When you run a residential development, knowing how happy your residents are is always helpful. In a competitive market where other BTR and PBSA companies are always trying to one-up each other, the knowledge you gain from your residents can make all the difference regarding retention.
Happy residents are less likely to leave your development, but more than that, they can also draw more positive attention to your building. Once you have an idea of how enthusiastic your customer base is about your offering, you can tweak your services to better suit the needs of residents. This will help you retain current tenants and make it easier to replace ones that move out due to a change in work or family commitments.
As a parcel room is one of the most frequently used amenities in BTR and PBSA developments, it’s a great place to start when looking to improve your net promoter score and when turning your residents into net promoters.
But what exactly does net promoter score mean, and why is it essential to the residential sector? We’ll answer those questions and more in this blog.
What Does Net Promoter Score Mean?
A net promoter score is a metric used to measure customers’ loyalty to a company. A single-question survey is filled in, and scores are rated on a scale between 0 and 10, with the lowest score meaning customers are very unhappy and the highest score meaning they’re ecstatic.
Regarding residential developments, a low score means tenants are likely to move out at the end of their tenancy agreement and could discourage new potential residents from moving in.
A high score means residents have fallen in love with the development. Not only are they more likely to stay for the long-term, they will actively champion a brand to encourage more people to move in.
Based on their responses, residents will fall into one of three categories:
Promoters
Promoters respond to the survey with a score of either 9 or 10. They are very loyal to the development, as they have experienced excellent customer service and enjoyed a wide range of amenities. This will drive them to share their positive experiences with potential residents.
Passives
Passives give a score of either 7 or 8. While they are happy with the service they’re receiving, nothing has particularly wowed them enough to promote the development. They can also be tempted by more substantial offerings elsewhere.
Detractors
Detractors will respond with a score between 0 and 6. There is something about the development they’re not happy with, and they are more likely to leave than passives and promoters. They can also damage the reputation of your development through word of mouth and poor online reviews.
Why is Net Promoter Score Important?
Your net promoter score will help you determine the quality of your customer service and amenities, and it’s also a quick way to measure overall brand performance rather than asking a series of endless questions.
Once you have the results from your first survey, it becomes a benchmark for you to either improve on if the results were lower than expected or to maintain if scores came back high.
How a Parcel Room Can Turn Residents into a Net Promoter
As the wants and needs of consumers change, the companies and businesses they purchase from must adapt as well. The world has moved from in-store shopping to eCommerce, and it’s predicted that 95% of retail sales will occur online by 2040. In residential buildings, operators must find a way to cope with the ever-increasing need for parcel management services.
Meeting those needs is how you get residents talking about your development. They’ll speak with their friends — regular everyday conversations — and someone will mention how they’ve missed a delivery for a meaningful present. Thanks to the building’s parcel room, your residents will mention how they never have that problem.
Or maybe a co-worker will complain about having to do their food shopping straight after their shift. Your resident will explain how living in a development with a parcel room means they can have their shopping delivered, ready and waiting for them even when at work.
It’s possible that a friend of one of your residents might complain about how their reception is an eyesore because of parcel lockers. The conversation then naturally turns into how your resident doesn’t have that problem with a parcel room.
If your building can meet key needs, it will do wonders for your NPS. Here are some specific ways a parcel room will help:
Added Convenience
Individuals lead busy lives these days. Wherever possible, they want to keep things convenient and reduce any type of annoyance or stress. It might seem like a small thing in the grand scheme of life, but missing a parcel can really put people out of their way.
Parcel rooms ensure no delivery goes unmissed. That means:
- No waiting around for a second delivery attempt
- No trips to the sorting office
- The freedom to order any item online — big or small — without having to worry about logistics
An Up-to-Date Development
Protech has changed the residential sector for good, and operators need to keep their developments up to date in order to deliver on the needs of residents.
The first parcel rooms used to be just that… a room for parcels. There was nothing special about them, but automated rooms are so much more. They provide a great deal of security thanks to one-time-only passcodes, CCTV and a full electronic logging system that lets you know who has entered the room and at what time.
Your amenities need to evolve in line with tech advancements and consumer needs. If you can do that, you create an up-to-date development that works for your residents.
A Welcoming Reception Area
With the hundreds of parcels being delivered to your development each week, you will eventually hit the snag of storage if you don’t have a dedicated area.
If packages have nowhere to go, they usually end up behind the reception desk, which doesn’t give a well-organised impression.
Some residential developments have installed parcel lockers to solve the storage solution, but in terms of creating a welcoming reception area, lockers are the worst choice you can make.
Big, bulky, and decked out in another company’s branding, they do little to improve the ambience.
A parcel room provides a full solution, keeping parcels safe and out of sight and the reception area bright and airy.
Turning Your Residents Into Net Promoters With Parcel SafePlace
Helping to create residential developments loved by all is one of Parcel SafePlace’s specialties. We provide package rooms that are convenient and easy to use, and that gives residents another reason to score your building highly.
To see for yourself just how much difference an automated parcel room can make to resident satisfaction, get in touch with us today.
