Griffis Residential
Griffis Residential on-site teams take back valuable hours spent on package management and allocate time back into the resident experience
Two years ago, Griffis Residential knew it had a package problem. The feedback that the multifamily operator was receiving via resident surveys, online reviews and internal message boards clearly indicated that residents weren’t satisfied with the company’s package management.
“We recognized from the customer experience that residents weren’t getting what they need,” said Jami Pichot, Vice President of Operations for Griffis Residential. “When it came down to it, we controlled their world when it came to packages. They were at our mercy and the hours that we operate our business, and they were telling us that our business hours shouldn’t dictate when they get their deliveries. When the office closes at 6 p.m. and the resident doesn’t get home from work until 6:05 p.m., it’s frustrating to know that the package is 10 feet away behind a locked door and they can’t get it.”
The inability to resolve residents’ package concerns due to the inherent limitations of the storage space and package locker systems that were in place was a concern. But the frustration for Griffis’ on-site teams also stemmed from the fact that they already spent an inordinate amount of time on package management during business hours.
“We value our teams’ time, and we want to be able to quantify it,” Pichot said. “Is it a good use of their time to be package runners for an average of two hours a day, every single day? The amount of time that package management had taken away from our on-site teams had been on our mind for years. We knew this problem was just going to continue to get worse.”
With package volume steadily increasing, Griffis also knew that its existing package system wasn’t sustainable.
“Going into the very first package locker system we installed, we knew that it was never going to be enough,” Pichot said. “It was a very temporary solution.”
Part of the reason Griffis stayed with package lockers for as long as it did was an apprehension over entrusting a third party with direct customer interactions.
“The debate we had was, ‘How do we allow another company to represent us and our service?’ Trusting a vendor or someone outside of our company to represent us is something that we don’t take lightly,” Pichot said. “That service has to be an extension of us.”
As Griffis began to explore alternative package solutions in 2019, Pichot toured a Denver apartment community known to use Fetch as its package management service. She toured with a leasing consultant who was also a resident of the community, and during the tour got a first-hand view into the package delivery experience and customer service Fetch offers.
“As we were touring the property and discussing the amenities, the leasing consultant said, ‘I want to show you my phone, because I have a package coming from my sister that’s a pretty big deal.’ She talked about Fetch as naturally as she would a pool or a spa,” said Pichot, who was impressed with the personalized service Fetch provided. “When you get to see a resident interact with a service in the moment, that counts for a lot. That boots-on-the-ground experience was important. Her confidence in this amenity was a reason to lease, and I didn’t see, feel or hear that with any other package solution.”
Griffis has since deployed Fetch at 19 of its 23 communities, from Seattle to Austin, Texas. Pichot said the onboarding process felt like a true partnership, and Fetch’s communication and troubleshooting assistance has been invaluable.
“With Fetch, confidence is built from Day 1, and that doesn’t change throughout the relationship,” she said.
Fetch was an immediate hit with on-site associates.
“Our teams were a bit bitter about the pandemic, because they weren’t able to do a happy hour and toast the fact that they don’t have to deal with packages anymore,” Pichot said. “I hear about Fetch every time I go on site. They love that package management is not their burden to carry anymore.”
It wasn’t just popular with office teams. At one Griffis community in Seattle, the service team had to form a package fort in a back-office space, just to allow the team to move throughout the office amid the overflowing packages.
“That service team had no more space to hold packages, so they had to start delivering them themselves,” Pichot said. “Every package they delivered took away 15 minutes of time, and eventually that adds up to the point that they can’t do a make-ready and they can’t walk the grounds. They were so grateful and thankful that, with Fetch, they didn’t have to do that anymore and that they could reprioritize their time.”
With Fetch in place, Griffis teams were able to redirect that recouped time and bring a renewed focus to community brand standards and the customer experience. Prior to a new resident’s move-in date, on-site associates now have the time to conduct a two-person verification that everything is in order, move-in gift baskets are delivered and thermostats are preset.
The attention to detail has paid dividends. In the past year and a half with package management turned over to Fetch, Griffis has experienced the highest move-in experience survey score that it has seen since they started tracking the survey. Average scores went from an already impressive 4.7 to a 4.85 satisfaction rating.
Those are results that Griffis can present to investors, Pichot said.
“There are a lot of investors and owners who are more driven by cost than the customer experience. We do the opposite,” Pichot said.
Happy investors are a direct benefit of the Fetch package service, Pichot said, but it also achieved the main objective, which was addressing a source of resident concern with a sustainable solution.
“The time that is bought back for teams through Fetch impacts business in a positive way,” Pichot said. “The cherry on top is that customers will appreciate their management teams for it, because it puts them back in control of their packages.”
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