As a property manager, your tenants are going to be responsible for determining your success. They’re the ones paying rent. They’re the ones occupying and taking care of your property. They’re the ones who can take legal action against you if you don’t fulfill your responsibilities. In this article, we discuss ways that you can collect better renter feedback, and how you can implement these methods.
Taking good care of your tenants is a great way to ensure they continue renting from you in a mutually beneficial and agreeable arrangement. But how can you be sure that your tenants are happy with the arrangement? And if they aren’t, how can you repair things?
Renter feedback is one solution. But how can you collect the best renter feedback?
The Perks of Renter Feedback
There are many great reasons to collect feedback from renters consistently. Even short surveys can give you abundant information on things like:
- Rent pricing. It can be tough to calculate a fair rental price, especially if properties in the area go for a wide range of different prices. Sometimes, the best course of action is to ask your tenants directly: is this rent affordable? How hard is it to make rent payments every month?
- Standing issues. This is also an opportunity for tenants to talk about any standing issues that they haven’t already flagged. They may call to your attention necessary repairs that have been delayed or low-priority issues that they forgot to bring to your attention.
- Ideas for upgrades. Good surveys are also constructed to fish for ideas for future upgrades. What new features or improvements do tenants want to see? What would inspire them to pay more in rent or stay in your property longer?
- Service quality. Are tenants satisfied with the level of service they’ve received from property managers and other staff members? Are they dissatisfied with any of their interactions, such as logging into a tenant portal or communicating directly with you?
- Tenant relationships (generally). Surveys are a great way to gauge the quality of your tenant relationships overall. By studying the full results of each survey, you can determine tenant disposition and take action if appropriate.
Tips for Collecting Better Renter Feedback
So what steps can you take to collect better feedback from renters?
- Quantify everything you can. Quantitative and qualitative data both have a place in statistics, but quantitative data is much easier to work with. If a tenant thinks your rent prices are “fine,” that doesn’t tell you much. If they think your rent prices are a 7 on a 1-10 scale, with 1 being the most affordable and 10 being the least affordable, that tells you a much more specific story. Try to quantify your questions as much as possible so that you can have concrete numbers to work with. This also forces your survey participants to think carefully about how they respond.
- Anonymize when appropriate. People are much more likely to share their honest opinions if they can do so anonymously, so consider allowing your tenants to submit their surveys without revealing their identities. If you only have one tenant, and they know it, this strategy will not work, but if that’s the case, you can try having a direct conversation with them instead.
- Keep it short. Surveys should be short. This is to incentivize greater survey participation and encourage more honest answers. Additionally, it’s a way of respecting your tenants’ time; nobody wants to spend an hour filling out a repetitive, detailed survey. Ideally, it should take 5 minutes or less to complete.
- Keep it easy. Similarly, you should make sure your surveys are easy to fill out. Conduct some thorough tests to make sure there are no technical hiccups standing between users and their completed surveys. Word your questions carefully so they can be easily understood by a wide variety of audiences.
- Make it accessible. People are much more likely to fill out surveys if they have options for how they fill them out. Consider making them accessible on a variety of channels and platforms to maximize appeal.
- Offer a reward. There are competing schools of thought on how to handle survey rewards. Some believe rewards are a good thing, incentivizing further participation, while others believe they may do more harm than good, causing people to fill out surveys quickly and thoughtlessly for the exclusive sake of receiving a reward. Consider offering a small reward, such as a gift card or gift basket, if you aren’t able to get the participation levels you need in the first round.
- Keep a healthy mindset. Renter feedback is only going to be meaningful to you if you can accept it graciously and neutrally. This way, you can interpret it objectively and make meaningful changes to improve your dynamics. If you’re not used to dealing with criticism, this may be challenging for you.
- Act on feedback when appropriate. Finally, make sure you’re willing to act on feedback, including negative feedback. If you don’t, you’ll be leaving value on the table – and compromising the investments you’ve made in survey creation and distribution in the process.
Collecting better renter feedback can be challenging, especially if your tenants are reluctant to participate in these types of surveys. But your efforts are well worth it; even a limited pool of data can help you make much better decisions about your rental properties and direct your strategy to a better future.
