I’d dedicate this post to “Best Practice” in doing tenant mailouts. I have seen a lot of letters go out to tenants in my time at Corum, some of them have been really great, others not so great, but there are some general guidelines you should follow if you are going to do a mailout.
When people mail their tenants to use rent cards there is often a temptation to presumptively “close” them and I have seen a lot of agents try to tell tenants that “this is the way its going to be from now on” and basically not giving them a choice in rent payment methods.
This approach is a little problematic for a couple of reasons:
1. If an existing tenants lease agreement specifies a method of rent payment that is not the rent card, then the legislation in all states says that you cannot force them to change payment methods, both the tenant and the agent must agree to the change.
2. The issue of third line forcing in the Trade Practices Act also comes into play. Although at times hard to prove this basically means that there needs to be a choice for the tenants in rent payment methods. If you make the rent card a “condition” or “pre-requisite” to the commencement of a lease with your office, it could be considered to be third line forcing.
I recently read a book called “Flip” by Peter Sheahan which talks about “how counter-intuitive thinking is changing everything - from branding and strategy to technology and talent”. If you’re interested in modern marketing I think its its well worth reading. My point here is that a bit of counter-intuitive thought can get a much better result for you in the long run. And here is how:
Firstly, no-one likes to feel “forced” into anything and you need to make sure you turn the feeling around. If you can explain to tenants why you feel the change is necessary (eg improved security, not accepting cash in the office, streamlining your processes, eliminating unidentified payments) you will get a much better response than telling them they “must” to do something. If you try to force tenants to change without explaining why, you may even get complaints - which is completely counter-productive to what you are trying to achieve!
Secondly, its important to sell the benefits of the service. If you are with us, you have the ultimate advantage in selling to tenants the benefits of our cards, as there are no other rent card providers that give your tenants the ultimate choices in payment options, with an honest-to-goodness instant rewards program that members of the public pay $199 per annum for.
So, here are my best tips for mailing tenants:
1. Your letter should say that your new rent payment card is your “preferred” method of payment available and that you are phasing out other payment methods.
2. Explain why you are making the change.
3. Explain the benefits to the tenant of making the changes - i.e. what’s in it for them.
4. State in the letter an explicit choice - for eg “Should you choose to change to “rent” card, we are sure you will enjoy the benefits.”
I think you are much better off taking the counter-intuitive approach and getting your tenants steadily onto the card and the benefits for all will be obvious over time. Whilst you are in the process of changing your old tenants over you can always sign new leases up to the card and as your old tenants gradually vacate, the total number of managements using the card will gradually go up.
Your goal should be around 80-90% of managements using the card to get the most benefits and your other payment methods offered should try to eliminate as much human error as possible - eg Bank Cheques and Money Orders. Some of our clients who have been particularly engaged have achieved very close to 100% which is an absolute credit to them and their staff.
If you would like some help completing a mailout to your tenants, please drop us a line and let us know. One of the many services we provide is completing mailouts on your behalf at no charge. Alternately we can give you the tools and advice to successfully complete a mailout on your own.
All the best,
Sam
PS - the BEST letter I have seen recently was written by Ben (his real name) who is the Business Manager of one of our new agents in QLD. Thats as far as the public ID goes, but if you are reading this Ben - it was a really great approach! I’d definitely sign up!
It’s rapidly approaching Christmas - in fact I think at last count there is only about 7 weeks between now and the festive season. Time to start making that list and checking it twice... or more than twice given the state of the economy at the moment....
There are lots of you starting to think about taking breaks over Christmas (and if you’re not thinking about it and want a break, now might be a good time to start thinking about it!). Please don’t hate me, reminders are a good thing, really!
Quite a few of the account managers here at CRES have been recommending to our clients that doing a tenant mailout before Christmas is a great idea for a couple of reasons:
1. The more tenants using your chosen rent card system, the more automated your rent collection processes, the less manual work you need to do - AND the more time and money you can save by automating manual processes.
2. Give your tenants an early Christmas gift of the Ambassador Card - think of all the savings that they could get on Christmas goodies and shopping - and they would have you - their real estate agent - to thank for it!
So I thought I’d dedicate this post to “Best Practice” in doing tenant mailouts. I have seen a lot of letters go out to tenants in my time at Corum, some of them have been really great, others not so great, but there are some general guidelines you should follow if you are going to do a mailout.
When people mail their tenants to use rent cards there is often a temptation to presumptively “close” them and I have seen a lot of agents try to tell tenants that “this is the way its going to be from now on” and basically not giving them a choice in rent payment methods.
This approach is a little problematic for a couple of reasons:
1. If an existing tenants lease agreement specifies a method of rent payment that is not the rent card, then the legislation in all states says that you cannot force them to change payment methods, both the tenant and the agent must agree to the change.
2. The issue of third line forcing in the Trade Practices Act also comes into play. Although at times hard to prove this basically means that there needs to be a choice for the tenants in rent payment methods. If you make the rent card a “condition” or “pre-requisite” to the commencement of a lease with your office, it could be considered to be third line forcing.
I recently read a book called “Flip” by Peter Sheahan which talks about “how counter-intuitive thinking is changing everything - from branding and strategy to technology and talent”. If you’re interested in modern marketing I think its its well worth reading. My point here is that a bit of counter-intuitive thought can get a much better result for you in the long run. And here is how:
Firstly, no-one likes to feel “forced” into anything and you need to make sure you turn the feeling around. If you can explain to tenants why you feel the change is necessary (eg improved security, not accepting cash in the office, streamlining your processes, eliminating unidentified payments) you will get a much better response than telling them they “must” to do something. If you try to force tenants to change without explaining why, you may even get complaints - which is completely counter-productive to what you are trying to achieve!
Secondly, its important to sell the benefits of the service. If you are with us, you have the ultimate advantage in selling to tenants the benefits of our cards, as there are no other rent card providers that give your tenants the ultimate choices in payment options, with an honest-to-goodness instant rewards program that members of the public pay $199 per annum for.
So, here are my best tips for mailing tenants:
1. Your letter should say that your new rent payment card is your “preferred” method of payment available and that you are phasing out other payment methods.
2. Explain why you are making the change.
3. Explain the benefits to the tenant of making the changes - i.e. what’s in it for them.
4. State in the letter an explicit choice - for eg “Should you choose to change to “rent” card, we are sure you will enjoy the benefits.”
I think you are much better off taking the counter-intuitive approach and getting your tenants steadily onto the card and the benefits for all will be obvious over time. Whilst you are in the process of changing your old tenants over you can always sign new leases up to the card and as your old tenants gradually vacate, the total number of managements using the card will gradually go up.
Your goal should be around 80-90% of managements using the card to get the most benefits and your other payment methods offered should try to eliminate as much human error as possible - eg Bank Cheques and Money Orders. Some of our clients who have been particularly engaged have achieved very close to 100% which is an absolute credit to them and their staff.
If you would like some help completing a mailout to your tenants, please drop us a line and let us know. One of the many services we provide is completing mailouts on your behalf at no charge. Alternately we can give you the tools and advice to successfully complete a mailout on your own.
All the best,
Sam
PS - the BEST letter I have seen recently was written by Ben (his real name) who is the Business Manager of one of our new agents in QLD. Thats as far as the public ID goes, but if you are reading this Ben - it was a really great approach! I’d definitely sign up!