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Branding

3 Steps to Better Property Management Branding

Is your property management brand standing out or blending in? Here are three steps to take your presence to the next level.

Your brand is responsible for the reactions and thoughts prospective clients, clients, colleagues, partners and first-timers have when they interact with your company.

The kind of reaction they have can truly dictate whether you’re moving towards success or failure, especially in the property management business.

Think about it—a prospective client is evaluating whether or not they trust your property management company to oversee and take good care of a serious asset (and potentially many). If they walk away feeling like your company is lackluster and disorganized, they’re going pass you over and set their sights on someone else.

You Need to Stand Out in a World of Choices

This has become a world full of choices, and everybody knows it. Companies are a dime a dozen in the mind of the consumer, so it’s your job to demonstrate to them that you are unique and worthy of their trust.

Here are three steps to better property management branding—steps that will make you stand out in this world full of choices and that will hit the digital, physical and word of mouth sweet spots.

1.) Create a Consistent Experience

Nowadays, there are more ways to communicate your brand than ever, including (but, oh goodness, definitely not limited to):

Decide What’s Most Relevant to Your Brand and Do It Well

Are you an entirely referral, exclusive or network-driven company? Social media might not be the smartest asset to invest time into.

Make strategic business decisions about the assets you want to communicate your brand through. More importantly, however, pick ones that you can do really well. The question you need to ask is, “What do we have time to do really well?”

The last thing you want to have is unmanned and abandoned assets out there that people can stumble upon. Keep all of your communication points within the castle walls of management and make sure you’re keeping them strong.

Standardize Your Brand

In order to standardize your assets, you need to standardize your brand.

If you haven’t already get the following parameters in order:

  • An optimized, official logo. All too often, companies have three-to-four versions of a logo floating around. This person’s using one version and another person’s using another. Select one version and put it in a singular place where everyone can access it for usage.
  • Color scheme and font selections. What colors and fonts are official to your brand? Once you figure that out, inform everyone on your team by providing the hex codes, font file downloads and instructions for using them across mediums. You don’t want your team guessing on either of these. While you’re standardizing these elements, this is also a great opportunity to consider refreshing them.
  • Official slogans and descriptions. Who are you and what do you do? Be sure everyone on your team knows the official slogan and description. Not only will they reference this in conversation, but across platforms as well.

Invest in a Consistent Identity Pieces

You have your communication points and you have your standardized brand. Marry the two and create consistent identity pieces.

If you selected brochures, a website, signage and business cards, make sure all of them are consistent with one another and look like they’re cut from the same clothe.

When done properly, these assets should be able to stand entirely on their own and still relate to one another on a visual and written level.

That’s really the real case scenario for how your assets will operate—a business card will be taken to one circle of people and your brochure will be taken to an entirely different circle, meanwhile strangers are exploring your website. Make sure all of those parties are getting the same interaction.

2.) Focus on Equipping Your Personnel

In the property management business, there is a lot of personal interaction that will occur between your team and your clients and their associates.

You don’t want to throw your team into the lion’s den and see what happens—take formal efforts to control the outcome of their interactions with valuable contacts.

You have more impact on the outcome than you’d like to think. With a little preparation, you can equip your personnel for success.

A Few Ways to Equip Your Personnel

  • Have an on boarding process in place to introduce new clients to the point of contacts on your team. Be responsible for facilitating a great start to the relationships.
  • Regularly communicate about new clients, challenges and news regarding your clients. Your personnel should be the first to know.
  • Open the lines of communication so any questions can be quickly answered—a handbook or resource hub can be helpful for this.
  • Train them to handle the common situations (no matter how arbitrary they may seem), and also train them for extreme situations—whether it’s an angry client or a property crisis.

3.) Offer a Client Login Portal

There’s a lot of information a client might request from your team—contracts, receipts, building reports and more.

From a customer experience perspective, although they might love dealing with your team, it will most likely make their lives 100 times easier if you can centralize their information in a place they can easily access it.

There’s never been a better time to build a client portal—there are tons of tools and platforms available to help you do this and to do it right.

Create a client portal—being sure to keep it branded properly—and regularly update your client’s information so that when they want it they can get it.

Make Sure It’s Secure and Easy to Use

  • A lot of the information you’ll be uploading is sensitive, so be sure that you’re client portal is secure
  • Client portals may be easy to set up, but they’re not always the easiest to use. Be sure your client portal is intuitive and simple to navigate.

Start Taking Steps Today

If your property management branding isn’t where you want it to be, it’s important to get started immediately. Every moment that goes by is a lot opportunity to create a lasting brand impression that woos your clients and attracts more to your business.

If you’re looking for some assistance with your property management branding, we’d love to chat with you on how we may be able to help. Get in touch with us today.

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