Headed into the National Association of Residential Property Managers (NARPM) Broker/Owner conference, Super conducted a research study on the phone responsiveness of the collective set of companies attending.
We randomly sampled 100 companies that are not existing Super customers and called their main phone lines to secret shop the leasing lead experience. Our goal: see if we could get to a leasing agent.
The results should be an eye-opening warning for any property management company heading into leasing busy season.
Called back. Just one company followed up on our missed call.
Missed the call. Over half of companies never answered.
Companies forced users through a phone tree. These were also the lowest performers.
More than half of companies we called during standard business hours — 9am to 5pm local time, Monday through Friday — simply didn't answer. When we did get through, the experience was rarely good. Sixty percent of companies pushed us into an IVR phone tree, and of those, only 20% actually routed us to a live person.
The calls that did connect weren't much better. Thirty-six percent of answered calls ended at an offshore call center whose agents couldn't field basic leasing questions. Seventy-nine percent of unanswered calls sent us to voicemail; the remaining 21% left us on hold until we eventually hung up.
And the follow-up? Of every missed call we left, just one company — 1% — called us back.
When a hot lead is in front of you, be the first to answer. Only 3% of the companies we called answered on the first ring.
The actual outcomes from our calls were often shocking. It ranged from poorly trained staff responses to unexpected office closures, to discouragement of using the phone. A few examples:
- Multiple calls to offices between 2-3pm on a Thursday: "The office is closed, please leave a voicemail."
- A 5-day follow-up expectation: "Leasing questions are best answered by email. Voicemails can take up to 5 days for response."
- Call center agent told us that "the entire office is out sick today."
- 36% of answered calls landed at offshore call centers that couldn't answer basic leasing questions — leaving us with no resolution.
Busy season is here. Prospective renters are calling multiple properties at once, and the first company to answer — and actually help — wins the lead. In a slow leasing environment, you have to capture every lead, and the one that is calling you is a hot prospect. What are you telegraphing about what it will be like to be a client when you tell them you'll take 5 days to respond to them in the sales phase?
The silver lining: Your competitors also aren't answering. That's the opportunity.
Super is the AI voice platform built specifically for property management. We handle inbound calls and callbacks 24/7, so every lead gets a real response — not a phone tree, not a voicemail, not a five-day wait. Ready to get started? Book a demo.
