By Smart Girl Makita
How to deal with a hostile resident in the leasing office
Whether you are a permanent employee in a leasing office or you are temporarily staffing, at some point you will be faced with a situation where an angry, hostile resident has a problem and wants everyone to know how angry they are. There are a number of ways to calm down a hostile situation in a business setting, here are a few of my tips; most leasing offices are busy year-round however in the leasing season, which are the summer warmer months through the year, the foot traffic can be busy. You should always be aware of your surroundings. In the leasing office should you see someone’s body language present with aggressive tendencies when entering the office, try to stand up and approach this person with eye contact sending a kind I can help you attitude. This will make the person feel like they can take a deep breath and calm down because someone is listening to their concerns. Always listen and try to get to the bottom of the issues. If this should occur, try understanding that what if you were in their shoes, how would feel. Most of the time this approach will handle most hostile situations however here are a few more tips if you encounter a more aggressive resident you can’t calm down.
- After you tried to talk calm and help a hostile resident and they still are very verbally abusive you should try to contain yourself and keep your professionalism. Ask the resident to leave the leasing office and note that resident’s file and notify upper management of this abuse. You want to document everything if at any point the resident becomes physical then call the police asap. because should this become a pattern you have a record on file and the eviction removal process will be easier to obtain.
You can’t control what other people will say or do however as long as you keep an open mind about why that resident is mad and have understanding about their housing emergency, most of the time they will see you care about them, not just collecting rent money. This customer service experience helps resident retention, it’s no brainer.
