Managing a property isn't a walk in the park, and student housing properties can be an even bigger challenge, especially when it comes to the burden of residents’ mail and packages. With college students constantly moving and changing units, inbound mail and packages can get lost in the shuffle. Missing packages that contain items such as replacement cellphones and expensive textbooks can be a ongoing hassle for your entire management team (from regional manager to desk assistant).
As Bisnow partner the Postal Solutions Company points out, many problems can be avoided with the right vendor on staff. And they should know, they've grown to help manage daily mail delivery for 65,000-plus beds every day nationwide. . Postal Solutions has identified that the best student housing property managers they've worked with over the past 16+ years all have the same four successful qualities.
With 19% of students claiming that a professional leasing staff is the most important factor in their property choice, do you or your property manager have what it takes to make your property top-tier? Here are some things to think about.
Communicative
How do you keep your residents and your team constantly posted with any news about policy changes, recently arrived packages, upcoming construction or community events? The best property managers know which contact information and tools are the best at conveying information quickly. A Package Log that can send automated alerts to cellphones and email addresses, for example, will guarantee the package will be picked up. Remember communication isn't just about what you say, but how you get your message out.
Tech Savvy
Technologies like PackageLog (pictured) also tie in heavily with how willing your property manager is to adapt with the times and adopt cutting-edge methods. Software solutions like PackageLog enable package notifications and reminders. This efficiency can produce a modern amenity that blends into what college students and Millennials gravitate towards when considering a campus. Not to mention, the automated features mean less time manually prompting for package pick-ups and more time getting to the tasks you want to accomplish.
Organized
A property manager's life is a constant series of figurative (and possibly literal) fires to extinguish, and making sure they're efficient with their time ensures that everything's running smoothly on a daily basis. Having an eye for organization certainly applies to the mail management aspect. Is there anything that could be automated or delegated? Could mail sorting, for example, be given to an outsourced company whose job is to sort through all those bins of mail, forwarding, returning and processing as applicable? Or could you use electronic package storage lockers to save valuable floor space and keep all of those resident packages out of your leasing office and available for pick-up 24/7? Having an organized setup can help makes it a lot easier to find solutions (and maybe an extinguisher) if and when the time comes.
Self-Starter
At the heart of all these traits—and nearly all successful people—is how you or your manager tackles and handle issues. Does your manager seek new solutions? Student life can be complicated, and students (and just about everyone) can feel anxious when anticipating mail or a package. So being able to immediately recognize a problem and take steps to solve it, especially with limited time, is key. Having mail delivery problems, dealing with the USPS refusing to deliver your letter mail into mailboxes or getting too many inbound resident packages can tie up valuable leasing time.
A great example could be someone who takes initiative and creates a system that easily connects a resident who recently moved away with their highly anticipated (but maybe forgotten about) package without a series of back-and-forth phone calls and missed delivery slips.Considering asking yourself whether or not you or your property manager recognizes that right away and take steps to fix it. If so, then great! If not, maybe, it's time to start looking for solutions that perfectly fit your space and your needs.
These traits and forward thinking, will help your property in more than just mail, but in every day-to-day issue your property will face.
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