The Metrics Say We're Winning. The Experience Says Otherwise.

We're Measuring the Wrong Things

I haven't been able to stop thinking about the 101 digital shops I completed.

When I started this project, I thought I was measuring follow-up. I wanted to see how apartment communities responded after I submitted a guest card. I figured I'd compare response times, communication methods, and maybe identify a few best practices along the way. Pretty straightforward.

But the deeper I got into the data, the less this became about mystery shops and the more it became about the questions we're asking as an industry.

Over the course of March and April, I shopped 101 apartment communities across all 50 states. Every shop was with a different property management company because I wanted to understand the leasing experience across the industry, not just within one organization. On paper, the results looked impressive. Eighty communities emailed me. Thirty-six texted me. Many followed up multiple times over a 21-day period, and the median response time was just eight minutes. Five years ago, we would've celebrated those numbers because response time was one of our biggest challenges. Thanks to technology, I think we've solved that problem.

Or at least I thought we had.

The more I reviewed every email, text message, voicemail, and follow-up, the more I realized something wasn't adding up. If I judged these communities strictly by activity, many of them would've earned an A. They responded quickly. They followed up consistently. They checked every box we've told leasing professionals to check for years.

Yet as a prospect, I wasn't impressed.

That's the disconnect I couldn't shake.

Somewhere along the way, we've started measuring activity instead of effectiveness. I received email after email that looked almost identical. The same AI-generated language. The same voicemail script. The same follow-up, just sent on a different day. After a while, I found myself mentally checking out. Not because they weren't communicating with me, but because nothing was changing.

The more I thought about it, the more I realized it was the definition of insanity. We keep sending essentially the same message over and over again, expecting a different outcome. If a prospect doesn't respond to your first generic email, why would your fourth generic email suddenly be the one that changes their mind?

To me, a follow-up should move the conversation forward. It should answer a question, solve a concern, introduce new information, or help the prospect make a decision. If it isn't doing one of those things, it's not really follow-up. It's just another touchpoint that looks good on a report.

That realization also changed the way I think about personalization. Somewhere along the way, we've convinced ourselves that personalization means inserting someone's first name into an email. It doesn't. Personalization is proving you listened.

If I tell you I'm looking for a one-bedroom next month, don't send me every available floor plan. If I tell you why I'm moving, use that information to help me picture myself living in your community. If you ask me how I prefer to be contacted or what time works best, honor it. Otherwise, why ask in the first place?

Ironically, the communities that stood out to me weren't necessarily the ones doing the most. They were the ones that made me feel like there was a real person paying attention. One community picked up the phone almost immediately. Another thanked me by name after I submitted my guest card. A few asked thoughtful questions and actually respected the communication preferences I gave them. None of those actions were groundbreaking. They simply felt human, and in today's leasing environment, that alone made them memorable.

There was one exception that really stuck with me. Some communities asked how I preferred to be contacted and what time worked best, but then completely ignored my answer. That may seem like a small detail, but I don't think it is. The moment you ask someone for their preference, you've created an expectation. When you ignore it, you've done more than miss an opportunity. You've broken trust before the relationship has even started.

The data also made me rethink concessions.

Out of the 101 communities I shopped, 80 were advertising some type of concession. Free rent. Lower deposits. Application fee waivers. That's not what surprised me.

What surprised me was one community advertising 10 weeks free that never responded to my inquiry.

That really made me stop and think.

Have we become so quick to solve occupancy challenges with concessions that we've stopped asking what the actual problem is?

Maybe the issue isn't pricing.

Maybe it's communication.

Maybe it's connection.

Maybe it's the follow-up experience.

If a prospect doesn't feel heard, understood, or valued, is another two weeks—or even ten weeks—of free rent really going to change that?

Don't get me wrong. Concessions absolutely have their place. Markets change. New supply enters the market. Sometimes they make perfect business sense. But I can't help wondering if we've become so focused on treating the symptom that we've stopped diagnosing the cause. What if we spent as much time improving the prospect experience as we do deciding how many weeks of free rent to offer?

Another statistic that caught my attention was that nearly 74% of my first responses came from AI.

Some people will read that and assume this article is about artificial intelligence.

It isn't.

I use AI every day, and I genuinely believe it's one of the best tools our industry has embraced. AI isn't replacing great leasing professionals. It's replacing administrative work and helping us respond faster than ever before.

The real question isn't whether AI should send the first response.

The real question is this:

When should the human step in?

Because communication isn't the same thing as connection.

We can automate communication all day long.

Connection still takes intention.

If I could change one thing about the leasing process tomorrow, it wouldn't be adding another email, another text message, or another phone call. I'd challenge leasing professionals to stop thinking about follow-up as another task to complete and start thinking about it as an opportunity to help someone make a decision. That's where creativity lives. That's where trust is built. That's where relationships begin.

And I think that's where leasing becomes fun again.

One Question to Think About

Before you send your next follow-up, pause for a second and ask yourself one simple question:

Is this message helping the prospect make a decision, or am I sending it because my CRM says it's time?

If the answer is the second one, don't hit send yet.

Make it more valuable.

Make it more personal.

Most importantly, make it matter.