In this interview excerpt, Peter Lohmann asks for practical tips to reduce churn among property‑management operators. The interviewee (Speaker B) describes two core tactics. First, they maintain an “at‑risk” list: whenever a team member senses a bad interaction or an owner expresses concern, the owner is flagged so the whole team can prioritize improving that relationship. Second, they offer owners a portfolio switch—teams are organized by color (purple, red, blue) and an unhappy owner can be moved to a different team that better fits their personality, effectively providing an off‑ramp rather than a refund or apology. This team‑switch approach reportedly salvages about 60 % of owners who were considering termination. Peter highlights this as a major takeaway, emphasizing how acknowledging owner pain and giving a concrete alternative can prevent churn.
What are some maybe like couple tips for operators who want to keep their churn down?
We have a list, it's called at risk. And so anytime one of our team members feels like they have a bad interaction that an owner expresses concern, we put them on that list and that way we give them extra emphasis to making sure that we're trying to give them a good experience. And so everybody's aware that, you know, Jane Smith is unhappy right now. We need to like really step it up. And then we also give our clients the opportunity to switch portfolios. So our portfolios are named colors. So we have purple, red, and blue. If they're just having a really bad time with Ryan on red, then I'll suggest, well, hey, you know, we can always do a team switch. So-and-so has been here for this many years, blah, blah, blah. I think you guys would be a personality fit. And then we'll move them over there. And we can usually save about 60% of unhappy people when we do that.
Wow. That is huge. This might be my top takeaway here because I can totally see a property owner who's had a frustrating experience, whether it's took too long to lease or, you know, tenant eviction, whatever, whatever, whatever. The owner being like, because I feel like what owners, what goes on in their head is like they get this idea that I need to do something. And so that prompts them to have these conversations about terminating. And if, but you're basically, you're kind of giving them an out. You're giving them like an off-ramp of like, you're acknowledging the pain was significant for them and you're offering not just a refund and not just an apology, but hey, let's actually just move you over to somebody else. And because that's almost like getting a new property management company in their mind.
Yep, exactly. The team is totally different, different personalities. So yeah, we find that's pretty successful.
