Evaluating Lead Response Strategies at Top Multifamily Companies
Large companies ignore interested prospective residents and leasing management lacks visibility of agent activities
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Velocify’s analysis of lead response strategies at top multifamily companies found
that every one of the companies studied
underperformed on key lead response
benchmarks. In fact, 80% of multifamily
companies failed to attempt contact with
a new lead via telephone within an average of 24 hours after the lead was submitted, though 90% percent of companies
responded via email within the same time
frame. Beyond sluggish phone follow-up,
40% of all prospects did not receive a single
call, clearly demonstrating an unacceptably
low level of responsiveness to consumers.
Perhaps even more troubling, though, is
the lack of consistency in response tactics
among different properties owned by the
same company, demonstrating a lack of
directed sales activities by management.
These are some of the key findings of a
two-part study commissioned by Velocify
on the responsiveness to apartment leads
by multifamily companies. Part 1 of the
study focused on four Key Performance
Indicators (KPIs) that are critical measures
and indicators of a leasing agent’s lead
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The Four KPIs for Leasing Success
Speed-to-Email
Speed-to-Call
Leasing Strategy
Volume - Call Attempts
Volume - Email Attempts
response strategy to property website
inquiries: speed-to-call, speed-to-email,
number of call attempts and number of
email attempts. Part 2 of the study examined response strategy to phone contact attempts made through a property’s Internet
Listing Service (ILS) listings. The study
noted whether the leasing consultant requested critical lead information during that
phone conversation (name, phone, email
and whether the caller was able to schedule
a property tour appointment), and the number and method of contact attempts by the
leasing consultant after a missed property
tour appointment.
The resulting data indicates that at least
a few apartment operators have invested
in processes and technologies that allow
them to respond to leads via email or phone
within minutes, two KPIs for maximizing
their opportunity to build a relationship and
get a lease signed. At the same time, many
properties underperformed against both
their peers and best practices in email and
call responsiveness, limiting their leasing
potential, frustrating prospective residents,
and diminishing the effectiveness of their
marketing effort and spending.
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1
Evaluating Lead Response Strategies at Top Multifamily Companies
Large companies ignore interested prospective residents and leasing management lacks visibility of agent activities
PART ONE: RESULTS OF
INQUIRIES TO PROPERTY
WEBSITES
Despite the fact that rent fundamentals
across the country are rebounding, the
market for prospective renters is still competitive. Identifying, contacting and leasing
to the most qualified renters through a
consistent and customer-friendly process is
critical to success for any property.
In most major metropolitan areas, anyone considering renting an apartment has
dozens of properties from which to choose.
When a prospect directly reaches out to a
property by filling out an online lead form,
guest card or rental application, the race
should be on for a leasing agent to make a
strong connection with the prospect. Swift
speed-to-contact is an essential element of
a successful leasing strategy for any leasing
professional.
Previous Velocify research has demonstrated that attempting to contact a lead
within one minute of its receipt increases
the likelihood of eventually getting a lease
signed by 391% over calling anytime later.
This dramatic increase is due to the fact
that prospects are the most likely to engage
with a property immediately after their
initial inquiry, making it vital to be the first
property to establish contact.
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From the renter’s perspective, getting
quick, thoughtful attention from a leasing
professional builds confidence, attachment,
and interest in the property. Information
shared about a property will have a much
better chance of getting traction if it is
delivered to prospective renters when they
are most receptive and before competing
properties have had an opportunity to discuss benefits of their communities. It also
tells a prospective resident that the property
cares about them, which leads to the belief
that the community will care about them if
they chose to live there. A slow response
can, alternatively, create a negative perception. Prospects could easily conclude that
if the property is slow to respond now, it
might also be slow to respond to a maintenance request or other needs once they are
a resident.
However, despite the clear benefits of
rapid lead response, most of the apartment operators studied showed at least
some deficiency in their speed-to-call and
speed-to-email metrics. Of the multifamily
property management companies surveyed
(Companies A-J), each of which had multiple properties evaluated, the median time
it took to receive the first phone call was
over 27 hours. On average, the first email
was sent more than 10 hours after the lead
was received, leaving significant room for
improvement.
A few companies stood out in terms of
best performance in individual categories.
It took less than one day, on average, for
Company A to call leads, making it the best
performer in the speed-to-call category.
One of the best performers in the speedto-email category, Company C, reached
out to new prospects within one minute, but
the company made a call attempt to only
one of the leads submitted.
Any property manager or
multifamily executive
looking to boost appointments and signed
leases has a real opportunity to do so by being
more responsive than the
competition.
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2
Evaluating Lead Response Strategies at Top Multifamily Companies
Large companies ignore interested prospective residents and leasing management lacks visibility of agent activities
Though some leasing professionals are
likely to have some process and application
technologies for managing inbound leads,
all leasing professionals can make improvements to their processes to reliably contact
leads. The performance demonstrated
during the study hinders their ability to
schedule appointments and transform leads
into leases.
Properties that are staying ahead of the
curve and contacting prospective renters
much faster than their competitors have
created a considerable advantage over their
competitors by following a more consistent and reliable approach to dealing with
leads. Other properties, however, were
less focused on the value of being a first
responder and some failed to respond by
phone at all. Company J , for example,
made their first call attempt an average of
more than 9 days after receiving an initial
inquiry, while Company I waited an average
of more than 4 days to make a first call. To
its credit, Company B’s best response time
to one lead was 8 minutes, demonstrating
the wide range of potential performance
within the industry.
As mentioned previously, 40% of all
prospects did not receive a single call.
Perhaps some of the inquiries to company
websites went unanswered because there
was no rental availability, despite their
website stating the contrary. While this may
seem perfectly logical to a multi-tasking,
over-burdened leasing professional, the
property owner must consider the bigger
picture. In this day of multiple social media
and review websites, where renters can express their opinion about a property, a neglected prospective resident can let people
know en masse that they were disregarded
and surmise what that means about how the
property handles its residents.
Speed to Call (Days)
Best Practice: Under 1 Minute
Company A
Company D
Company H
Company G
Company I
Company B
Company E
Company J
Company C
Company F
Days
No Calls Made
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
Figure A
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3
Evaluating Lead Response Strategies at Top Multifamily Companies
Large companies ignore interested prospective residents and leasing management lacks visibility of agent activities
Speed to Email (Minutes)
Best Practice: 20 Minutes
Company H
Company C
Company B
Company E
Company D
Company G
Company A
Company I
Company J
Company F
Minutes
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
Figure B
A similar responsiveness pattern exists with the second KPI: speed-to-email
(Figure B). While presenting the value
of an apartment might not naturally fit
within the static confines of an email,
some prospects prefer email as a medium.
Email’s importance should not be ignored,
especially considering its cost-efficiency. In
today’s market, an email costs just pennies
to send, and sacrificing an opportunity to
present good information about a property
is short-sighted. Many property managers
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and apartment executives have prioritized getting informative email content to
prospective renters fast, primarily using
auto-response technologies.
In this study, properties at four of the
companies sent an email within an average of 1 minute of receiving the lead. The
delayed responses from other companies
could be due to the properties wanting to
have a response that is personalized by the
leasing professional. While admirable to
wait, these companies could instead update
their auto-responders to software that
personalizes the initial email. Company F’s
email response rate was the lowest at 60%,
and two of Company F‘s properties failed to
respond by email or phone.
The implications of this study are that
any property manager or multifamily
executive looking to boost appointments
and signed leases has a real opportunity to
do so by being more responsive than the
competition.
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4
Evaluating Lead Response Strategies at Top Multifamily Companies
Large companies ignore interested prospective residents and leasing management lacks visibility of agent activities
The next two KPIs benchmarked in this
initial performance study measured the
number of contact attempts being made
for each lead. A gut feeling may make it
easy to rationalize the extremes of making too many or too few contact attempts.
Some may see the idea of making as many
contact attempts as necessary to reach the
prospect as appropriate persistence. At the
same time, it’s also easy to argue to initiate
only a few calls and emails under the belief
that it frees up time for leasing agents to
focus on other prospects or other activities.
Unfortunately, research has demonstrated
that neither of these approaches is most
effective. The key to a successful leasing
strategy is to make the optimal number of
call-attempts and emails; not too few and
not too many.
Prior Velocify research that looked at
millions of leads has demonstrated the optimal number of nurturing emails to send to
each lead prior to contact is five. As Figure
C shows, only two companies came close to
hitting that mark by averaging between four
and six emails, while the rest of the companies surveyed sent too few emails.
Average Number of Emails per Inquiry
Company F
Best Practice:
Company E
5 is Ideal
Company B
Company D
Company C
Company I
Company J
Company H
Company G
Company A
Emails
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
Figure C
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5
Evaluating Lead Response Strategies at Top Multifamily Companies
Large companies ignore interested prospective residents and leasing management lacks visibility of agent activities
Leasing agents also failed to follow up on
leads with a healthy number of call attempts
(Figure D). After comparing thousands of
leads, Velocify research has determined
the optimal number of calls to maximize
contact rates without over-investing time
and resources into unresponsive leads is 6,
yet only one of the companies surveyed averaged more than 5 call attempts per lead.
Company B did an excellent job of making
an average of almost 6 contact attempts.
In contrast, the average number of contact
attempts was 2.3, much too low to maximize
the likelihood of lead conversion.
Just as calling too frequently is a waste
of leasing resources, calling too infrequently
can be a costly error. Company I not only
waited an average of more than four days
to make their first call attempt, but also
averaged only one call attempt. By failing to
put enough effort into contacting prospects quickly and with optimal frequency,
multifamily companies could be missing
out on an easy, cost efficient best practice
to improve their overall yield and leasing
results.
Average Number of Calls per Inquiry
Company F
No Calls
Best Practice:
Company C
6 is Ideal
Company I
Company D
Company J
Company E
Company A
Company G
Company H
Company B
Calls
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
Figure D
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6
Evaluating Lead Response Strategies at Top Multifamily Companies
Large companies ignore interested prospective residents and leasing management lacks visibility of agent activities
The biggest overall problem among
companies surveyed was lack of consistency
in response to prospects among different
properties owned by the same company.
Only one company was consistent about
the number of calls made or emails sent
from all of its properties. However, that
company emailed all inquiries only once,
significantly less than the 5 email response
best practice recommended by Velocify
research. Even companies that did well as
a whole on all the KPIs weren’t consistent
from one of their properties to the next.
The disparity of responses (both call and
email attempts) from different properties
sharing a property owner is shown in Figure
E below.
Inconsistency could be an indication that
multifamily companies are leaving contact
strategy up to leasing agents at each of their
respective properties rather than having
consistent processes in place. Alternatively,
the leasing leadership may be training their
Call and Email Attempts
leasing consultants on a contact strategy,
but it is not being followed and the leasing
leaders lack a way to report on it. It also
appears that there is no system that tells
leasing agents when and how many emails
to send. Overall, this type of inconsistency
indicates a lack of centralized, controllable,
repeatable, prioritizable, reportable, guided
leasing process. Without a consistent
leasing process or the ability to monitor
and enforce it, prospects will inevitably fall
through the cracks.
Min./Max
Avg.
Calls
Emails
20
18
16
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
Company J
Company I
Company H
Company G
Company F
Company E
Company D
Company C
Company B
Company A
Attempts
0
Figure E
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7
Evaluating Lead Response Strategies at Top Multifamily Companies
Large companies ignore interested prospective residents and leasing management lacks visibility of agent activities
PART TWO: RESULTS OF INQUIRIES MADE VIA INTERNET LISTING SERVICES
Internet Listing Services (ILS) play a significant role in today’s multifamily property
marketing ecosystem. Renters often start
their search at these third party aggregators, which act as a virtual one-stop-shop
for information on available apartments,
making them a valuable top-of-the-funnel
resource for multifamily properties. Part 2 of
the study examined how companies that use
five of these services perform at responding
to inbound calls from an ILS. The ILS sites
included in this study are: ApartmentFinder.
com; ApartmentGuide.com; Apartments.
com; ForRent.com; and Rent.com. The
study noted whether the leasing consultant who answered the phone requested
information during that phone conversa-
tion (name, phone, and email of the caller),
whether the caller was able to schedule a
property tour appointment, and -- once the
appointment was missed by the prospective
renter -- the number of contact attempts by
the leasing consultant to the lead.
As with Part 1 of the study, the resulting
data indicates a variety of response strategies and a wide range of performance in
terms of responsiveness. The performance
demonstrated during the study showed that
leasing professionals are frequently ignoring
or providing insufficient and inconsistent
follow-up with well-qualified leads.
Because Velocify’s best practices call
for a combined phone and email response
strategy for best results, the study measured
whether the leasing agent who answered
the call gathered all three contact data
points -- caller’s name, phone number and
email address -- necessary for a multimodal
response strategy.
The study also examined whether the
caller was able to schedule a property tour
appointment. Scheduling a property tour
appointment is generally seen as the action
that indicates success at moving the lead
down the leasing funnel. More than half of
properties studied failed to call the prospect
when he or she missed the scheduled tour
appointment.
There was a mix of how the calls were
answered, with 42% answered by the property directly, and 42% an automated transfer
to the property (where the caller is guided
to press a number for the desired property), and 2% answered by a call center. A
troublesome 14% of the calls were not able
to be completed because there was either
no answer, no number or a wrong number
listed on the ILS listing.
Answer Method
Call Center
2%
No Answer/
Wrong Number
14%
Property
Answered
42%
Automated
Transfer to Property
42%
Figure F
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8
Evaluating Lead Response Strategies at Top Multifamily Companies
Large companies ignore interested prospective residents and leasing management lacks visibility of agent activities
Follow-up to Missed Tour
Follow-up: 62%
Phone Only
25%
Phone
and
Email
17%
No Follow-up
38%
Email Only
20%
Figure G
The vast majority (78%) of calls placed
through an ILS were answered, with only
8% requiring the caller to leave a message.
Everyone who answered asked for the lead’s
name, though only 87% collected a phone
number and 77% an email address. Only
64% collected all three critical pieces of information. Surprisingly, there was no answer
and no way to leave a voicemail message at
two properties, despite the call occurring
during working hours.
Because most people wouldn’t lease an
apartment without first seeing it in person,
scheduling a tour is widely considered a
critical milestone in the leasing funnel, and
should be a primary goal of a leasing agent’s
conversation with a prospective resident.
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The vast majority of leasing agents in the
study did well in this area: callers were able
to schedule a tour 72% of the time, with
another 8% enabling the caller to request a
tour by leaving a voicemail. A small portion
of properties surveyed (6%) didn’t offer a
tour at all or had no availability despite having an active listing on the ILS.
In contrast, the study found an unanticipated lack of response after a missed
tour appointment. All scheduled tours were
missed, yet only 62% of those who scheduled and missed tours received a follow-up
response. As seen in Figure G, 25% of
properties followed up with phone calls
only, 20% sent emails only and 17% followed
up with both phone calls and emails. This is
a troublesome oversight because a lead that
has scheduled a tour should be considered a
highly interested lead and follow-up should,
therefore, be a very high priority. Failure to
follow up after a missed tour appointment
is also an indication of a failure by the property management system to correctly identify and prioritize these very qualified leads.
No Tour Scheduled
Previous studies performed
by Velocify and
20%
other reputable organizations have shown
the performance gains that can be obtained
when multiple methods are used in concert.
Overall, properties had dismal performance
when compared to industry best practices
and Velocify research, which found that the
most productive contact strategy is a combined one that includes 6 calls and 5 emails.
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9
Evaluating Lead Response Strategies at Top Multifamily Companies
Large companies ignore interested prospective residents and leasing management lacks visibility of agent activities
Call and Email Follow-ups
Min./Max
Avg.
Calls
Emails
16
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
Company J
Company I
Company H
Company G
Company F
Company E
Company D
Company C
Company B
Company A
Follow-ups
0
Figure H
Lack of consistency in response to
prospects among different properties
owned by the same company was also a
significant issue in this situation as it was
with response strategies examined in Part
1 of the study. Company D and Company
I were the most inconsistent from one
property to the next, with their properties
sending anywhere from zero to 8 emails
in response to a missed appointment.
Company D also had the greatest variation
in call back strategy, with properties calling
back between zero and 15 times.
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CONCLUSION
Velocify’s study demonstrates that there is
a wide range of responsiveness and clearly
different contact strategies among many
well-known multifamily companies. While a
few demonstrated their ability to meet one
or more of the KPI benchmarks, none really
showed consistent, across-the-board success that would maximize their chances of
leasing to the highest number of qualified
prospects. Ultimately, there is a substantial
opportunity to improve performance at
many of the properties across most of the
benchmarks, most notably consistency. By
focusing on the four KPIs highlighted here,
property owners, managers and leasing
agents can work smarter, increasing applications, appointments and signed leases while
decreasing marketing expenditures and
improving advertising ROI.
For leasing professionals across the
industry, the implications of this study are
both immediately tactical and strategic.
Multifamily properties with a well-designed
and disciplined approach as well as the
systems and metrics to consistently enforce
and deliver on their strategy will come out
on top. For smaller multi-unit complexes
competing with larger properties, there is a
clear opportunity to be more nimble in winning over new renters, while improving the
leasing process experience.
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10
Evaluating Lead Response Strategies at Top Multifamily Companies
Large companies ignore interested prospective residents and leasing management lacks visibility of agent activities
THE STUDY METHODOLOGY
For this study, Velocify Researchers conducted a two-part study of the multifamily
industry to gauge how effectively leasing
agents responded to rental prospects’ online inquiries and phone calls. The first part
of the study, conducted between 7/23/2013
and 8/24/2013, analyzed the number of
emails and calls placed by the sample of
multifamily providers, plus the speed with
which a first call was placed following the
submission of a lead on a multifamily property’s website. The second part of the study,
which was conducted between 8/2/2013
and 8/25/2013, analyzed responsiveness of
leads generated via five major Internet Listing Services. The study reviewed whether
someone answered the phone number posted on the ILS listing, and if so which of the
following steps they took: 1) whether they
tried to schedule a tour 2) collect the name
of the caller 3) collect an email address from
the caller 4) collect a phone number from
the caller. The survey also looked at how
many contact attempts (emails and/or calls)
were made after the prospect missed their
tour appointment.
INDIVIDUAL PROPERTY STUDY
METHODOLOGY
To conduct the analysis, researchers visited
the targeted properties’ websites and
submitted an application lead. Leads were
submitted for all properties within the same
two day window for all properties surveyed.
All properties received similar information
on prospects, though variations exist in
lead capture forms. Once an inquiry was
submitted, each communication attempt
from the property was electronically logged
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for evaluation. Logging of responses for frequency and persistence lasted for a month.
Due to the established relationship between
the process and discipline of contacting a
rental prospect and the likelihood of leasing
to that prospect, the focus of the study was
to measure the response strategy during
the pre-contact period (after an inquiry has
been made, and prior to when any actual
contact is made). Velocify researchers
posing as interested renters at no point responded to any of the communications. The
average number of contact attempts made
by each of the properties was calculated by
averaging the total number of email or call
attempts all prospects received for each
corresponding property over the period of
up to one month. Once aggregated, Velocify compared each property’s performance
against its peers and ranked performance.
INTERNET LEAD SERVICE (ILS) STUDY
METHODOLOGY
To conduct the analysis, researchers visited
the five targeted Internet Leads Service
(ILS) websites and called 50 properties
listed on these sites. Calls were made within
the same four-day window for all ILS sites
surveyed, between 9 AM and 4 PM PST
and spaced out throughout the four-day
period. All ILS sites received similar information on prospects. Once a call was made
with the leasing agent reached or a message
left, each communication attempt from
the ILS or property listed on the ILS was
electronically logged for evaluation. Collecting of responses lasted for 19 days when
measuring contact attempts after a missed
tour appointment.
Due to the established relationship
between the process and discipline of
contacting a rental prospect and the likelihood of leasing to that prospect, the focus
of the study was to measure the response
strategy during the follow-up period (from
when the prospect calls the leasing office
until 19 days after a missed tour appointment). Velocify researchers posing as
interested rental prospects at no point
responded to any of the communications
after the missed appointment. After collecting and logging relevant data, researchers calculated the average contact attempts
for each of the properties. The average was
calculated for all rental leads corresponding to each property and ILS. The averages shown in this report only reflect the
contact attempts for prospects who actually
received a contact attempt. Some prospects
did not receive a call or an email within the
time period allotted for inclusion in this
contact calculation.
ABOUT VELOCIFY
Velocify is a market-leading provider of
cloud-based intelligent leasing software,
designed for high-velocity environments.
Velocify helps leasing teams keep pace with
the speed of opportunity and improve conversion rates by driving rapid lead response,
increased discipline, improved productivity,
and actionable insights for decision makers.
The company has helped more than 1,500
companies across a variety of industries
improve customer acquisition practices and
sales performance. Velocify was recently
recognized as one of the fastest growing
companies in North America by Deloitte.
For more information, visit:
velocify.com/multifamily
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11
Evaluating Lead Response Strategies at Top Multifamily Companies
Large companies ignore interested prospective residents and leasing management lacks visibility of agent activities
Velocify Best Practices: Benchmarks Measured
Improvement in Lead Conversion Rate
Lead Conversion Over Elapsed Time
400%
391%
300%
200%
160%
N
VE
98%
100%
0
CO
Speed-to-call is an essential component
of any sound inquiry response strategy.
In an increasingly competitive Internet
age where prospects have access to
many different market options, following
up quickly is one of the most important
factors to successful conversion. Velocify
research has shown that speed-to-contact is an important conversion driver:
Responding to inquiries within 1 minute
resulted in a 391% improvement in conversion rate.
The number of calls attempted is also
an important metric of a successful leasing strategy. Maximize the value of each
inquiry by attempting contact six times.
Giving up too soon or spending too much
1 min.
RS
IO
N
62%
36% 24%
17%
2 mins. 3 mins. 30 mins. 1 hr.
Time Elapsed
5 hrs.
24 hrs.
Cumulative Percentage of Converted Leads
PHONE CALL STRATEGY – BEST PRACTICES
100%
Number Call Attempts to Make
First Contact
90%
80%
81%
70%
70%
86%
90%
60%
50%
93%
of
converted leads are
contacted by the
6th call attempt.
48%
1st CallAttempt
40%
30%
94% 96% 97%
0
9
8
7
5
6
4
3
2
1
Call Attempts to Make Initial Contact
time on ultimately unproductive prospects
can significantly undercut the number of
new leases signed. Velocify research shows
that 93% of converted leads are contacted
by the 6th attempt. Calling six times
(The 6 Call Standard) resulted in nearly
the maximum possible contact rate, with
minimum opportunity costs.
renter 20 minutes after the lead is generated. Additionally, research shows that
the optimal number of email messages to
send during the first month of a prospect’s lifetime prior to contact is five. The
conversion rate for leads that were sent
more than five email messages prior to
reaching a prospect was 36% lower than
the conversion rate for leads that were
reached after having received one to five
email messages. If your company does not
automatically respond to every lead via
email, your company is certainly missing
out on significant new revenue.
EMAIL STRATEGY – BEST PRACTICES
Sending emails to potential renters that
have expressed interest but who may not
be immediately ready to sign a lease, is a
cheap, easy, and effective way to acquire
new customers that would otherwise be
missed. Velocify research shows that the
first email should be sent to a potential
THE ULTIMATE CONTACT STRATEGY – BEST PRACTICES
Knowing when to make the six phone calls
and when to send the five email messages
will further improve your conversion rates.
Velocify research shows that following the
timing strategies outlined in
The Ultimate Contact Strategy can
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improve net conversion rates by 128%.
Time your contact attempts during periods
that have been shown to be most advantageous to maximize the odds of converting
prospects into customers.
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