“If anyone forces you
to go one mile, go with them two miles.”
Jesus Christ (Matthew 5:41)
At the beginning of 2015, we (BDF Realty) lost almost 20% of
our clients in a space of four months. That’s
substantial. And fast!
It was for a variety of reasons: some owners wanted to sell
their homes, some were unhappy, some wanted to move back into their rental houses,
some were foreclosed on. It wasn’t just
one thing that we could try to correct.
I had just had my first child and was wondering what was
going on. I prayed to God repeatedly
wondering why this was happening. “What am I doing wrong? What is the issue? What are You trying to teach me through this?”
After about six weeks of praying with no answer, I ran into
the Bible verse above. “If anyone forces you to go one mile, go
with them two miles.” It stuck in my
craw.
I thought about my recent interactions with clients. They were asking me to do things that I
didn’t want to do (probably out of laziness).
I made up excuses or came up with charges for doing the work, hoping the
tasks would go away.
I came to the realization that not only was I not going 2 miles,
I was a probably pulling up a little short on the first mile too.
So I brainstormed and came up with a list of approximately
15 things I remembered that I had avoided doing for clients. Note: there was a reason I didn’t want to do
these 15 things- they were a big pain(!) and were non-revenue producing. That’s a hard combination to get motivated
for.
Fortunately/Unfortunately, when you lose so many clients,
you tend to have a lot more free time at work.
So I started working to complete the list. It took me about 3 weeks, but it begrudgingly
got done. Then I contacted the clients
and told them that I took care of their issues (at no charge).
Our clients were very grateful. It felt sort of good; actually, it felt
really good. It was nice to feel
appreciated.
Property management can be a thankless job. Most of the communication is centered on
people that are unhappy that something went wrong.
“My toilet is broken!”
“My AC has been out
for 2 days and I have a baby! Don’t you
care?”
“Why is this repair so
much??”
“Where is the rent?”
But there also is an unmistaken joy in serving, a blissfulness
for going beyond what is asked for or expected.
This experience awakened me to make me a happier (and more effective)
property manager. Work was more fun!
As a postscript, we didn’t lose any more customers that year
(thank God!). But I don’t think we added
many either. And even at a reduced
revenue rate, my new son did continue to eat (and hasn’t stopped…).
But a little over a year later, the phone started ringing a
lot from prospective new clients. I was
grateful, but didn’t really know why it was happening. After a few weeks, someone was about to list
their rental property with us and asked for me to send him more information
before he made a decision. Then he
called back and said, “Your reviews are great.
Don’t worry about it! Just send
me the contract.”
This happened before the business world was “review crazy”;
honestly, I didn’t even know BDF Realty had on-line reviews at that point. Apparently, the clients who I “begrudgingly”
went back to do work for a year before wound up helping me out more than I ever
did for them.
Especially in property management, I tell this story much
more from a “find joy in serving” bend than a “method to recoup 20% of your
clients who found pasture elsewhere.”
The second mile can be where the real rewards lie.
Happy Landlording!
Posts
