GlobeSt. — BH Management Sees Momentous Value in Customer-Centric, Centralized Operations

Apartment company’s improved CRM and call center operation creates efficiencies for a year focused on expense control.

Apartment companies have stepped into 2023 and are seeing a different financial environment. The go-go period of recent years has stopped – or at least slowed dramatically.

The double-digit rent growth has been replaced with rising costs – some clearly up by double digits.
BH Management Services (BH) – which operates 106,000 apartment homes in 354 communities across 30 states – is seeing it.

Joanna Zabriskie, president and CEO at BH calls it “the year of expense control” because all the non-controllables are on the rise.
Insurance, property taxes, and interest expenses are at the top of that list. Wages and a shortage of overall workers are also primary concerns.

“There are several variables at play that make centralization a good option for BH. Costs are up, plus consumers have higher expectations,” said Zabriskie. “We have to be sure we’re doing everything we can to attract and keep renters, and that means putting their experience at the center of our focus. We call our resident-centric approach ‘The Mint Experience’ and it’s our ongoing commitment to wildly awesome service.”

“There are several variables at play that make centralization a good option for BH. Costs are up, plus consumers have higher expectations. We have to be sure we’re doing everything we can to attract and keep renters, and that means putting their experience at the center of our focus. We call our resident-centric approach ‘The Mint Experience’ and it’s our ongoing commitment to wildly awesome service.”

— Joanna Zabriskie, president and CEO of BH

The Renter Always Comes First

“Centralization is not only going to reduce costs, it also is allowing us to meet the residents’ expectations while providing a fast, personalized, rewarding experience at all stages of that customer journey with BH,” Zabriskie said.

“Centralization is not only going to reduce costs, it also is allowing us to meet the residents’ expectations while providing a fast, personalized, rewarding experience at all stages of that customer journey with BH.

— Joanna Zabriskie, president and CEO of BH

BH is the eighth-largest property management company in the US. To help her teams maximize this potential, the company quickly realized that it needed to rebuild its tech stack to align with the renter-centric mindset through Funnel.

“It is the tech backbone of our centralized, renter-centric experience because their platform was built on the idea that the renter always comes first,” Zabriskie said. “We’re using Funnel to layer in all the things that we’re already doing to create a renter-centric experience.”

“It is the tech backbone of our centralized, renter-centric experience because their platform was built on the idea that the renter always comes first. We’re using Funnel to layer in all the things that we’re already doing to create a renter-centric experience.”

— Joanna Zabriskie, president and CEO of BH

She said, “Centralized leasing absolutely plays a role in becoming more efficient. It’s already helping us with workflows for things such as payment plans and rent collection. By automating tasks in this centralized form, our teams will have more time to spend with their residents.”

Zabriskie said, “It gives us the tools that allow us to deliver a more seamless, consistent experience so we don’t have to do hundreds of workarounds that would ultimately lead to a less than wildly awesome experience for our residents.”

BH is launching its own in-house contact center this spring, which will combine the forces of its leasing experts with its new CRM and contact center technology.

Renewals Happening More Quickly, at a Higher Rate

BH has been on the path to centralization since the pandemic. At that time, Zabriskie says BH had to rethink how it had always operated. This meant building specialized teams to serve as an extra layer of support for screening, resident billing services, and renewals.

BH launched its first centralized support team in 2021, with the creation of the Renewal Specialist team, which today manages the renewals process at more than 220 communities. According to Zabriskie, these dedicated teams have made an impact on business.

“We’re seeing renewals happen more quickly and at a higher rate,” Zabriskie said. “This has involved a lot of process changes for our team that focus on creating a more seamless, transparent leasing experience for new and renewing residents.

“Today’s renters’ expectations are sky-high. They insist on having a trouble-free shopping experience – that means an ‘Amazon-easy’ route from their first search to a lease renewal. So, from that perspective, centralization means putting our resident experience at the center of our focus. And Funnel is the tech that lets us do that.”

“Today’s renters’ expectations are sky-high. They insist on having a trouble-free shopping experience – that means an ‘Amazon-easy’ route from their first search to a lease renewal. So, from that perspective, centralization means putting our resident experience at the center of our focus. And Funnel is the tech that lets us do that.”

— Joanna Zabriskie, president and CEO of BH