Recently I had to move from the home we've lived in for over eleven years and had to find a new place to live. I did what many do and started my search online. I spent quite a few hours looking for apartments that seemed to fit our needs and either called or sent an e-mail (based on the post guidelines) to ask when the location was open to view (if no posted open house hours). I couldn't believe how many didn't respond to my request! One gentleman responded that he didn't know when he'd have time to show it as he had a lot of errands and that he'd get back to me. He never did. I had already decided I wasn't going to look at that one because if he didn't have time to show a prospective tenant an apartment, the likelihood of his assisting with anything when needed was probably not good. One lady responded 4 days later.
I know it's said that employees don't value your business as much as you do, and it seems managers don't care about getting tenants in as quickly as owners. But I had a great experience with one of the buildings. I had left a message on Friday evening wanting to find out when the apartment could be viewed. The next day I was out about 6 hours looking at locations, and when I returned in the late afternoon, had 3 messages from one of the buildings. The first message was left in the morning and let me know she'd love to show me their wonderful building, and the second message stated she forgot to leave me her cell rather than just the office phone. A few hours later she called back to see about scheduling a time to come by. When I returned home I called and said I'd rather view it the next day since I had just returned home and the location was about a 15-20 minute drive away and I was a bit tired from all I'd done that day. She did allow me to schedule an appointment but asked if I wouldn't be able to make it to please call and cancel at least 30 minutes prior to our meeting as that is how far away she lived (turns out I think I had been talking to the owner as I met the onsite manager when I did view the apartment).
Out of all the locations I visited, I chose this particular apartment. It wasn't just because of her follow-up. Had the building not met our needs, it wouldn't have made sense to move there just because she was the most responsive. But the apartment had what we needed, and the management started out on the right foot by following up with me more than once. And I could tell she was so excited about how well maintained everything was there during our tour. She took pride in what she had to offer.
So what do I take away from this? Nothing I didn't know already, but it's been proven correct again. Follow up with your prospects, be excited about your products/services, and if what you have to offer meets their needs, it's more than likely they will become your customer.
