Retaining Your Tenants: Customer Service

The key to a successfully managed property is keeping tenants ... keeping them HAPPY, keeping them SECURE, keeping them as TENANTS. The moment a tenant enters the property's office, their concern is our concern. It doesn't matter whether that visit is a repair request, a question about their lease, a security issue, an apartment transfer or just to visit. The staff's main job is to be responsive, efficient and courteous.

Customer attention doesn't stop there, your tenants are encourage to complete a confidential "Tenant Service Questionnaire" and to forward it to our headquarters. This give us invaluable feedback on the performance of the on-site staff. Along with this, we offer the following suggestions:

Always be friendly. Going the extra mile at the beginning can save you time and money in the end. Work orders should be done fast and efficiently. All work orders should be returned by the end of the day. The site manager should audit all repairs. Make sure the move-in goes smoothly. Have small inexpensive parties - so neighbors can get to know each other.

We work hard to keep tenants but when it's necessary for them to leave, their move-out inspections are scheduled promptly and we process their deposit refunds as quickly as possible. The same care and concern is given to each tenant from the first day of their lease to their last day. (See Inspection Move-Out form.)

Site-Specific Training

At Chamberlin & Associates, we recruit ONLY experienced personnel for your property. In addition to their 60-day probationary period, they are put through our intensive week-long orientation/training program. In one-on-one sessions with our accountant, they learn our accounting procedures backwards and forwards. They review your property's budget line by line. They attend seminars on applications review, customer service, complaint resolution, Equal Housing Opportunity issues, salesmanship, security, drug and gang awareness and prevention techniques (see Crime Free Addendum). They review and discuss your property's marketing action plan, learn what their reporting duties will be, and discuss the leasing and retention goals set for your property. On-site management must be able to track your property's performance on a day-by-day basis.