Fair Housing Doesn’t Mean Poor Customer Service

Empower your employees with continual education on the topic and support an open dialogue for discussion while also preparing the team for common pitfalls.

By MEGAN ORSER, Smart Apartment Solutions & Smart Moves

One of my most favorite things to do is work with people that are new to our industry. They have a fresh take on our processes and often make us more efficient from the customer’s perspective. Another reason I like to work with new perspectives is because I like to get in on the ground level of connecting the dots of fair housing for others, while demonstrating that we, as an industry, can still give good customer service. I like to inspire them before our industry has the chance to scare them so badly, that they eradicate any human elements from their canned responses.

I believe that if you empower your employees with continual education on the topic and support an open dialogue for discussion, while also preparing the team for common pitfalls, they will be more engaged in the topic. Better yet, they will continually sharpening their swords to respond from a place of confidence and service, and not fear.

For example, a potential resident enters your community with an ESA – our industry drills it into our leasing professionals that they are the front-line police – and often this scenario is riddled with fair housing challenges that don’t have to be.

At my company, we conduct a lot of mystery shops and have found that often, the mere mention of an animal triggers our sales teams to fire off probing questions that could easily be answered or discussed further along in the sales cycle, specifically at application time.

I ask this question:

Can we just tour the apartment without getting in the weeds about rules and regulations? I mean, come on! Take the tour, show off your wood-like flooring and let’s see if they even want to live there before we put up barriers.

There are fantastic services that remove the “in the weeds” conversation entirely from leasing professionals and moves it directly to the application process where it belongs.

Maintenance Isn’t Immune From Fair Housing

Fair housing pitfalls can even rear its ugly head in the maintenance side of things too, from work order management to contract work. With consistent policies and customer service in mind, common fair housing pitfalls can be avoided.

Let’s take for example, having a policy (and monitoring and enforcing) that requires works orders to be completed in the order they were received (excluding emergencies, of course). Many operators do not enforce this policy if they have it, and it is one of the top 10 pitfalls in our industry according to Grace Hill.

Staying consistent to this policy will not only help you avoid unfair treatment allegations, it will also help you make sure work orders are not being overlooked entirely.

Looking for other ways to fine tune your customer service and fair housing skills?

Have you considered the service your suppliers are providing to your residents and the possibility of fair housing pitfalls there?

By now you may have heard of the story of the supplier that was discriminatory onsite that goes something like this: A resident or prospect witnesses it, files a complaint and the property is found to be liable. A variation of this story has happened at far too many properties across our country and although not completely avoidable, here are four things you can do to safeguard you, your team, and your community:

1. Make sure everyone that could possibly interact with your residents, your prospects, even your team members, have regular exposure to fair housing trainingLet’s see those certificates!

• Carpet cleaners, installers and their independent contractors

• Temporary staffers

• Capital improvement contractors

• Door-to-door trash service providers

2. Make sure the supplier is an active member of a local apartment association or an industry trade association. Active suppliers of an association generally:

• Make sure they are aware of what fair housing issues are arising.

• Support their association by sending their employees to fair housing education.

• Have a worthwhile reputation, and want to protect that with stellar service, and generally, are more involved in work for their clients.

3. Check references and reviews and lean into your network.

• Seriously Google them! – see what their reviews say.

• You are a member of an association, right? Then ask your peers if they have had a personal experience, or if they have heard anything positive or negative about the company

• Check out their employee rating on Indeed, Glass Ceiling or other like websites. It can be very telling what kind of company they can be by the ratings of their former employees.

When I am looking at reviews, I also try to remember that people writing reviews can also be unreasonable at times, but the response time from the company and how they respond can also give you some insight.

4. Tag along!

I know you can’t team up with all of your suppliers while working at your community, but in the beginning, especially, it is important to inspect what you expect.

Taking the time to vet who gets to interact with your residents, prospects and team members can help you not only give awesome customer service to them, but can also minimize your chances of your supplier causing a fair housing mishap, and gives your team the opportunity to re-enforce those expectations, too.

To me, fair housing and customer service work hand-in-hand in everything we do onsite interacting with one another. Each interaction will be different and not everyone will go as intended, but we can learn from all of them if we are open to it.

After your next memorable interaction with a customer or a team member ask yourself, how did that go? Is there anything that I could have done differently or to improve the experience or interaction? The very act of reflection will teach you a lot about what to do next or where more insight or education could be applied.

Smart Chick Megan Orser is a member of a solutionsdriven firm Smart Apartment Solutions & Smart Moves and is a regular presenter for HAA education seminars. Megan has presented for NAA, Multi-Family Brainstorming and IREM Conferences and, along with her team, has authored articles for JPM and UNITS magazine. Currently, Smart Chick Megan serves on 12 committees in a local, state and national capacity; in addition she serves as a director on her state and local association’s board.