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FEATURING
Interview with Stephanie L. Williams,
President, Bozzuto Management Company
In April 2017, J Turner Research announced the Top 10 Managers of the
NMHC 50 by Online Reputation. The Bozzuto Group hit the trifecta – it was
ranked as the number one company among the NMHC top 50 managers for
online reputation for the third consecutive year.
Stephanie L. Williams, President of Bozzuto Management Company, oversees
an apartment portfolio of more than 60,000 units across 215 properties.
Q For three consecutive years Bozzuto has ranked as the number one
company among the NMHC top 50 managers for online reputation. What
do you attribute your success to?
A. | We believe that the experience truly does matter. Over our 30-year history, we have built a
customer-focused (perhaps even obsessed) culture at Bozzuto. We believe everyone deserves their
own sanctuary. With a focus on our residents’ needs, we help them simplify their lives, build
meaningful relationships and make lasting memories.
To provide this sanctuary, we hire, train and empower a team of individuals who share the same
“customer-centric” philosophy, and who take pride in working collectively to serve as well as
surprise and delight their residents at points in time that really matter. Our purposefully crafted
culture and values-based organization directly contributes to a level of service and
human-relationship-building that quickly establishes trust and respect with our customers.
The result is a connection that is deep, meaningful and memorable for our residents and our
employees. This is our recipes for success.
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Q What does the Bozzuto team do differently to deliver year on year on
online reputation?
A. | Beyond our culture, we always go back to the basics. We know open lines of communication are
incredibly important, so our staff makes sure they’re accessible to our residents. Our teams take
great pride in helping solve their problems and in treating them like family.
One of the ways we have made it easy for residents to communicate with us, is through our
program, Bozzuto Listens. This online, resident feedback platform embodies our customer service
philosophy, to listen and provide timely responses.
Bozzuto Listens allows residents to directly send us their compliments or concerns. Property teams
respond within hours and notifications are sent internally to ensure the feedback is shared with the
right people. Bozzuto Listens has been a great way for us to further build connections, gain a direct
line to residents’ desires and pain-points, and ultimately implement changes that have elevated
their experiences.
Q How does Bozzuto engage with its residents online? Share top three
corporate best practices.
A. | Empathetic and timely-responses to complaints as well as compliments—both online and in
person. People really appreciate a quick follow-up even if you don’t have a solution or answer for
them quite yet, it shows that you’re attentive and care about their needs.
A mobile-first approach. As people become more reliant on their mobile devices, we constantly
analyze technology solutions with a mobile-first mindset. This allows us to create frictionless tools
for research, information and communication.
Easy and direct accessibility to our staff with tools like BozzutoListens.com—our 24-hour portal for
residents to share their concerns and compliments.
While this doesn’t happen online, we believe the most valuable thing we do to engage with
residents is interact with them daily on-site. This is the most personal way to build a meaningful
connection and to open up lines of communication so residents feel comfortable coming to you at
any time. We have also built a community of residents who are so engaged with our brand that they
have volunteered to participate in a resident advisory panel, which allows us to have conversations
with them about how we can continue to improve the living experience at Bozzuto-managed
communities.
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Q What are some of the unique online reputation challenges a large
company like Bozzuto faces managing 58,000 units nationwide?
A. | One thing we constantly pay attention to is maintaining the consistency of our service in a
portfolio filled with vastly different communities. No one lives at “The Bozzuto”. Every community we
manage has unique qualities relative to its neighborhood, architectural nuances that define its
function and character, and programming relative to the time of day, season and year.
While we cherish, celebrate and accentuate the unique nature of each apartment community, we
are also very focused on delivering a consistent living experience that meets and exceeds the
expectations of our residents.
From an online reputation standpoint, this is achieved by ensuring all of our team members are
properly trained in responding to customer feedback. We all work together to meet our corporate
standard of responding promptly and thoroughly.
It doesn’t matter if you live at the biggest, newest, most expensive community in our portfolio, or if
you’re at the smallest, oldest, and most affordable, we value and respond to all resident comments
and concerns with the same level of care.
An example of this can be
seen in our second highest
scoring community in our
portfolio, Courts of Devon in
Gaithersburg, Maryland. Out
of the 215 communities we
manage Courts of Devon is
not brand new or located in a
big city, but it is our second
highest reviewed community,
because it consistently
delivers extraordinary
experiences day-in and
day-out that are valued and
appreciated by its residents.
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Q How do you educate your management and leasing staff on the
importance of online reputation?
A. | First, we hire for the right mind-set, building our team with individuals that already have a keen
understanding of the value of reputation (both online and offline) and extraordinary customer
service.
We are also very metric-driven and evaluate the importance of reputation as it contributes to our
business success on a continual basis.
Lastly, we share our successes so that everyone can celebrate examples of “greatness” as one team.
This also makes the “why” behind these successes easier to understand and to replicate in other
scenarios.
Q Given the growing landscape of online review sites, which ones matter
most to your residents?
A. | This varies by location, demographics and online sophistication, so we take them all very seriously.
What I can say is choosing an apartment is one of the largest decisions a person will make in a given
year. If someone is going to go online to check a restaurant’s reviews and reputation to ensure
they’re making the right choice for dinner, you can rest assured they’re taking greater efforts to
ensure their future living experience will fit their desires.
Q Are review responses handled centrally by a team or at the individual
property level?
A. | We do a combination of both. Ultimately, we have a “close the loop” process to assure proper
response time and closure, regardless of review sentiment.
Q What is Bozzuto’s approach towards negative online reviews?
A. | Any review—positive, negative or neutral—is considered important. The fact that someone took the
time to go online and share his or her thoughts means what they wrote deserves to be read,
responded to and seen through to satisfaction. We are constantly striving to improve our residents’
experiences, negative online reviews are an opportunity to reach out, make amends and devise
pre-emptive solutions to help prevent future residents from having the same experience. We see
negative reviews as a gift towards continual progress.
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