From the First Call to the Follow-Up: Why Mystery Shopping Matters in Multifamily

From the First Call to the Follow-Up

Apartment communities invest a tremendous amount of time and money into attracting prospective residents. Websites, digital advertising, social media, signage, online listings, and beautiful property photography are all designed to accomplish one important goal: generate leads.

But what happens once that lead becomes a real person calling your leasing office?  How do your leasing agents handle the incoming inquiry?  Do they show care and build rapport with the potential tenant right from the start?  Do they portray a welcoming environment where the lead feels confident to come tour the community?

The first phone call is where the customer experience truly begins.

A prospect may love what they see online, but their decision to schedule a tour, visit the community, submit an application, or ultimately sign a lease can depend heavily on their interactions with your leasing team.

Mystery shopping gives multifamily agents and operators an opportunity to experience that process from the prospect’s point of view. From the initial pre-visit telephone call to the property tour and the follow-up afterward, multifamily mystery shopping can identify what your leasing team is doing well and where valuable opportunities may be slipping through the cracks.

SkilCheck’s apartment mystery shopping is a tool to be used for improvement across the board – from your leasing agent to the property appearance.

The Leasing Experience Starts Before the Tour

It’s easy to think of the property tour as the most important part of the leasing process. In reality, the prospect’s experience often begins long before they arrive at the community.

A strong leasing conversation shouldn’t simply consist of answering questions about rent and availability. It should be an opportunity to learn more about the prospective resident and begin building a relationship.

What size apartment do they need? When are they hoping to move? What features are important to them? Do they have pets? Why are they moving?

Connecting with the future tenant before they’re even invited down for a tour is crucial.  The answers to these inquiring questions help the leasing professional personalize the conversation—and eventually the tour.

Is Your Leasing Team Asking for the Tour?

One of the most important moments during the initial telephone call is also one of the easiest to overlook: asking the prospect to visit.

We hear so many pre-visit phone calls that offer rates and availability, but then the shopper has to reach out and ask to come see an apartment and take a tour.  Your marketing efforts have already generated the lead. Now the leasing agent needs to help move that prospect to the next step.

Did the agent specifically invite the caller to tour the community? Did they offer available appointment times? Did they give the prospect a reason to come see the property?

There is a significant difference between saying, “Our office is open from 9:00 to 5:00,” and actively inviting the prospect to schedule a tour.  We want to hear, ‘We’d love to offer you a tour of our community; can you come by tomorrow?’  Be specific.

Multifamily and apartment mystery shopping lets management hear how those conversations actually happen, rather than relying solely on whether an appointment eventually appears on the calendar.

What Happens When the Prospect Arrives?

Once the prospect walks into the leasing office, another phase of the customer experience begins.

Were they greeted promptly? Did the leasing professional remember the appointment? Was the office clean, organized, and welcoming?

Perhaps most importantly, did the leasing agent continue the conversation that began on the telephone? 

Make sure the prospect knows you heard them and understood their needs when they called.  If the prospect previously mentioned that they have a dog, need additional storage, work from home, or want to be close to a particular amenity, those details can help create a much more personalized tour.

Instead of simply walking through a model and pointing out features, an effective leasing professional can connect those features directly to what matters to the prospect.

“This extra bedroom would give you the home office space you mentioned.”

“Our dog park is right around the corner from this building.”

“Since you told me parking was important to you, let me show you where your closest parking options would be.”

Those small connections can transform a standard property tour into a genuine sales experience.

Customer Service Is More Than Being Friendly

When evaluating leasing professionals, SkilCheck looks beyond whether someone was simply “nice.”

Friendliness matters, but excellent apartment leasing customer service involves much more.

Did the agent actively listen and respond? Did they ask proper inquiring questions? Did they demonstrate experience and knowledge about the community? Did they communicate clearly? Did they show enthusiasm, smile, and seem interested? Did they personalize the experience? Did they ask for the prospect’s business and try to close the sale with an application or follow-up?

A leasing professional can be extremely pleasant but still miss important sales opportunities that help turn leads into tenants.

Mystery shopping provides a more complete picture by evaluating the entire interaction and identifying specific behaviors to reinforce through coaching and training.

The Follow-Up Can Be Just as Important as the Tour

The prospect walks out the door.

Now what?

This is where another critical part of the leasing process begins.  The leasing agent’s job is not done!

A prospective resident may tour several apartment communities before deciding. After all, this is a big decision for them.  No one makes a choice like this lightly.  After multiple tours, floor plans, amenities, prices, and leasing conversations can begin to blend together.

A thoughtful follow-up gives your community another opportunity to stand out.

Did the leasing professional call or text the prospect within 24 hours after their tour?  Did they check in to see if they had started their application?  How quickly did they follow up? Was the communication personalized, or did it feel like an automated message that could have been sent to anyone?

Effective follow-up doesn’t have to be complicated. Sometimes simply thanking the prospect for visiting, referencing something discussed during the tour, and offering to answer additional questions can keep the conversation moving forward.  Make it a point to ‘check in’ with the tenant and reassure them you’re here to answer questions.

The important thing is that the prospect doesn’t feel forgotten the moment they leave the property.

Apartment Mystery Shopping Shows You the Experience You Can’t Always See

For owners and operators who aren’t at the property daily, mystery shopping offers a different perspective by letting leadership see the experience through the eyes of an actual prospective resident.

That information can reveal important questions.

Are leasing agents consistently inviting prospects to tour? Are they asking enough questions? Are they creating rapport? Are they selling the benefits of the community or simply providing information? Are they asking for the lease? Are they following up afterward?  Are there specials or certain amenities you’ve stressed that your agents discuss?

Without evaluating these interactions, management may not know where the customer experience is breaking down.

Mystery Shopping Should Be a Training Tool, Not Just a Score

One of the greatest benefits of mystery shopping is the coaching opportunity it creates.

A mystery shop shouldn’t simply produce a score that gets filed away. You can use the results to recognize employees for what they’re doing well and identify specific areas where additional training may be beneficial.

If several agents struggle to ask for appointments, that may indicate an opportunity for telephone sales training. If you use a virtual agent on the phone, is it actually helpful, or are your potential tenants struggling just to get an appointment made to see an apartment?  If follow-up is consistently missing, the team may need a clearer follow-up process. If tours are informative but not personalized, managers can coach agents to ask better questions and connect community features to the prospect’s needs.

Over time, consistent mystery shopping can also help organizations identify patterns and measure improvement.

The goal isn’t to catch employees doing something wrong. The goal is to understand what the customer is experiencing and give employees the tools they need to improve.

Every Lead Represents an Opportunity

Multifamily communities spend too much money generating leads to lose prospects because of an avoidable customer service issue.

Your website can generate the inquiry. The advertising can make the phone ring. The photographs can encourage someone to schedule a visit.

But ultimately, PEOPLE play an enormous role in turning that interest into a lease.  The agent is the one who will close that sale and do their best to create a welcoming environment.  Tech can’t do that!

From the first “hello” on the telephone to the tour of the apartment and the follow-up afterward, every interaction contributes to the prospect’s impression of your community.

Mystery shopping helps ensure those interactions reflect the level of service your organization expects—and the experience your prospective residents deserve.

Because when you know what your prospects are actually experiencing, you have a much better opportunity to improve it.