Empathy & Innovation: The Dual Engines of Multifamily Success with Jennifer Carter

In today’s episode of the Multifamily Women® Podcast, host Carrie Antrim sits down with Jennifer Carter, the Customer Advocacy Manager at HappyCo, to delve into the twin pillars of empathy and innovation that are transforming the multifamily industry. Jennifer’s rich cross-industry background empowers her with unparalleled insights, and today she’s sharing them exclusively with you.

Key Takeaways:

• Learn why your multifamily strategy could be vastly improved by gleaning insights from other industries, and how to do it effectively.
• Discover the critical role of empathy in cultivating strong, lasting relationships with residents and employees alike.
• Unpack the often-overlooked art of crafting responses to reviews that not only satisfy the reviewer but also entice new prospects.
• Whether you're breaking into the industry or looking to scale new heights, Jennifer reveals her formula for identifying and engaging mentors that can accelerate your career.
• How to integrate the lessons learned from other industries to outperform in the multifamily space.
• The actionable steps to build a culture of empathy and validation within your organization.
• The true impact of your online responses, through the lens of resident trust and prospective engagements.
• Jennifer's go-to resources and habits that keep her at the top of her game.

This episode is a goldmine for VPs, Directors, CEOs, Founders, and Presidents in the multifamily industry who are struggling with client retention, talent acquisition, and bottom-line growth. If you’re looking to be at the cutting edge of multifamily innovation and relational management, this episode is your ticket.

Don’t let your competition be the only ones tuning in. The game is changing; ensure you're not left behind.

Connect with Jennifer on LinkedIn! https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennifer-carter-mba-25261b8/

Connect with Multifamily Women®:

Multifamily Women® Summit: https://multifamilywomen.com/
Carrie Antrim on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carrieantrim/
Be a Guest on the Podcast or at the Summit: https://apps.multifamilywomen.com/speakingrequest
Multifamily Women® Leadership Series: https://apps.multifamilywomen.com/join

Transcript

0:19

welcome to the multifamily women podcast where trailblazing women of the multifamily industry gather to share their insights, experiences, and wisdom from property management to marketing strategies, resident experience to vendor relations. Our conversations aim to cover every facet of multifamily living and the unique challenges and opportunities it presents. Make sure you head over to multifamilywomen. com to grab your ticket for the upcoming multifamily women's summit today. And if you're enjoying these episodes, please subscribe, rate, and review. This helps others in our industry find the show. And it lets us know how to tailor our content. Today will be a really fun show because I have a very happy guest with an MBA under her belt and a career that has seen her through some diverse roles. Jennifer Carter's journey is a testament to adaptability. Leadership and strategic acumen. Jennifer's current position is the customer advocacy manager at HappyCo. And I'm excited to dive into her insights on reviews, reputation management, and the delicate balance of vendor and property management relations. So whether you're a seasoned professional in the industry, just starting out or somewhere in between, grab your headphones, settle in and let's get started. Jennifer, welcome to the show. Thank you. I am so excited to be here. I'm glad you're looking forward to it. Yeah, that's great. So just starting off you were a property manager. You've had various roles within the multifamily industry. Can you give us a brief overview of the evolution of your career journey? Yeah, absolutely. So I think I stopped counting, but I think about 15 years ago I did start as a property manager. I started in a unique role, which was a traveling property manager. So it really allowed me to jump on properties, assist from marketing to leasing to even a little bit of an assistant role back in the day. And yeah. That started my journey of really learning from the ground up and my feet on the ground, which I will say coming almost full circle has been one of my greatest strengths, which I absolutely love. And then from there, I actually worked for apartment guide which is now rent for about five years assisting sales reps. So shifting to the vendor side. And then I work for two property management companies as a director of marketing and training. So I went back to the other side. And as they all say, I did take a short stint outside, but I came back and I've not left since. But yeah I've done a couple other vendor roles with Satisfax SmartRent, Fetch Package, and obviously currently with HappyCo as the customer advocacy manager. So as you had mentioned, I've had my feet on, on all sides of our industry. Yeah, that's great. That gives you a really interesting perspective. I would imagine on all sides. Everyone involved in decision making. Yeah, absolutely. I, I. Look at it as a little bit of a superpower, right? Like understanding what happens on sites even down to get into the property manager to a regional level, to the training and really being able to empathize and understand what they're actually going through on a day to day basis now being on the vendor side. It's been a great experience, really, honestly what I've learned along the way up until, so my current position. So I'm wondering how reviews and reputation management has changed in importance over the years since you've been in this a while, I would imagine when you first started, it was a lot different than it is today. How has that changed? It's interesting as it's been evolving. So one of my long opportunities that I've had was a director of client performance. position with Satisfax. And I had the opportunity to work with multiple management companies on their resident reviews and resident satisfaction looking at ways to increase that. And I think that it's only evolved to become more and more important, right? Like I feel like we do a lot of. Searching for other people's opinions whether it's on a site or in a small group of network of folks or people. But I think that's really become super important. Honestly, like from the vendor side, as well as the onsite team from residents, right? It's the same story that, folks are looking for. Testimonials or what folks really like about where they live. And it's just really important to make sure that you are putting your best foot forward right in every aspect of what you do, whether that's to residents, whether that's to vendors, whether that's to just friends in the industry, right? I think that It's become more and more important. People trust what other people are saying. And they rate that in their own mind, probably higher than anything else, of, of looking at that. And ultimately most people can bleed through the negativity and really read what is the truth behind it. And Yeah, I think it continues to be super important. In, in what we do. And I know in my personal life, I will look to reviews or to my neighbor, right? To get a, a vendor or, somebody to help on my house even, right? And so I think residents are doing the same, right? We want community. We want to live and breathe around the people that we like and trust. And that comes through reviews. And that's just really why I think it's so important. Yeah, I agree. And I'll take it a step further and also say that, I think that hiring talent, there's a lot of reputation management that comes into play with that as well, because we, we all think we're choosing the candidate, but in large part, they're choosing us right by our reputation. Yeah. And I think that we always say that industry's large, but it's small. And so you are right. I think that. No bridge should be burned, right? And we should always concentrate on doing our very best, no matter where we are again, the industry is small, and so your reputation does stand out whether you really want it to or not, honestly, right? You may say ah, it doesn't matter, but you just don't know, and we are small, and we work closely together, and Excuse me. I do believe also that you're right in looking for a new position. It's a two way street, right? It's not just that company looking for the right fit. It is that person looking also for the right fit, right? For them as well. And you mentioned it a little bit, but negative feedback is inevitable. I think how, what is your strategy for handling it? Not only just handling it, but like transforming it if you will. Yeah, I think you're right. It is inevitable. I think that for me particularly, I actually will see a red flag if there is no negative feedback, right? Because we're all not perfect, right? Inevitably, we're all gonna make mistakes. We're not going to do things the way somebody really does want it to be done, right? We can't please everybody. So ultimately, I actually think that some negative is okay. It comes back to how you handle it, right? And so I'm really big on owning mistakes being transparent and making sure that the communication is there, right? And addressing it almost head on. And sometimes I think people are a little fearful of that because they're like it can cause more, moral ripple effect. But ultimately, what I've seen from my experience is as long as you are open, transparent, communicative, and really do your best to find a resolution, then most of the time people are happy, right? And I think that as long as you address those and respond to those folks that are maybe new to reading that review or that response is going to understand. What you said and did. And I think that ultimately that new person reading that will have some also empathy, right? I think also we also just want to be heard, right? We also want to be validated whether that's as a resident, as an employee, right? That's one of the big things. And so if they can feel heard and validated and what they are, expressing, then I think that plays a big part. I also think that one of the things really that I learned is responding to reviews. It's not responding for the person that wrote the review. It's actually responding for the folks that are going to read the review. So I think if we can continuously think in that lens, I think You know, I believe we'll come out a little bit more on the positive side, right? Because if you have some new prospect, reading a review and a response, they're going to think oh, wow, management takes care of this, right? Management addresses this. They're not leaving it unanswered and they're giving their best attempt. And that's really all that. That you know that new person wants to know about. Just a little bit of a mind shift is that yes, you're responding to that current review, but really, ultimately, it's for that new person taking a look at that review or that response. Yeah. That's a really good point. And just recently, this has nothing to do with multifamily, but recently I was searching for a new gym. And gosh, I am one of those. I will go down the review rabbit hole and read every single one. And this one close to my house had five, five star reviews. And I'm like, okay, this is adorable. They had their five employees, right? About how amazing they are. That was it. And I was like, okay, swipe Next, I'm not going to even, yeah, because I don't know how the other ones that even had, like you said, like not a perfect review, like if they responded and we're like, oh my gosh, we hear you. Here's how we're going to fix it. You can see how management is going to handle it. If something were to happen with you and you were in that situation, like it gives you an idea of what's going to happen. Yep, exactly. It's actually some negatives are not bad. I will say there's a little there's a little kind of formula if you wish. We always said one negative review to every three positives. We can't be perfect, but ideally it's throwing in some it's okay, to have some not perfect scores, right? So think about it from that perspective. Yeah, it's real, right? It's reality. Exactly. Yeah. Made up things. Yeah. Yeah. So with with your experience on Go I hate saying both sides, like one side against the other, we're all companies are a collection of people, but with your various experience in, it was being a vendor supplier partner and also on the management side, what has been with, what were the challenges between transitioning? Do you think between those roles? I got it. I got to flip it first because I think that one of the biggest things that's been Grateful. I'm grateful for is that I've had the opportunity to learn and understand, right? I think that maybe the challenge is that things continuously change, right? And so trying to keep in the in know or understand of what is changing, right? Because back in the day I was on. On site, when social media was just becoming something right and it was like, okay, how do you handle this? Now I and I only can empathize to that knowledge that there's twice as many things, right? The leasing agent is being asked to do right like not just social media on top of leasing. So I think that sometimes You know, the challenges can be the unknown of like, how do you really manage that relationship or maybe what you thought, the vendor wanted when you were on property management side is not Always the case when you're on the vendor because you're dealing with many different, as you said, personalities or people, right? It's not just a one size fits all kind of opportunity. I also think that, going from the PMC side to the vendor side one of the things as you go to the vendors is being inquisitive, right? Be understanding, be, curious I'm the type of person that I love to build relationships. And I love to somebody called me the other day connecting creator. I was like, Oh, that's fancy. But I think that's ultimately what it's about, is building trust and transparency and authentic being authentic. And really for me, I'm all about having the. The PMC is best interest at heart. And, in this industry, that's really, what everybody wants, I don't really want to sell you anything. I just, I want to see you succeed. And no matter what that is, I'm a true person of saying, you know what, however that looks, there's. There's something for everybody, right? And that's not just in our industry. We, you look at any industry, right? There's a ton of options. There's a ton of offerings. And so I love being, that type of person coming to the vendor side where I can say, Hey, if it's not me, or I can lead you to something that might be suitable for you. And that builds that, that trust with them and that, Hey, they're, they want what's best for me and what works for me. I love creating conversation. I was just doing a happy hour last week, and I just love talking to on site folks. I love talking to regionals. I love hearing how their struggles are and maybe what opportunities, even not just HappyCo, but as an industry we can solve, right? Because there is so many opportunities that are out there that, we might have the chance to be able to solve for them and make their job a little bit easier. So I don't know if that's an opportunity, but. Absolutely. No, I love that. I love how you reframed that. That's perfect. You had mentioned to me prior to this about being customer and resident obsessed. I'm wondering if you want to talk about that and how that perspective, we talked about you having an interesting perspective because you've done so many things. Does that give you an edge? Interestingly enough, I will have to say specifically for HappyCo, so they actually sought me out to come to HappyCo because one of our values is customer obsessed, and I am, I truly care about the customer and what is going to benefit them and, how can they be the spotlight, how can they actually be the win, how can they get the win, how can they, you. Had the spotlight on them because ultimately we as vendors and suppliers, we're doing a great job, but let's be honest, these teams are truly managing multimillion dollar assets, right? Like they're doing a lot of big things, a lot of big work. And so I am just. All about, helping other people. That's just my nature, right? Like my nature is to help other people. I always want to people see people succeed on my personal time. I love to volunteer, right? So I'm always about others. And and I think also have being, or have been on the PNC side. I know what it's like, so I can empathize and I want to make their job easier and let them kind of shine, from testimonials to white papers to, awards or whatever that is. I just think that they're doing such great work. And when I can leverage that for them, through even happy code, like I love being able to do that. I'm just really all about serving them to make, a better. A better opportunity for them. And so I think part of that comes from my innate of who I am of like just loving to help others and pour out to others. And Bringing people together whether that's even on like focus groups, right? Or at an event, right? At one of our conferences, right? Being able to bring a lot of people in the room and be able to learn from each other. So it was a great fit being really obsessed with the customer. And then, finding ways to drive personally happy cause, customer advocacy aspect. So I think that's like referrals, or an advisory board or, other ways to do that, to let them shine. Yeah, that's where it all stems from. Yeah, so how do you balance marketing strategies with delivering a genuine and valuable resident experience? I think the other part of me, the other side of my brain I am very numbers driven, right? So I love to be able to tell a story where the numbers make sense. So I think that's where my marketing aspect of that delicate balance of looking for and talking to those customers where, their story is very telling right? From the marketing aspect, from the marketing side, right? So it's like taking those two sides of The customer obsessed piece, but saying, Hey, how do we tell that story from a marketing lens? Whether that's, videos or collateral or, a webinar or whatever that is, but I am very numbers driven. And as long as the story is a great story, I want to be able to showcase that story. So a little bit of the creative side with a little bit of the number side meshed together, is making sure that balance is there. Yeah, that sounds like a perfect mix there. Yeah. So I'm wondering in, in the years that you've been in multifamily. Just personally speaking, any chat, like big challenges you've faced that you've overcome or big accomplishments where you think back and you're like, man, I just, I can't believe I did that. That was awesome. Personally, one of the biggest accomplishments for me, and I never really was like, yes, this is what I have to do, but I guess two maybe come to mind. One is having the opportunity and I think, maybe some people can relate. I'm probably sure you can, but as being able to speak on stage. So I've had the opportunity to speak at like NAA and BAMA and, I submitted for 2024. I continue to hone those skills and I have done in the past and that was probably one really great accomplishment. I think. The other great accomplishment was being able to stand at the New York Stock Exchange with Smart Rent and go public. I don't have it on my desk here, but it is upstairs. I have my badge that says New York Stock Exchange. And so I just, I'm really to say that I'm proud to be able to do that right and help that venture at that point in my career from that perspective. So I would say those probably are So you And I don't take this one lightly as probably the third, but honestly, like just the friends, and the networking and, we're all very respectful of each other and we all know that we have something else to something to bring, to this market. And so I. I do love this industry for that matter. You just can't get any better of the people in our industry, no matter where they're they sit, whether that's, property managers, regionals, executives, suppliers, anything like that. But yeah, I would say like those two are probably my biggest accomplishments from that perspective that I can look back on from the last, like 15 years. I remember watching that on the New York stock exchange. I always try to watch when it's a company I, I know, or have any kind of connection with, and that was very exciting. It was very exciting for sure. For sure. So looking into the future, how do you anticipate the evolution of resident experience and reputation management within multifamily? This one I love. This is great. Okay, great. And I actually blogged a little bit about this on MFI, but I am a, and you may not find this shocking, but I am a true believer that regardless of AI, regardless of technology, We need to still have human interaction, right? Like I if I could shout anything from the roof shop from any to any company, whether it's vendor or PM seaside, it's don't lose the fact that we have to have a blend, right? We need to figure out what that balance is. And it may look different for every management company, right? Rightfully but I We just need to do that because we as humans want human to human connection, right? We want that. We just have to figure out at what point is that in their journey, right? And what can we do to help with the technology to meet, in the middle, so to say. So I think that as the future, I'm all about embracing technology. I don't ever want to say like technology is no good, but. You needed to be at the right place at the right time and still interject a human, right? That's what I say we, we hear a happy co we don't we love AI, but we are very H I, which is human intelligence, right? We want humans to still be part of the equation. And yeah, I'm, I am. All for wanting to be able to maybe make a splash and have a say in making sure that we balance that right. In whether it's leasing, whether it's maintenance, whether it's. It's it's renewal, whatever it is, we really need to find that balance because again, I think we all need that and want and crave that human interaction. It's just got to be at the right time for that particular journey for that resident or for that buyer in general. What lessons or strategies from other sectors do you believe that multifamily could benefit from? I wouldn't have normally said this, but I'll tell you a real quick story about what just happened. So I've been looking for a new car right at very beginning stages and believe it or not. I, this is crazy because I would have never thought this would have happened to me. So I was looking for the new car. I had been texting them, believe it or not. And it was a person. He literally was like, Hey, I'm not going to be in tomorrow. I'm going to give you to this new guy. That's going to help you. And I was like, great. The new guy actually texted me and said, Hey, so and so let me know that, you'll be in tomorrow. He got there. He took his time with me. I let him know I was running late. He was like, no problem. And then ultimately it was like the follow up was great. I didn't buy, but it was, the timing and it wasn't pushy and he answered my questions exactly as I had, had facilitated. It wasn't over the top. It wasn't, extra. And honestly, like to this moment, like I would go back and buy a car from him from my experience. And it was great. It was a little bit of both. I started online, right? Like I inquired, I preferred text. And so he met me at that moment of where I had asked for, and how I wanted to be communicative. And although it didn't lead to a sale, if, Okay. Something were to happen. I would absolutely go back to there and find him and be like, Hey, can you help me? There was just an opportunity to connect and meet me where I was at. And he did that. And so I wouldn't have thought that would happen in car sales, quite frankly, but I did get that experience. Yeah, that was pretty pretty new for me, which I was pretty ecstatic about. I will say as we all do in this industry, hospitality is one, right? Like hotels just have that next level experience from check in to, while you're there. I think the last hotel I stayed at was a Hyatt or a Hilton. I can't remember which one, but you can select your room like before you get there. And I'm like, this is the great experience ever. So I just think that, we could look outward to, still hospitality from a big perspective on, on that one. That's the first one that kind of Comes to mind, right? Because it is most similar. Airbnb is another 1, right? Their homeowners are available when you need them, right? But everything else is relatively on your own, right? But it's like meeting that person where they're at when they have a question, right? And being available. That is another 1 that kind of comes to mind. Although I am probably the most frequent shopper is Amazon. So same. Oh my goodness. I can't even talk about that. Especially not in a recording as the Amazon driver is like at my door. I have an order coming today too. It's okay. No, the car dealership though, that's a perfect example because like you said, they made it easy for you to get the answers you needed when you needed them through text, right? Like right away. You're not even on the phone. You're just texting, which is great. And then through the human interaction, the great customer service that they provided to you, that brought you in. Person to the dealership. And now you have a relationship, like you said with that. I think the other thing to always remember, and it's hard, is think about what we're doing that we may not get the lease or we may not get something immediately, but it's the long term let's call it strategy. If you wish, of like the long term. What we're going to get right now. I think that's part of why I'm customer obsessed is I'm not there to get you tomorrow or in 30 days, but I want to build a relationship with you so that if you do need something, I'm there for you in the end. And that's when it's actually going to come back. I might not buy a car from him today, but you know what his. The way he went about it is actually going to be lasting where I would go back and I might ping him in another 60 days and say, Hey, my criteria has changed. Like you are great. Do you have anything else? So I think it's trying to be less about ourselves and more outwardly about others. And that in the long term, that's what's actually going to be most beneficial to all parties, and to both as we said sides, but to, to both people that are, looking in, in the part of the business. Yeah, I'm just such a, such an outwardly obsessed person of others. I love that. That's a great quality to have. And going off of that for those either. Just entering multifamily or, aspiring to be where you are wanting to grow, what would you, what advice would you have for them? I honestly, like I would stay in the know, meaning read as much as you can read, right? Find somebody. That you might be interested in. Don't be afraid to ask ask that person to be a mentor, ask that person to grab coffee, right? Even if it's virtual, right? One of the things most recently I did, I'm in Atlanta and I was like, Hey, everybody who's in Atlanta, doesn't matter what you do. Come have coffee, right? Like we can learn from each other. And I think that this industry is very open to that. So anybody, no matter where you are, be curious, ask questions read about, our industry from articles, listen to podcasts, but ultimately. Don't be afraid to speak up and step out. No question is a stupid question. No question is a bad question, I think. And I believe that everybody in our industry is willing to share information, right? And wants to help other people grow. And I'm just that way. I'm more than happy to help somebody find a job or answer questions or, just. Make some, connect some dots should they need to be, with our industry. So yeah, I'm all for maybe somebody making sure that they make it a goal to maybe ask two or three questions or link up with two or three people a month. So you can, learn more. I love that, at the summits that we produce, the multifamily women's summit, I always try to bring in experience from. Other industries as well, like you said, because I think it's so important to get the different perspectives. There's a conference. I attend every year. That's for female entrepreneurs of any industry. It's just entrepreneurs. So it's everything under the sun. And I think those different perspectives and having. People you can go to and just say, Hey, I need help here. Or what would you do in this situation? All of that. I think everything you said is great. And I think that, I love doing that because I've had a few folks for me that have done that for me. And so being able to offer that to others is really key. And I think that's what keeps, our industry great, is being able to give back and help others so that they can be successful too. Thank you. Absolutely. Now, is there anything that I didn't ask you that I should have or that you want to leave our listeners with? I guess after all this talk, if you do want to reach out, you're totally welcome to you can find me. I'm pretty active on LinkedIn. You can find me there just Jennifer Carter and I'll be happy to connect, ask questions grab a cup of coffee on Zoom, or even at a, an event. I'm happy to do that as well. Yeah that's me. Okay. That's great. And we will link to you in our show notes as well. So anyone listening, you'll be able to find Jennifer really easily and she's very responsive and very friendly, obviously, and knowledgeable. Jennifer, thank you so much for taking the time and joining me today. Absolutely. It's been a pleasure. I've had fun. Oh, good. Listen to to our listeners, as I said, make sure you check out the show notes for a recap along with other resources mentioned during this episode. Like I said, we'll link to Jennifer on LinkedIn so you can connect with her there. This has been another episode of the multifamily women podcast, and I thank you for joining us today. Stay tuned for more episodes and we'll see you in the next show.