Living Excellence

Our Brand Promise

We promise exemplary levels of customer service and good management, which can only come from an organization that listens to and understands the needs of each customer.

Living excellence is our commitment to deliver excellence at every point of contact, to ensure that our customers see excellence everywhere they look.

The Commitment

The Commitment is a guide for providing excellent customer service to our residents, coworkers and shareholders.

The Commitment is for all of us. It is about having the right attitude on the job. Whether it is a customer, coworker, or supervisor, demonstrating The Commitment ensures the delivery of great customer service to everyone. Your promise to practice The Commitment ensures we deliver on our brand promise - Living excellence.

Use your best judgment

• Take care of the customers. At Camden, we are either servicing the resident customer or we are servicing someone who is servicing the resident customer. If every employee is a customer service representative, then every employee should have the power to satisfy the customer.

• The customer is our first priority. The customer comes before everything else, including requests from the corporate or regional office and paperwork. We are here to service the customer and deliver excellence at every point of contact.

When the customer asks, find a way

• The moment a resident or coworker says, "Can you"…be prepared to say "yes", even if it's outside of the normal scope of work. Look for ways to deliver 'just one more thing' to the customer.

• Stretch. A resident needs a name of a veterinarian: find them one. A coworker needs help finishing a project: offer assistance. Help the customer - whether resident or coworker.

Be courteous

• Polite is better. Using good manners in the work place, saying "please" and "thank you", is more efficient, effective and it makes everyone feel better.

• Make the extra effort. Do the little things. Say "hello" to people, hold doors for people and help them carry packages to their home or office.

Lasting first impressions

• Everything must be clean and neat. The office should be cleaned daily. The restrooms should always be kept clean, and models and make-ready apartments should be dust free, smelling fresh and in move-in condition.

• We represent the company. Dress in attire suitable to the position. When required to wear a uniform, wear it with pride. Keep it clean and well maintained. And, always wear a nametag.

Around the clock service

• Good service is more than 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. If we're going to deliver good service, we have to do it around the clock 7 days a week, 365 days a year.

• One call should do it all. Make it easy for our customers to get that service. Follow-up with voice mail messages within 24 hours, forward the requests to the right people and then call the customer to ensure that they were taken care of - don't make the customer call back.

Under promise, over deliver

• Build a cushion. When estimating the completion of an assignment, estimate high - tell the customer that the job will take a little longer than anticipated. Doing this ensure that the job will be completed within the time frame, and we've built in a safety factor in case it takes longer than normal.

• Take care of some extras if possible. When servicing a resident's home, look around for "one more thing" to take care of - a leaky faucet, a loose doorknob - go the extra mile.

Ask for complaints

• Make it easy for customers to complain. It may be unpleasant, but at least we have an opportunity to correct the mistake.

• When something goes wrong, apologize to the customer. Apologizing is the first step to resolving the problem.

• Even customers have a bad day. If our customers get frustrated or angry, don't take it personally. Go out of the way to make them feel comfortable about coming back to see us.

Use our procedures and processes

• Read and review the Camden Manuals. Use the procedures that are described in the manuals to perform the functions on the job. They represent "best practices" and, if used consistently, help ensure customer satisfaction.

• Look for opportunities to improve. Examine every step taken in delivering the apartment home and the service, and identify areas that need improvement. Then figure out ways to work more effectively.

• Identify all mistakes. Log every single job that is not done right the first time. When notified, fix the problem. Then find out how the problem occurred in the first place.

• Hold team meetings weekly…this is the time to talk about problems and recognize our successes. These meetings should include the whole team, so that everyone hears the goals, contributes to achieving the goals and participates in the success.

Keep them year after year

• Ask customers what they want. All customers, residents and co-workers alike, are more than willing to tell us how we can improve our service. Take time to ask what can be done to make their home or their working environment more comfortable.

• We make it easy for them to tell us. Use our Camden survey cards. The cards focus on the most important parts of our business from the customer's point of view. Participate in the Employee Opinion Survey: your opinion counts.

• Follow-up every service request with a phone call. If the customer isn't satisfied, the job isn't finished. We want to go back and fix it.