Is your move-in process taking too long? If so, here’s what you could be doing wrong (plus some tips on how to improve).
Waiting until they arrive
Potential residents can (and should) become a part of your community before they even sign a single document. By doing so, you’ll be making your development or site even more appealing, increasing the value perceived and received by residents.
To do this, keep in contact with all prospective residents who tour your site through residents relationship management software. Invite these prospective students to site-specific events or open days so they can get a feel for the community, as well as get to know their potential peers.
Once your student settles and formally becomes part of your community, you can continue to engage with them and other stakeholders about, upcoming social events, local business offers, important dates, and much more, all whilst maintaining the strongest possible community connection.
Deliver Proactive & Informative Communication
Forget about the days of being continuously perceived as the person who only delivers the non-sexy and sometimes ‘bad news’ such as rent notices, noise complaints, and facility shutdowns. Instead, using student engagement software like Resvu, you and your company staff members can be proactive in your communication and engagement approach at all times, driving enormous improvements in brand awareness and student satisfaction. In other words, use software that allows you to be on the front foot, not the back.
An example of this could be setting automatic notifications for your residents in advance of any construction or maintenance to ensure there are no surprises when there’s a window washer greeting them in the morning! Another could be an invite to an education session for students or reminders about any upcoming social events or club information, which leads us to the next step.
Host Events and Promote Social Clubs
Examples of events that increase community engagement are hosting tours, community family and friends events, new and upgraded communal facilities, student club events and even tallying RSVPs to an upcoming meeting.
Whether you have a new or existing site, it’s crucial to host events for your students to interact with each other and build those strong relationships needed to get through their time studying.
Gather User Feedback for Future Decision Making
The enormous benefit of continuous and proactive student feedback is that it provides a wealth of data that you can use to make more accurate decisions on your future capital projects, facility maintenance, cleanliness and overall student satisfaction. This is a step that is commonly missed by business, not out of choice, but because there is simply no platform making this data readily accessible or sourced.
Be sure to send out surveys after each event to get your residents thoughts on how it went, or check-up periodically on the sites clubs to see if they could use any help – you’ll never know unless you ask. Tools like the CommunitiLink Resident App by Resvu make collecting and processing these results super easy.
With these results in hand, you and your site’s decision-makers can now make informed decisions about where to best allocate resources to meet your resident’s needs. Tools like CommitteeHub make discussion and voting on these topics streamlined, eliminating the need for traditional email and even meetings!
Utilise Technology to Manage All This and Make it Efficient
Arguably the most important step in this guide, many companies these days are making the most of innovative and affordable software systems to manage the engaging community-building aspects of their site, and much more for that matter.
Specifically, your student accommodation site should be exploring technology along the lines of:
- Customer Relationship Management Systems (CRM)
- Communication Software
- Digital Notice Boards and Concierge Screens
- Event, Club and Request Management Systems
- Local Business Directories
- Facilities Management and Maintenance Platforms
With a platform and applications covering all the above for admins, committee members, student residents, community partners, local business and the overarching company or developer, Resvu brings all stakeholders together in one centralised software system. We’re helping sites like yours build and strengthen their student experience. If you’re interested in seeing how the Resvu system can help your business or development, contact us today.