Reaching a 45 percent renewal rate in student housing can be accomplished if it’s the company’s ultimate goal.
National student housing owner and manager Campus Advantage ends each year the same way many companies do, by setting its annual goals for the next year. Part of the exercise is to establish at least one Big, Hairy, Audacious Goal (BHAG), which Campus Advantage (CA) defines as goals that can only be achieved with perfect team cooperation and a collective mindset.
For the 2010-2011 academic year, CA’s BHAG was a returning resident ratio average of 45 percent for its 45-property management portfolio. Normally in the student housing industry, a returning resident ratio of 30 percent to 35 percent is considered a significant success, and anything north of 35 percent, absence substantial concessions, is rare. CA’s challenge was to get a 45 percent returning-resident ratio with normal marketplace concessions and above-rental rate growth.
The 45 percent goal was achieved as CA finished its lease-up year in September with an average rental-rate increase of a solid 35 percent.
This was truly a team effort. From the onsite and corporate operations team ensuring that properties are running well; to the residence-life team giving students the programming and fun atmosphere they want and enjoy; to the leasing and marketing team providing residents the right price-point, with the right message of value.
How We Did It
Planning for this goal began in late 2010. A collective effort was needed that would touch every facet of Campus Advantage and its residents.
Of course, customer satisfaction was the main focus across the company, in every department. That set the foundation of the goal. While customer satisfaction has always been a focus at Campus Advantage, the CA staff wanted to raise the bar to reflect the 100% happy goal the company had established.
CA rolled out a new program equation to staff that looked like this: Service + Fun = MOJO.
MOJO became the acronym for CA’s customer service policy:
• Make sure you hear the person
• Own the issue
• Just make a difference
• Only the best!
Live Wisely
What began as a collective effort to maintain a high returning resident ratio gave birth to CA’s Live Wisely campaign. The crux of Live Wisely is the Campus Advantage brand promises of:
1. “Hassle-Free” living
2. Value for your Money
3. Fun
CA learned that providing residents the best living experience, at a great value, in a positive and engaging environment always results in higher satisfaction.
Live Wisely was a tagline and rallying cry for the marketing and leasing of CA’s properties. The leasing and marketing team led the charge of getting the message out in a cluttered marketplace, efficiently and effectively. Collectively, the site and corporate staff worked with CA’s operations groups, resident life directors and the leasing and marketing teams to ensure that each market was priced aggressively, but appropriately. Through continuous communication with every market and up-to-the-minute leasing information, CA’s sites were able to adjust promotions and/or programming to help encourage leasing activity.
One primary vehicle used was the award-winning social media committee. Collectively, Campus Advantage and its communities have nearly 20,000 followers on a variety of social media platforms. With this base, CA was able to get the word out on renewal and leasing specials, resident life programming and other
community engagement activities. It was also a useful tool to measure resident
satisfaction.
Coupled with aggressive leasing and marketing initiatives is the ever-increasing pay-per-click campaigns, mobile websites, search-engine optimization and other online marketing and advertising strategies that aim to enhance community and are implemented by CA’s business partner Catalyst. With this information, the marketing and leasing team tailored a unique message to each community—providing limited concessions when necessary to encourage leasing.
The next step toward success lay with the renowned Students First residence life program—the hallmark of Campus Advantage. The Students First program provides Community Assistants with more than 6,000 community-building ideas that engage and interact with residents in a wide-variety of ways.
This core component program facilitates student success and development and is customized for each community. Students First helps provide residents with the resources they need to succeed personally, academically and socially.
Here, the CA teams engaged residents in those crucial first six weeks after move-in through a series of community events and engagement activities to build a sense of community. Campus Advantage efforts not only helps with resident retention efforts, increases the property’s awareness and drive goodwill, but also greatly decreases many negative issues often associated with student housing that can occur.
Do I Hear 46 Percent?
It is because of the commitment and dedication of everyone at Campus Advantage—operations, corporate, property—that the BHAG was achieved. Reaching this goal was a Herculean effort by all departments that required months of planning and a nearly flawless execution.
It allowed CA to secure significant rental rate increases for its clients, while reaching an overall occupancy rate of 95 percent, with 26 properties reporting 97 percent or greater occupancy.
Next up, CA will shoot to hit 46 percent in 2012.
Mike Peter is President and CEO of Campus Advantage and can be reached at
110 Wild Basin Road, Suite 365 Austin, Texas, 78746 or 512/472-6222.