Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/161166
COMMUNITY CONSULTANT How Effective Mystery Shopping Can Significantly Improve Your Community's Performance BY FRANK ROLFE Do you ever wonder what really happens when a customer calls your manufactured housing community? Do you ever wonder why a certain home is not renting? We used to all the time. Now we've taken some of that uncertainty off the table with intense mystery shopping. And the good news is that it can be performed by any community owner at virtually no cost. Call your community at a time when nobody is around and see what happens Pick a time when you know the manager will not be there – on a weekend or holiday. See if the phone goes to voicemail, See what the voicemail message is like. See if the phone rings at all (we've found numbers that are non-working or go directly to a fax tone. If you phone system does not work, then how is a customer going to be able to rent anything? And when you leave the message, see how long it takes for the manager to get back to you. An hour? A day? Never? We have fired managers over the simple fact that they will not answer the phone or return calls. Being shy may work as a computer programmer, but a manager must, at least, have the people skills to answer a phone in a professional manager. Call you community manager when they are around, and see what happens Here's where mystery shopping really gets interesting. Push *67 on your phone (so that no caller ID will show that it's you) and when they answer way "I'm looking for a mobile home for rent. Do you have any?" (don't say "manufactured home" or they'll know it's a set-up), then let the manager take it from there. A good manager will launch into a sales pitch on what he has and why the community is a great place to live. The worst manager will say "I've got this trailer but it's in really bad shape and you probably don't want it". We've even had managers say "we're full" when there were homes available, just beSEPTEMBER 2013 20 THE JOURNAL cause they did not want to take the trouble to show them. Now you may say "what do I do the next time, since they already know my voice?" Well, I've called the same manager 100 times and they still can't figure it out – I simply alter my voice by being a little higher or lower, or adding a fake accent. They are not expecting it to be you, so they really don't have their voice recognition skills in play. Send someone by the community when things are going badly If you have a pile of homes to rent and no takers, then it's time to take stronger action. Hire someone to go over and pretend to be a real customer. You can find such a person on Craigslist, or even call the few people you know in town. It you pay someone $50 to go do it, it's well worth it. Tell them to call and pretend to want to rent a home, and then set up an appointment and go get the sales pitch. We have found managers that don't show up on time, or show up at all, or have the worst sales pitch you've ever heard. There's no way you can get the job the done – despite the greatest marketing in the world – if every customer is chased away by poor sales skills. And you won't know you have the problem until you mystery shop in person sometimes. Drop by the community on a random basis without any advance notice Nothing tells the tale like driving up to the community unannounced and seeing what condition it's really in. If you pull up and the grass is 4' tall and there's junk everywhere and the dumpster has three mattresses leaning against it, then how can you possibly rent anything? Of course, if you give the manager notice that you're coming by, they'll get it perfect before you get there, and then let it go down the drain the minute after you leave. Once time I pulled into a community and found the manager asleep under a tree, a fishing boat attached to his car, and the grass 3' high. Needless to say, that was his last day. Forward the phone to yourself for a weekend, and see what's really going on For the community in which the manager claims that, despite newspaper ads and other marketing efforts, the phone never rings, quietly forward to community phone number to your cell phone for a weekend. The few times we've done this, our phone has rung off the hook. There's no better way to call the manager's bluff than to answer the phone yourself for a couple days. We did this one time on a park that was piling up with homes and, according to the manager, had no demand at all. When we confronted the manager with the actual results on Monday, they immediately admitted that they'd been having personal problems and lied about the phone not ringing and quit. Job well done. Conclusion Sure, mystery shopping takes some time. But the results are extraordinary. Finding out the truth about what's really going on in your community is priceless, and can be the difference between a success story and a bankruptcy. So check up on your manager's performance constantly, and you'll be amazed at the improvement in your bottom line – and your sanity! T J Frank Rolfe has been a manufactured home community owner for almost two decades, and currently ranks as part of the 18th largest community owner in the United States, with 8,000 lots in 17 states in the Great Plains and Midwest. His books and courses on community acquisitions and management are the top-selling ones in the industry. To learn more about Frank's views on the manufactured home community industry visit www.MobileHomeUniversity.com.