Customer Support
Making smart business decisions starts with reliable data. In multifamily, your competitive edge often comes down to how well you listen and respond to residents and prospects.
Text/SMS survey delivery — the process of sending resident satisfaction and prospect feedback surveys through text message — helps multifamily property managers increase response rates, gather more accurate resident feedback, and make data-driven decisions.
In a rapidly changing rental market, it’s not enough to send one email survey and hope for the best. Residents expect quick, convenient ways to share feedback on their phones and at their convenience. While email remains an important channel, adding text/SMS survey delivery gives you another reliable way to reach residents, boost completion, and hear from a broader cross-section of your community.
The bottom line is that residents increasingly expect flexibility and choice in how they communicate with you. Their preferences shift based on circumstances, demographics, and even the type of issues they’re dealing with.
By adding text/SMS messaging to your feedback loop, you can quickly capture more responses from residents who might otherwise stay silent. It’s not only a reliable form of communication. It also deepens your reach, grows engagement, and expands your insight.
Jump to A Section
- Top 3 Benefits of Adding Text/SMS Delivery to Your Survey Lineup
- How to Add Text/SMS Without Adding More Work
- FAQs About Multifamily Resident Satisfaction Surveys
Top 3 Benefits of Adding Text/SMS Delivery to Your Survey Lineup
1. Boosts Response Rates
Text/SMS is one of the most reliable ways to reach residents. Research* shows that as many as 90% of text messages are opened within just a few minutes of delivery, which means your survey invitations are far more likely to be seen, and seen quickly.
Higher response rates lead to a deeper data pool and more confidence in the story your data is telling. When you deliver multifamily resident satisfaction surveys by text, you’re not waiting around hoping someone opens an email days later; you’re capturing feedback while the experience is still fresh.
Just as important, residents like having options. When you combine email and text/SMS delivery, you increase the chances that each resident will respond through the channel that feels most natural to them. Over time, that flexibility becomes a competitive advantage: you’re making decisions based on a fuller picture than properties that rely on email alone.
💡Blog: 5 Proven Ways To Boost Your Survey Response Rates
2. Deepens Insights and Adds Control
Using text/SMS messaging to deliver surveys has quickly risen in popularity because it’s fast, convenient, and doesn’t interrupt residents the way a phone call can. You can reach out without worrying about whether someone is home, if they have voicemail set up, or if they’ll even pick up. And let’s be honest: most people screen (and seldom return) calls unless they initiate them.
Email also faces a few hurdles. Residents without an active email address are often left out of surveys altogether or miss invitations at the right stage in their journey. Even when addresses are valid, filters, firewalls, and cluttered inboxes can prevent messages from ever being seen.
Text/SMS survey delivery for property management helps fill those gaps and gives you more control over who receives surveys and when they receive them. Because you can deliver surveys to any prospect or resident in your CRM with a valid mobile number, not just those with active email addresses, you’re drawing feedback from a broader, more representative pool.
With text/SMS, it’s also easier to sync survey invitations with key moments along the rental journey and still respect timing rules and quiet hours. That means you can measure satisfaction more accurately, surface issues closer to when they happen, and act on concerns before they grow into bigger problems.
3. Broadens Appeal and Increases Engagement
One of the biggest advantages of adding text/SMS delivery is how naturally it fits into residents’ daily habits. They don’t have to remember to open a portal or dig up an email. Feedback opportunities simply show up where they’re already paying attention.
Recent research from SimpleTexting highlights just how heavily people rely on text:
- 82% of consumers check their text notifications within five minutes of receiving a message, and nearly a third do so within 60 seconds.
- 84% of consumers are opted in to receive texts from businesses, a 35% increase since 2021.
- 93% of consumers text every day, and nearly half (45%) check their text messages more than 10 times a day. Among Gen Z, more than a quarter check their texts over 20 times a day.
In other words, text/SMS isn’t a niche channel; it’s where your residents already are. By offering multifamily resident satisfaction surveys via text in addition to email, you align with how residents and prospects prefer to communicate, make it easier for them to participate, and signal that their feedback is worth meeting them where they are. Over time, that accessibility broadens your property’s appeal, increases engagement, and gives you a meaningful edge over communities that still rely on a single-channel approach.
How to Add Text/SMS Without Adding More Work
At this point, the case for including text/SMS in your survey mix is pretty clear. The real question is how to do it in a way that’s consistent, compliant, and easy for onsite teams and leaders to actually use.
That’s where Grace Hill comes in. Surveys in PerformanceHQ make it simple to add Text/SMS survey delivery alongside email, so you can reach more residents without creating more work for your teams. Text/SMS invitations are built into the same workflows you already use for your multifamily resident satisfaction surveys and prospect feedback.
By adding the Text/SMS survey delivery option through Surveys in PerformanceHQ, you can:
- Increase response rates across key touchpoints, from tours and move-ins to work orders and renewals.
- Deliver more surveys to more residents by reaching anyone with a valid mobile number, not just those with active email addresses.
- Receive response data faster, so teams can spot emerging issues and trends while experiences are still fresh.
- Capture both qualitative comments and quantitative ratings in one place, with roll-up results and drill-downs displayed directly in the PerformanceHQ portal.
💡Blog: The Key to Better Resident Satisfaction Survey Scores
FAQs About Multifamily Resident Satisfaction Surveys
You’ve got questions; we’ve got answers. Here are a few common questions about multifamily resident satisfaction surveys, specifically related to text/SMS delivery.
1. What are text/SMS resident surveys?
Text/SMS resident surveys are short, mobile-friendly notifications delivered directly to residents via text message. They typically include a link to a mobile-optimized survey, making it easy for residents to share quick, real-time feedback without logging into a portal or searching for an email.
2. What are the benefits of text/SMS survey delivery?
Text/SMS survey delivery reaches residents where they already spend most of their time: on their phones. It reduces friction by removing extra steps, increases convenience, and typically yields faster response times, higher completion rates, and more immediate insights compared to email alone.
3. How do text/SMS surveys improve response rates?
Because texts are opened quickly and require very little effort to act on, residents are more likely to respond. Text/SMS resident surveys cut through common barriers — like long emails, cluttered inboxes, or forgotten portal links — so more residents see the invitation and follow through.
4. Should property managers use text messaging for feedback?
Yes, as long as it’s used thoughtfully. Text messaging helps property managers collect timely, actionable insights while improving the resident experience. It provides a direct, personal communication channel, supports proactive service, and ensures issues can be addressed quickly.
5. Are there best practices for using text/SMS surveys?
Absolutely. Keep notifications short and mobile-friendly, send them at reasonable times, avoid over-messaging, and always honor residents’ communication preferences and opt-out requests. When SMS surveys are used with intention and respect, they strengthen trust instead of feeling intrusive.
Meet Residents Where They Are
Your residents’ preferences vary, and your survey options should too. Communities that pair email with text/SMS delivery don’t just get more responses, they get a richer, more representative picture of the resident experience.
If you’re ready to see what that could look like in your portfolio, Surveys in PerformanceHQ can help you add text/SMS survey delivery without adding more work for your teams. Talk to a Grace Hill expert to explore how SMS surveys can support higher satisfaction scores, better insights, and more confident decisions.
