Phone Call Protocol

Modified on Fri, 25 Apr at 5:02 PM

A prospect’s first impression of a Horizon property is determined by your performance on the phone.

It is important to show your prospect your personality. They cannot see your face, but they hear what you say. Be sure to SMILE because it will have a positive effect on the tone of your voice. This first phone call is going to make a lasting impression, make it great! All phone calls should be answered by the 3rd ring.

Always be prepared when answering the phone. Have your hot sheet, property information sheet, and guest card within arm’s reach so you can answer the caller’s questions with confidence. Remember, knowledge is power. You need to be a community expert so be prepared to answer FAQs without your property information sheet. Your caller deserves your full attention so be sure to eliminate all distractions.

Remember the 6 goals of every phone call; schedule a specific appointment to tour, obtain contact information, determine needs, build rapport, show personality, and lead the call.

GREETING

All calls should be answered with a pleasant, professional greeting. You should assume every call is a prospect or resident. Every phone call is an opportunity for you to help someone. Phone calls should be answered with one of the following greetings.

“Thank you for calling (your property’s name) this is (your name), how can I help you?”
“It’s a great day at (your property’s name) this is (your name), how can I help you?”

Horizon discourages placing callers on hold, however, when necessary first ask for the caller’s permission then be sure not to place them on hold for longer than 30 seconds. If you are unable to give the caller your undivided attention because you are helping another customer, please take their contact information and call them back as quickly as you can.

DETERMINING NEEDS & BUILDING RAPPORT

Before you can assist a prospect, you need to understand their needs. Determining needs and building rapport with your prospect is all about asking questions in a conversational manner. This is your opportunity to show your prospect you care about helping them. Here are some questions that will help you determine your prospect’s needs:

How soon do you need an apartment?
What floor plan are you interested in?
Have you visited our community before?
Who is the apartment home for?
What do you like about your current home? Or, what do you dislike about your current home?
Do you have roommates? Be sure to explain your roommate matching process.

To build rapport with your prospect, you need to know their name. Ask for their name early in the call so you can personalize the call by referring to them by name. It is important for you to identify common ground with your prospect (i.e. Are you both pet lovers? Did you grow up in the same town? Go to the same college?) Listen to your prospect and take advantage of opportunities to personalize your sales technique.

You also need to ask for the prospect’s phone number and email early in the call. Without this information, you cannot follow up.

SELLING YOUR PROPERTY

You need to help the prospect visualize your apartment homes when selling on the phone. Describe the homes in detail using white rabbits. You need to lead the call and describe features that are important to them based on their needs. You need to be excited about your property when talking with a prospect – this will get them excited! Be familiar with the location and know where your property is in relation to campus, community attractions, and be familiar with transportation options. Take advantage of all touchpoints with your prospect to create urgency – pricing, availability, specials, etc! Urgency increases closing ratios!

Don’t forget about HRA’s no-no words while selling to your prospect. Tenant = Resident, Unit = Apartment Home, Complex = Community, etc.

PRICING AND SPECIALS

Many prospects will call to specifically ask about the price. Before providing pricing information, ask questions that help you determine their needs, so you can explain how the community is a good fit for them. When you do discuss pricing or specials it must create urgency. Your goal is to educate the prospect on why your community is the best in the market.

We always want to provide our prospects with the information they are calling for if they ask for the price more than three times you need to provide them with the information.

Appointment to Tour

When you have determined the prospect’s needs and sold them on the reasons to live at your community, you need to ask them to schedule an appointment to tour today. Use this as an opportunity to create urgency. Offer the prospect a choice of appointment times rather than stating your office hours and welcoming them to visit when they are free. Offer appointment times that stand out (i.e. today at 3:15 pm). Often the prospect will not be available for a tour today so provide them with 3 appointment times for the next 2 days.

CONCLUDING THE PHONE CALL

After you have an appointment scheduled with your prospect you need to thank them for calling and remind them of their appointment time. Ask if they need the community address or directions and confirm their contact information.

Immediately after your phone call you need to transfer the information from the guest card to your lead management system and send a follow-up email summarizing the information you reviewed on the call.

WORKING WITH UPSET CUSTOMERS

Always work from a point of “Yes”.

Caller: “The gate has been broken for 2 weeks. I want free rent!”

You: “I can absolutely understand how free rent would be great! Unfortunately, we aren’t able to give you free rent, so let’s talk about what else we can do.”

If you encounter an angry person on the other end who is berating you and using foul language, please see the SOP for dealing with an angry guarantor and proceed accordingly.

Never lose your cool on the phone. If someone is upset, 99% of the time it has nothing to do with you or the situation they are yelling about. Try to remain calm and remember, they called for a reason. They need you to help them find a new apartment home.

Make every attempt to answer their questions without passing them to someone else. Always maintain a pleasant attitude, even when it’s tough to do so.

MAINTAINING A PROFESSIONAL IMAGE

Texting or engaging in personal or professional cell phone use is not acceptable while on the leasing floor. If you need to use your cell phone to contact someone please do so from the back of the office. Our goal is to provide superior customer service to all and this is one of many ways of doing so.

If a customer is waiting, offer them a beverage or snack while they wait.

If a customer walks in while you are on the phone with another customer, try to find a good stopping point and ask the person if you can please place them on a brief hold. Address the client in front of you and ask them to please have a seat while you wrap up your call. If the call is going to take some time, call for back up from one of your teammates. The same goes when the phone rings and nobody else is available to answer. Excuse yourself from your conversation with your customer, answer the call but take a message and call them back when you are free. The customer calling and visiting will both appreciate this.

PHONE CALL SCORING & SHOPS:

It is the responsibility of the Property Manager and Leasing Manager to listen to and evaluate calls weekly. The phone call evaluations should be shared with the leasing consultant and used as a coaching opportunity.

To maintain consistency across all Horizon properties, we are using one scorecard for grading. Properties on Entrata will have their calls scored by the Entrata Leasing Center. The scorecard results are emailed to the Property Manager, Leasing Manager, Regional Manager, Kelly Pearson, and the training TEAM. These call evaluations are to be treated as an internal call evaluation.

Scoring will total to 100 points. When a score falls below 80 points, action needs to be taken and an explanation needs to be sent to the Regional Manager, Kelly Pearson, and the training team explaining why the call did not meet expectations and the steps taken to review with the employee. It is Horizon's goal that all Team Members give 110%, 100% of the time. Phone call scorecards will be used in employee performance evaluations.

Horizon takes phone call performance seriously. To ensure all properties are meeting expectations secret shopper reports are conducted periodically. The secret shop may be recorded and scored by a third-party company.

For scores less than 80 points an explanation must be sent explaining why the call did not meet expectations and the steps taken to review with the team member. For scores 60 points and below, the following action will be taken. If the team member’s performance does not improve, they may be demoted or terminated.

1. Warning & direction on training.

2. Firm verbal warning.

3. Write up

SCORECARD GRADING:

Introduction & Lead Information

Clear Introduction w/ property name and agent's name - 2
Asked for the caller’s name - 10
If yes, used called callers name throughout the call -1
Asked for caller’s phone number - 10
Asked for caller’s email - 10

Identifying Your Customers Needs

Determined the caller’s apartment needs - 10
Determined lead source - 5
Identified who the home was for - 2
Identified their desired floor plan - 2
Determined their move-in date – 2
Invited to tour the community (or offered virtual tour) - 10

If yes, attempted to schedule a specific appointment - 2

Community Information

Referenced the property website - 2
Amenities and community features were referenced - 2
Added value before price discussion - 5
Created urgency - 5

Make A Connection

Attempted to build rapport with caller – 5
Offered to send a follow-up email - 2
Enthusiastic and personable - 2
Did not rush the call - 1
Full attention is given to the caller - 2
Ended the call with a positive closing message (“Thank you” or “It was a pleasure speaking with you”) – 5
On hold for less than 30 seconds - 2
Used appropriate language (did not say unit, complex, tenant, work order) - 1

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