Fifteen percent of those who switched to a competitor did so because they 'found a better product. . . Another 15 percent changed because they found a 'cheaper product' . . . Twenty percent high-tailed it because of the 'lack of contact and individual attention' . . . It seems fair to combine the last two categories, after which we could say 70 percent defected because they didn't like the human side of doing business with the previous product or service provider. One of the reasons those same landlords have so many crises is that they are either unaware or unwilling to accept the fact that they are in business and that tenants are customers.
Tenants act the same way that customers of other businesses do.
They move for the same reasons that customers stop doing business with other kinds of businesses. The statistics Tom Peters quotes ditto those in studies of the people who live in our rental properties. One recent study showed several pernicious tenant perceptions and attitudes. Most of those attitudes would be, if not avoided, at least lessened if landlords communicated with their tenants more effectively. They also compare how we treated them before they moved in with how we did after they became our customers.