On-site visit

Using travel directions provided during the telephone evaluation to verify accuracy, shoppers look for signage enroute and on-site, the degree of curb appeal and indications of rules enforcement and deferred maintenance, as well as good and bad marketing indicators.

Then the shopper visits the information center as a sales or leasing prospect. What does the shopper look for there?

Audio and visual (A&V) shopping

A further refinement to the approaches I’ve described is the use of tape recorders or video cameras.

The easiest application is to record telephone conversations between "shoppers" and on-site staff. This is one way to focus on what needs attention - the message or the messenger.

(As an important aside, it is vital that everyone who possibly answers the office telephone know and practice the basics of telephone selling and leasing when taking a call from a prospect. No exceptions should be allowed.)

Videotaping, unless performed covertly, is pretty much a role-playing exercise between the trainer and trainee.

How much cost do A&V enhancements add to the price of mystery shopping? The range on the telephone side is $50 to $100 and $250 to $350 for video (plus related travel and set-up expenses) according to a recent issue of Resident Life. Basic shopping price is usually negotiable

Mystery shopping preparation

There are two philosophies concerning how an employer should or should not, prepare on-site staff for a mystery shopping visit.

The preferred approach is to train one’s staff beforehand as to corporate policies and procedures relative to handling the telephone and on-site interviews, as well as keeping an vigilant eye out for how the property should look at all times. Other owner/operators opt to shop without warning, then begin the retraining process based on the results.

For readers who embrace the attitude that "proper prior planning prevents poor performance," try these training aids.

1. The leasing tent card includes these reminders:

2. Every manufactured home community information center should use guest cards with every sales and leasing prospect, but most don’t.

When completed, the generic card should provide basic information, such as the prospect’s name, address, telephone number, the type housing he or she needs and when, and how visitor heard of the property.

The very best format combines this information with visitor response data pertaining to how the prospect was treated on-site and their impression of the property. One such format is the well known Prospective Resident Information and Visitor Response Card.

3. Whether it is referred to as a Weekly Prospect Inquiry Report or an "Opportunities to do Business" form, a traffic report is an invaluable record of incoming calls and on-site visits that should be kept on a clipboard next to the desk phone in every information center.

When properly completed, it’s easy to calculate the weekly conversation percentages of calls to visits and visits to applications, as performance indicators. The industry average, in both cases, is 25 percent.

Once on-site employees have been properly trained and motivated, arrange an unscheduled and confidential visit by experienced mystery shopper to your properties.

Remember that shopping assignment confidentiality is vital. The best way a responsible corporate executive or property owner can ensure this is to arrange the assignment personally with an outside agency or selected employee. Leave support staff out of the loop to reduce temptation to warn friends of what’s about to occur.

Being unprepared

What are some of the most outlandish point and counterpoint experiences we’ve observed and recorded during 20 years of mystery shopping manufactured home and apartment communities and salescenters?

During telephone evaluations, sad to say, we are rarely asked to make an appointment to visit the property. And we almost always have to ask for travel directions.

Almost as rarely are we asked our names or addresses, let alone a telephone number, or even how we heard of the property.

Why are all these points important? A prospect doesn’t call unless he or she is interested in something you’re selling or leasing, so get them on-site to see and experience it firsthand.

Never assume that a caller knows how to find the property, either. As "shoppers," we get lost 50 percent of the time, because of the poor directions given over the telephone.

Not only ask for a name, but use it during phone conversations, to get resident relations off to a good start! Asking how one heard of the community is the easiest and best way to learn what marketing efforts are producing the best results.

During the on-site visit, we see the very worst and best of property signage. Anyone who still uses the terms "trailer court" or "mobilehome park" in their name deserves to be thought of as such. But this makes it difficult for the rest of the industry to be thought of as truly mainstream housing.

You wouldn’t believe how difficult it is to find one’s way to the information center when it’s located within the community, so use directional signs enroute.

Although the days of black T-shirts, jeans and smoke-filled offices are gone, on-site staffers need to be aware of their personal grooming and attire, as well as keeping public portions of the information center bright, airy, uncluttered and clean.

Reserve the best parking space in front of the information center for prospective residents!

And, as was pointed out earlier, use Guest Cards with every visitor. Qualify them early, practice "benefit selling," and make several attempts to close.

Can’t recall how many times we’ve walked into offices and meet staffers who don’t get out of their chair to greet us, make us feel like intruders, and then expect us to carry the sales and leasing conversation by asking questions about homes and homesites.

And, speaking of the property, is the entrance attractive? Does it feature fresh signage? Are grounds policed well? Are rules uniformly enforced? Does the appropriate and attractive signage use contemporary industry terminology? And the list could well go on.

Upon further review

What’s the worst thing that can happen after using a mystery shopper? "You waste your mystery shops if you don’t effectively coach the salespeople after the shopper submits a report. Hold open discussion and formulate an action plan to address shortcomings," suggests Bob Anderson, in The Housing Executive Report.

We generally recommend this four step action plan:

1. The property owner or manager meets privately with on-site staff, one-on-one, to review the shopping report for comments and feedback. The properly written report generally covers positive observations first, followed by items that need attention or correction.

2. If necessary, and it usually is, arrange sales or leasing training (or retraining) of on-site staff regarding corporate policies and procedures pertaining to sales and leasing techniques, forms, etc. Include as many on-site staff as economically feasible. Make it a team training event.

3. Advise on-site staff, rental and sales consultants and managers, to use new sales and leasing skills during everyday handling of telephone calls and on-site visits by prospects. In fact, the best attitude for them to adopt is to treat every call and every visitor as a shopper, because that’s just what they are! Warn them that poor or marginal future performance will not be tolerated.

4. Have the property re-shopped. Normally, the on-site staff will be defensive about report findings, unless they did exceptionally well.

If the property owner or responsible manager handles this challenging opportunity properly, he or she can strike a balance between curtailing marginal or poor performance and motivating employees to absorb and use new skills to do their jobs more effectively in the future.

It is not unusual for poor shopping scores (30 to 40 points out of a possible 100) to double upon re-testing two to six months later.

What happens to conversion percentages and move-in rates (i.e. physical occupancy) in the interim, and beyond? They often quadruple now that employees know what is expected of them, how to get the desired sales and leasing results, and that a shopper may be watching.

Is mystery shopping in your firm’s immediate future? Call or, use the form below, if you’d like a free copy of the aforementioned Leasing and Prospective Residential Information and Visitor Response Card. And, if requested, we’ll include information about the traffic log and shopping report formats described in this article.