Filtered, Filtered, Filtered
Apartment Executives are at a disadvantage, your information is filtered. Yet, you are expected to make critical decisions each day about what best works for your company. Lots of things have been written about Managing By Wandering Around, but who really does that, and when or if you do, are you listening to the front line employees. And if you are listening, which you likely aren’t, what you are being told is what the front lines perception is of what they think you want to here. Filtered, Filtered, Filtered.
I understand that all too well, having spent most of my career with a mid sized multifamily developer and apartment operator. And, once we achieve the long awaited “status” of Vice President, Senior Vice President, President and all or any the other “titles” we are much smarter than the front line, or at least we think so. Before you discount that, let it sink in, there may be a silver of truth there.
Whats the Point Here
The point is this, Are We Asking The Right Questions when our prospects walk though our doors? In my current life at Urbane Apartments, because of the layout of our space at the Urbane Underground (Command Central) I personally here almost every leasing pitch our folks do, or at least a lot of them.
Like lots of other apartment management folks attempting to lease apartments, we ask the same basic questions, like How did you here about us? Even though we already know, they don’t know or remember where the heard about us. For goodness sakes, there is compelling data abound that at best, the accuracy of where someone heard about us is maybe 35% correct. the truth is, they likely saw you in multiple places.
A Better Question
Starting today, Urbane Apartments are going to ask a different question, and we think there may well be a lot of benefit to the answers we get. Here it is; “What Search Terms or Words Did You Google to Find Urbane Apartments” and if they didn’t use a Google Search to find us, the next question to follow would be, “What Search Term Would You Use to Find Urbane Apartments”
There are a couple of things to learn here;
1) Did the prospect use Google Search to find an apartment or did they use an ILS
2) What are the relevant search terms in the prospects mind
I am sure this isn’t breaking news to the SEO Genius, and they will tell us they already know what search terms and words to utilize, and they might. But, We are pretty proud at The Urbane Way for figuring out how to land on Page One, Number One to Number Three consistently for a Google Search term Apartments Royal Oak, and now Apartments Birmingham MI, hope to learn and figure out some more gold nuggets.
We will surely share the results of our findings. And, at least we cease asking the same questions everyone else asks that we already know are 70% wrong.
Eric’s background is rooted in the rental and real estate industries. He founded metro Detroit’s Urbane Apartments in 2003, after serving as senior vice president for a major Midwest apartment developer. He established a proven track record of effectively repositioning existing rental properties in a way that added value for investors while enhancing the resident experience.
He also established The Urbane Way, a social media marketing and PR laboratory, where innovative marketing ideas are tested. Eric has been featured in Entrepreneur Magazine and Business Week Magazine.
You can connect with Eric_Urbane on Twitter.
Eric also writes regular articles for the following publications;
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