Property Management Corner

Every quarter, the Boise TurnKey team selects a business or mindset book to study. We meet weekly to discuss concepts from these books that apply to our position in the company. We reflect on lessons we can take away to improve the experiences of our clients, residents, and ourselves. We’ve read a lot of great content over the years- sharpening our communication and negotiation skills on how to Never Split the Difference (Chris Voss), becoming more flexible and resilient through Shift (Keller, Jenks and Papasan), or implementing tiny changes consistently to achieve remarkable results through Atomic Habits (James Clear).

This last quarter, with the intent to mindfully focus on the experience we offer those we work with, we chose to read Unreasonable Hospitality by Will Guidara. With a little bit of skepticism at first (what can we, in Real Estate, actually learn from a restaurateur in Manhattan), we embarked on a deep dive into the land of how to outperform people’s expectations, or create meaningful personalized experiences for our clients and residents. Overall, the team satisfaction with the book choice, topics presented, and perspective was very high- we would recommend this book to others! Some things that stood out to us, though, were the following quotes and concepts.

Tracy Ross brought up the following quote as her most influential take-away: “The way you do one thing is the way you do everything, and we found, over and over, that precision in the smallest of details translated to precision in bigger ones.” She shared that this stands out to her (as the Team’s Transactionologist), “because all the little things you do matter in one big conglomerate of the deal. Attention to all the minutia is actually incredibly important.” These little details add up and, in fact, compound to create the overall experience someone has with our company. Ensuring that we use consistent procedure and protocol will reinforce a quality standard. How we answer the phone for one person is how we should answer the phone for everyone. A warm, welcoming smile you can hear through the receiver goes a long way, whether you are calling with a problem, a question, or a concern.

A curious quote that Molly John, the GM for property management, brought up (one that at first didn’t appear to settle right across the entire team) was that, "Hospitality and excellence. Those two concepts? They are not friends." Why would Guidara write this, since both hospitality and excellence are positive traits- how can they not be chums? Molly felt that divide keenly by asserting that, “hospitality is intentional and welcoming,” and would keep clients and residents coming back for more, or referring our services to others. Excellence, on the other hand, speaks more to quality and consistency- keeping standards high and expectations across team members consistent.

A final quote to leave you with can be found very early in the book. This was a personal favorite! “Service is Black and White; Hospitality is Color.” This statement alone has driven Boise TurnKey to create a new company title: Hospitality Concierge! Taylor Witmer has happily taken on this role for our business- and will enhance her current position as “Doctor of Resident Relations.” We’ve created company goals around hospitality for all folks we interact with, including increased requests for surveys to measure satisfaction, acknowledging vendors for outstanding service, personalized thank yous and small gifts for clients and residents, etc. Further, we have begun to report on a standing weekly SMART goal of “making someone’s day no less than 3 times per week.” This metric provides both a bit of whimsy, but also supplies the team with a valuable mindset as we approach each day.

So, dear reader, do you fancy picking up a copy of Unreasonable Hospitality, or plan to add it to your queue? Regardless, I challenge you to look for ways to add a bit of “color” to your interactions. If nothing else, it creates a way to have fun and gamify your daily routine. Also, we genuinely hope you feel our efforts as we interact with you going forward! Here’s to creating an “unreasonable,” rainbow filled real estate experience!

-Heather

3/5  House of Wine Flight Night 

3/5  Boise Book Celebration 

3/6  Vintage Vibes Pop- Up Market - Treefort Music Hall

3/7  Boise Roadster Show

3/7  Watercolor Workshop 

3/7  Stuffed Animal Sleep over at Rediscover Books

3/8  Eat Drink and Shop Market

3/8  Oregon Trail Travelers - Idaho State Museum

3/8  Illumibrate at Jump

3/12 Caldwell Culinary week 

3/12 Grown up book fair 

3/13 Community appreciation day - Children's Museum of Idaho 

3/14 March Paint and Sip - Victory Gardens

3/15 2c wildwest Spring Fest 

3/16 The Crush Collective Wedding Expo

3/19 What’s the Influence? Oak edition with House of Wine

3/22 Eat Drink Shop Market

3/26 Food Fort

3/27 Treefort Music Fest 

3/27 Food Fort - Street Eats

3/29 Idaho Artistry in wood 

3/29 Cars and Coffee3/29 Something Pink is Coming