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Tenants are ‘future investors’, not just renters

By Nick Bendel
16 June 2015 | 9 minute read
Tenants

Improved tenant marketing has helped one prominent real estate group smash its sales record.

Victorian group Hockingstuart made $540 million of sales in May – 10.2 per cent better than its previous record of $490 million, achieved in 2010.

Managing director Nigel O’Neil said one reason for the record result was that Hockingstuart became better at exploiting its database, turning tenants into long-term clients.

“The first exposure to the Hockingstuart brand is usually as a tenant, so we've been focusing as far down the chain as when they first enter the market as tenants right through to becoming vendors, and at the end they usually become a landlord as well,” Mr O'Neil said.

He told Residential Property Manager that Hockingstuart has improved both the quality and quantity of its tenant communications.

“Tenants have always been known as being a reactive conversation. We're trying to get on the front foot with the group and make sure tenants are receiving communication around treating them as future investors, rather than just being tenants.

“It's making sure they are alerted to opportunities in terms of getting into the marketplace themselves.”

Mr O’Neil said the challenge with trying to turn property management clients into sales clients was that it's an unpredictable process, taking anywhere from months to years.

One way in which Hockingstuart assesses its performance is through its Net Promoter Score. A rating of -100 means all clients are critics while a rating of +100 means all clients are raving fans. A score above 0 is positive and a score of +50 is regarded as very good.

“We've been monitoring our Net Promoter Score, and doing that for seven years, and we've moved those NPS scores up over 50,” Mr O'Neil said.

“I challenge any real estate business in Australia to be any better than that.”

 

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