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“Tis the season” is a phrase historically associated with fond childhood memories of sweet treats, gifts, and time with loved ones. But lately, it has been associated with onsite managers sighing as they deal with overcrowded package rooms, unhappy residents, and damaged online reputations. Most people in multifamily understand that COVID forever changed how apartment communities would have to handle packages. It does not take a rocket scientist to ascertain that package volume would likely go up with people home more, but this was unprecedented- volume went up exponentially seemingly overnight.
According to Contimod, the average American received 64 packages in 2022, a number that was up about 40% in comparison to 2019. But that was not the only challenge multifamily was then left to deal with. Packages also began getting stolen at unprecedented rates, resulting in 25% of Americans reporting that they have been a victim of package theft at some point (according to Security.org). This is incredibly relevant to our industry. Security.org found that “Apartment dwellers experience package theft at double the rate of those who live in homes,” leading to inferences that our facilities and processes are contributing to the problem. Your residents would likely agree with these inferences. They go on to say that 87% of Americans are concerned about package theft during the holiday season.
As the purveyors of multifamily communities, it is our job to both solve this influx and help protect our residents against theft. We cannot have a hands-off approach because residents will be quick to blame us for package issues. Today, we will be looking at the impact package mishaps have on your online reputation and provide some guidance about what drives residents to leave a negative review.
Do Package Issues Cause 1-Stars?
In general, Packages & Mail can be somewhat of a damaging operational area to your online reputation. Over the last 12 months, the average review that features a complaint about Packages & Mail has scored a 2.01 star rating. This ranks as the 7th most sensitive category (of the 22) to negative feedback. In other words, residents do not tend to be super forgiving with their star rating and review if they have had package issues. This confirms that while it is not quite as make or break as Customer Service or Communication, nor as penal as an issue with something like Pests, it does deserve our full attention, especially when package volume is up during the holiday season.
With that statistic in mind, it begs the question about the size of the problem- how often are these complaints about Packages & Mail appearing, has it gotten worse since COVID, and are we doing better as of late?
How Big is The Package Problem?
To answer it succinctly, it is a relatively minor problem in the grand scheme of things. We looked at a sample of about 1,872,525 reviews going all the way back to 2003 and only 1.43% of reviews had a complaint about packages. So, for starters, take a deep breath. But refocus- there is a little more to the story that deserves your attention:
Package Issues are on the Rise: Package complaints have gone up by 50.9% since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic (March 2020).- Pre-COVID, Packages & Mail was mentioned negatively in 1.09% of reviews
- Since COVID, Packages & Mail complaints are featured in 1.64% of reviews
- 2023 was the worst year on file, clocking in at a 1.97% complaint rate
- Holiday months have performed worse than the rest of the year in each of the last 10 years
- Each of the last 2 years have seen complaint rates top 2.10% during the holidays
The Influxes are no Longer Limited to Just Holidays: According to Amazon, the last two years have set record highs for sales on Amazon Prime Day. Complaints have spiked considerably in each of the last few July’s (Prime Day is July 15th).
When Properties Struggle, They Get Torched: while the industry-wide percentages shared are relatively low in comparison to other categories, it should not mitigate the magnitude of a potential operational issue.
- 11.3% of properties have at least 5% of their reviews negatively mention Packages & Mail
- 3.9% of properties have at least 10% of their reviews negatively mention Packages & Mail
- 2.6% of properties have had at least 10 complaints about Packages & Mail in the last 12 months
- 1 property in our analysis had had 53 complaints about Packages & Mail in the last 12 months
What are People Complaining About?
A lot of the complaints boil down to residents not being able to find their package and not receiving empathy or good communication from the staff when issues do arise. Most residents may not understand the property’s storage limitations, package volume, or processes for receiving packages, thus they are quick to point the finger to the onsite team if a package is missing or perceived as being stolen. There are many reviews that even complain about delays in getting packages. While part of that can seem unfair to us in property management, we must acknowledge that we do have some control and are obligated to produce solutions. We can implement better processes of handling packages coming in, notifying residents of package arrival, and, most importantly, training our teams to be as helpful as possible if a resident is frustrated. 47.3% of the properties in our analysis have received 0 complaints about Packages & Mail over the last 12 months. Success is undoubtedly possible.
In Conclusion
As you get ready for the holiday season, it is a great time to have your teams on guard. The packages are coming whether we like it or not, so we need to be prepared. Start with transparent communication: do residents understand how many packages you are forecasted to get this holiday season? Communicating with your residents that facilities will be stretched can elicit empathy and motivate residents to pick their packages up quicker. A lot of times, making it a communal effort to solve the problem means just as much as fixing it yourself.
Additionally, I would personally recommend in-unit package drop offs (up to a certain number each day based on how much excess volume you forecast). Doing something like offering daily runs to place packages in residents’ units solves both the theft and volume issue. While it may seem like a burden on your team, it does protect your online reputation and show your residents a willingness to solve a community-wide issue. You cannot build a new package room overnight or always invest in a brand-new locker system, but you can talk to your staff about updated processes to service residents who may not be able to pick up their packages right as they come in.
Lastly, be careful which vendors you use. There are services out there that we have objectively seen hurt properties’ online reputations because the “solution” creates a bigger problem.
Do your research, help your residents with a smile, and you will surely find yourself on Santa’s nice list.
ABOUT THIS BLOG:
The insights in this blog came from utilizing J Turner Research’s text categorization tool, Thought Analysis. Thought Analysis is a proprietary AI software that will objectively show you your operational strengths and weaknesses based on anything anyone has ever said about you online in reviews. What is being said is incredibly valuable because it is essentially the "why" behind your scores. Reviews are unprompted descriptions of why a resident is satisfied (left a high star rating) or dissatisfied (left a low star rating). This means that owners and operators can see what is being complimented and complained about as drivers of satisfaction/dissatisfaction.