Great – and Ever-Rising – Expectations

Keeping up with buyer expectations for building services is not easy in today’s New York co-op and condo world, where the luxury bar keeps rising along with the price tags on apartments. Buyers paying to live in a first-class luxury building expect a white-glove level of service. But building staffs who don’t have a hospitality background may fall short without the proper training.

“I can’t tell you how many new buildings we’ve gone into where they’re looking to increase the level of service of staff members,” says Michael Berenson, the president of AKAM Associates, which manages about 180 buildings. “Expectations are higher for a hospitality level of staffing.”

AKAM works with the front staff in its buildings to help them polish their approach to doing everything from answering the phone to greeting residents, tending to packages, and hailing a cab.

“We do very thorough, comprehensive training sessions with the staff members to make sure they understand their job responsibilities,” using employees who are experts in hospitality-level service, Berenson said. “The training goes from role playing to group sessions to job shadowing.”

Some management companies bring in trainers from the 32BJ SEIU’s Training Fund to upgrade staff skills. The fund has done about 60 onsite courses over the last two years in such areas as professionalism in the workplace, doorman skills, and supervisory skills, as well as disaster prep and security awareness, according to James Barry, the manager of program development for the fund.

Full-service buildings that are upgrading their technology to meet new buyers’ expectations often have to train front desk staff in how to use property management software like BuildingLink or Verizon Concierge. “When a letter or a package comes in, the door staff has to post it online,” says David Goodman, the director of Mitchell-Lama development with Tudor Realty Services. “Many times that has to be taught.”

But customer service isn’t the only area where staff may need some skills upgrades these days. Buyers want to feel like they’re getting their money’s worth, and that means wanting their building to sparkle every day, whether it’s brand new or a century old.

“A lot of our buildings are redoing their lobbies and hallways, and you need a high level of maintenance for those higher-end materials,” said Steven Hirsch, the senior vice president of property management in charge of Manhattan co-ops and condos for FirstService Residential.

FirstService hires professionals to train staff in how to maintain certain marbles, stones, woods and metals, either onsite or in the company’s learning center. Even if a building plans to have professional cleaning services come in periodically, “higher-end finishes need to be maintained properly in between or you can ruin them,” Hirsch said.

Buildings that don’t refresh their interiors can’t expect the staff to work miracles, however. In older buildings, staff may wrongly be blamed for not keeping the building pristine when the real problem is the dated interiors, notes Ellen Kornfeld, vice president at The Lovett Group.

“The staff could clean or dust, but they’re not going to be coating the elevator buttons with the lacquer that they might need,” she said. “You might think it looks dirty because it’s tired looking, but tired doesn’t mean dirty.”

To her mind, “people are more complaining than they used to be.” Why? “Because there are expectations around the price they paid.”