Is your business model reactive?
Do you spend your days extinguishing one figurative fire after another with no end in sight? Is your stress level higher than 5 on a scale of 1 to 10? If your answer is yes, you probably are operating from a reactive level.
It’s not your fault.
Our culture of entitlement and “the customer is always right” mindset has promoted a virtually impossible ideal of making everyone happy regardless of the cost.
It doesn’t work.
First of all, it’s terribly unfair. And not just to you. It’s unfair to the majority of your guests and your staff.
The minority of people that take advantage of the culture of entitlement know that the squeaky wheel gets the grease. And boy, do they squeak.
You get so busy making them happy that the less vocal guests don’t get their needs addressed. Considering that they are probably your favored guests, this is a worst-case scenario.
And yes, it’s unfair to you, too. As a professional, with years of training and experience, you deserve better than to be mistreated and/or insulted by a guest or owner.
It’s particularly unfair to your staff, who is consistently on the front lines of dealing with this culture of entitlement. Every time they have to absorb an unfounded insult or criticism, they are devalued as both an employee and as a human being.
Which, of course, creates a terrible Catch-22 for you. How do you defend your employee without alienating your guest or owner? What if you can’t? Who do you choose? And what message does that send?
This culture of entitlement is insidious. It has snuck into our collective unconscious after years of conditioning. Actually, 110 years, to be exact. The dreaded phrase “the customer is always right” was coined by the London department store owner, Harry Gordon Selfridge all the way back in 1909.
The Untruths of Reactivity and Scarcity
This culture fails us in almost every way, but the two worth discussing are reactivity and scarcity.
For the term “the customer is always right” to have been coined to begin with, one must assume that something must always go wrong. This is a reactive approach.
While we certainly can’t anticipate every possible scenario, a bit of proactive thought goes a long way in getting in front of potential problems, particularly in the field of vacation rental management.
See mold forming on the shower curtain? Hang a new one.
Leaves on the patio furniture? Blow them off and then clean the furniture.
Couch cushions sagging? Warn the owner it’s time either for new cushions or a new couch.
Just think outside the box enough to look beyond the cleaning and inspection list. It doesn’t take much.
The point is simple. Don’t operate from a reactionary mindset. Train yourself that not every single thing that comes up requires your immediate attention. It’s okay to put something on the back burner temporarily.
Train your staff to look for opportunities to continually improve the homes in your rental program.
The other big failure of “customer is always right” culture is this assumption of scarcity. If we don’t please every customer every time, soon there will be no more customers.
That’s flawed thinking.
Barring a natural disaster, there will always be enough. Enough guests, enough owners and enough homes to rent. Always.
A Proactive Approach
A reactive mindset perpetuates the myth of the “customer is always right”. It perpetuates your stress and keeps you entangled with undesirable guests and owners.
To break free of this cycle, every property manager should adopt a proactive approach to management.
And how exactly to do that, you might be wondering?
I think the most important thing of all is to have a plan, to create a vision of your perfect home, owner and guest. Then you have an ideal to measure everything and everyone against. A map, so to speak. If you ever find yourself confused or veering off course, simply refer back to it. It’s solid and unwavering.
How do you choose your ideal? That easy - it’s who and what makes you feel most productive and most energized. You’ve heard me refer to it as a tribe. Yes, that’s a pop culture reference, but I think it works beautifully in this instance.
I don’t think it’s possible to fully separate your work and your personal life, particularly in this business. With that in mind, it seems pretty important to choose people with whom you share common values, goals and vision. And people you just plain like.
Thoughts on Finding Your Tribe
Just as you would interview a potential employee, I think it’s important to interview your potential owner, too. Have a conversation. Listen carefully to that highly-developed gut instinct to determine if this individual has reasonable expectations and is a good fit for your company and your management style. You’ll know.
Finding a right fit with a potential owner is only the first step of a two-step process. The next step is determining if their property is also a good fit.
If you specialize in small, cozy vintage beach cottages and you’re being offered a new build, 12 bedroom luxury property, it’s probably not a good fit.
Or if it’s a property with obvious signs of disrepair (I hate the term “deferred maintenance”), it’s definitely not a good fit.
While you may lament the potential loss of revenue, remember the flip side of the potential middle of the night phone call from a disgruntled guest.
Being selectively proactive in choosing your owners and properties makes for a far more stable portfolio of properties, reasonable owners, good relationships and a thriving business.
As important as it is to use your gut in finding the right owner, it’s even more crucial in finding the right staff members.
I worked with a woman on the Outer Banks who moved there after a divorce to be near her sister. She was a down-home country girl, with a smile, a giggle and a kind word for everyone.
Needless to say, she had a loyal group of guests who sought her out time and again.
Our maintenance man was loved universally by guests and owners alike. He consistently went above and beyond. He often participated in community activities, so that people got to know him on a personal level, too. It only added to his popularity.
These are the types of employees you want. Ones who can relate to guests and owners alike with a smile and an attitude of welcome.
Most importantly, those who consistently choose to go above and beyond their job descriptions. They proactively seek out opportunities for growth. They create positive experiences for those around them. They are gold.
It may be hard to determine these traits in an interview setting. But I’ve found that those are naturally drawn to service exude a kindness that’s impossible to fake. Your famous gut will pick up on that.
So, there you have it. My two cents on building a business you don’t need a vacation from.
I hope you found some value in my words.
As always, I welcome your feedback.
Best, Alissa