Service Process Design

For the service product bundle there are three separate elements that comprise it. For Home Properties we have identified all three elements. The tangible, explicit, service that Home Properties provide are the leasing agreements and maintenance services provided by the company. The physical, facilitating, goods provided are the apartments for rent. The psychological, implicit service provided is the tenants term in the apartment and how the feel maintenance issues and overall environment of the leased apartment.
The cell that Home Properties operates in is the co-routed cell. In this range, it is standard but offers a moderate number of choices to the potential apartment renters or buyers. They can select number of bedrooms, if they prefer to have hardwood or carpet flooring, whether they want a washer/ dryer in their apartment and many other amenities to customize their apartment to their own uniqueness. However, the apartments still only offer only so many choices and most elements are predetermined.
Overall, the company provides high contact “front room” to their customers. Home Properties offers a 24/7 online ordering of apartment services and a 24 hour contact center should any problems arise. There is a web-site for residents to go on so they can give their feedback and see frequently asked questions answered. They are with you when you are signing agreements after they show you multiple apartments for rent. They are working their way through technology to increase customer satisfaction all through internet based services. They provide a self-service virtual tour around the apartments. Also, they are working on a virtual lease agreement through a secure web site. Rent payments also can be paid through Pay Pal another internet service.
Home Properties uses a lot of self-service technology to make things convenient for its customers. They have online rent and utility paying, offer virtual tours, floor plans, and you can find a price range that fits your needs; so you don’t even have to leave your computer to go apartment shopping. The site also allows you to put a hold on an apartment you are interested in. You can also post classified ads for free on the company web site. Residents can also to check for updates to their community on the events bulletin board, they can check the current weather forecast, and neighborhood information. All these services are available in English and Spanish as well. As you can see Technology plays a major part in how Home Properties runs things. Basically everything you can imagine is done online through the computer.
In their company focused operations gears to a low volume and a high volume of different elements. This is two different missions being mixed in operations. Actually, Home Properties does not use focused technology. As we said before they use more of a batch process where as using a focused operations would not be beneficial for their firm. If you use focus operations with this company you could easily lose sight of the service aspect of providing exceptional customer service. Some types of focus could be product, process type, technology, volume of sales, make to stock/make to order and new products and mature products. Home Properties, again, mainly focuses their concentration on service operations because combing factors when renting homes to individuals can be a costly and singular occurrence with not many times of purchase. Moreover, using service operations that focuses on assigning different types of services to the different apartment complexes would be more beneficial.
Home Properties puts high value in their employees and proves that in many ways. On major example of this is they have an employee hall of fame it is a place where they honor loyal employees and recognize their service. You can find this hall of fame on their web site. On the web site you’ll find pictures of dedicated men and women who have devoted ten or more years to Home Properties or to a company acquired by Home Properties. Home Properties offers many benefits with the job. Some of the benefits being medical and dental coverage were all full-time regular employees that work a minimum of 30 hours per week are eligible. Plus Home Properties contributes to the cost of the employee's group medical plan, and dental plan. Employees are eligible for vacation, and begin accruing vacation time as of their hire date. All employees are given ten holidays per year. They are also offered paid time off up to four days per calendar year. Home Properties offers a 401(k) plan, employees eligible for the employer match will receive $.75 for every $1.00 they contribute to the 401(k) plan, up to 3% of gross pay. Employees are offered life insurance and the cost of this insurance is paid entirely by the company. Another perk to being an employee is they receive apartment rental discounts of 15% off the base market rental rate. Home Properties offers an employee stock purchase program which allows employees to purchase Home Properties common stock through payroll deduction or optional cash payments. And lastly, Home Properties has a flexible spending plan for full-time employees. The plan allows employees to set aside pre-tax dollars to pay for non-reimbursed medical or dental charges and/or dependent care assistance. These are the many ways Home Properties gives compensation for their employee’s performance on the job.
Service Recovery is when something goes wrong during the delivery of the service and the actions necessary to compensate and restore the service requested. There is a possibility of this happening with Home Properties if say for instance a potential customer does not qualify for a loan mortgage if they are interested in buying an apartment. You go through all the paperwork when buying a home and then when you are waiting for the approval for the mortgage, the customer is not approved and therefore your service is halted. This is an example of service recovery. Home Properties would recover from this by offering the client more mortgage companies to choose from and help them to find loans best in their budget and income range. Things can also go wrong with peoples apartments things may break and Home Properties is ready for this by having a 24 hour on call center to help you with an problems that may occur any time of day or night.
The type of guarantee Home Properties offers is their pledge (To view Home Properties video pledge- See Side Panel for more details). It shows how they reinforce their commitment to quality and customer service. If they fail to live up to your expectations described in the pledge then they will refund your rent for a day. Home Properties also tries to appeal to senior their residents, which is a growing segment of their population. They do this by featuring community centers, with programs and activities organized by and for the benefit of retired residents. Home Properties has proven customer loyalty. This is demonstrated by low resident turnover. In 2006, resident turnover averaged only 45%—well below the national average of 60%. Another aspect of our guarentee system would be that you recieve your rent back if the customers are not completely satisfied.

Process Design

Primarily, Home Properties uses a line product flow with their properties. With the economy of scale theory they can essentially remodel more apartments, houses and townhouses at a cheaper cost. However, each specific property can be classified as a Project process flow. Every employee put lot of effort behind each and every home.
Most times it is for individual or a family. For example, if the family is looking to rent or purchase a home or an apartment the customer order process would be M.T.O. (Make to Order). Home Properties can tailor homes and apartments which can accommodate individual’s needs.
Prospects and other companies that have come to Home Properties and want to rent a number of homes from the community, for this customer order they would used an A.T.O. (Assemble to Order) process. There are more individual orders than the corporate orders. So the Make to Order process is what they adhere to.
This company falls into batch / job shop category and Make-to-order slot on the process characteristics matrix. Every custom request is attended regarding their preference. Customers can choose from multiple characteristics for their house e.g. Number of bedrooms, kinds of facilities available, location, appliances, etc. The apartments, homes and the town houses are then rented according to individual specifications.
Primary factors influencing process selection are market condition, consumer base, and competition. The company's properties are primarily located in developed areas where there are other multi-family properties which directly compete for residents. There is also competition from single family homes and condominiums for sale or rent. The competitive environment may have a detrimental effect on the Company’s ability to lease apartments at existing and at newly developed properties, as well as on rental rates.
The Company should position itself to compete effectively for both residents and properties as a result of it’s focus on service and resident satisfaction. Using high variety at a high volume would be ideal. However, in today’s economy a mass customization method would not be feasible. However, if the market has a turn around within the next couple of months or even years, this tactic will be to their advantage because in many communities located in Central Jersey they do not provide such incentives. This differentiates the company from its competitors both for residents and properties.
They can also do corporate rentals. This will increase long term relationships with other companies. By doing corporate rentals the company doesn’t have to find the traffic to rent the vacant apartments, they will save in advertising cost and time. Corporate Companies are interested in more than one rental at a time, therefore; the mass customization method would be ideal in this situation.

Inventory Management

Home Properties have recently done some repositioning investments of areas including landscaping, signage, and common areas due to increased curb appeal and marketability of the property. Since Home Properties is a service industry the inventory can be based on renovations of properties.

An inventory system to use would be the Q system, continuous review system or you could also use the more practical system if J.I.T. inventory (Just in Time Inventory). Every time a tenant moves out a new inventory is ordered. Some of these inventory items include apartment interiors.

Apartment interiors are renovated when tenants move out. These renovations include top of the line improvements. Some of these improvements include dated kitchen and bathrooms including new appliances, floorings, counters, cabinets, lighting, tiles, fixtures, sinks, bathtubs and toilets.

It may include the removal of kitchen walls to open up the living area. A typical interior upgrade also includes repainting, new carpeting and the addition of six-panel doors. Where feasible, we will add in-unit washers and dryers which bring a high return on investment. A typical apartment makeover takes approximately two weeks to complete which minimizes loss of rental income.

Home Properties has decisions to make on which appropriate inventory system to use. A lot of this choice is based on timing of renovations, type of record keeping, and cost. High service levels require high investment levels for a given order quantity and deviation. Management decisions should be made after careful study in turnover between tenants and new and recent renovations. Updating to the newest level of inventory can be costly. Therefore; management decisions should be carefully anazlyed when placing orders.