Today’s multifamily residents expect faster follow-through, proactive updates, clearer pricing, and an overall experience that feels easy and consistent, according to Alexis Vance, RPM Living’s chief experience officer.
“From a customer experience (CX) perspective, we’ve seen that residents are much less tolerant of friction. The experience itself can matter just as much as the outcome,” she says.
Vance leads the full resident and team experience, spanning marketing, revenue management, and learning/development, at RPM Living, one of the nation’s largest vertically integrated multifamily management and investment firms. The company footprint spans over 25 states, with corporate offices in Atlanta; Austin, Texas; and Phoenix. RPM Living ranks No. 4 on the National Multifamily Housing Council’s top apartment managers list this year, with 241,479 units under management as of Jan. 1.
Vance shares with Multifamily Executive how RPM Living is approaching resident and employee experience in tandem—and why reducing friction, strengthening communication, and balancing automation with human connection have become critical to performance.
You lead both the resident experience and the team experience. How do you define “experience” at RPM Living, and how do you balance the experiences for residents and employees?
The balance comes from recognizing that resident experience and employee experience are deeply connected—neither succeeds at the expense of the other. The goal is to create an environment where teams are equipped, empowered, and aligned to consistently deliver exceptional experiences.
At RPM, we see this as a connected ecosystem. Resident experience rarely exceeds employee experience for long. We learned quickly that when teams feel overwhelmed, unsupported, or unclear on expectations, it inevitably shows up in the customer experience.
That’s why we focus on creating consistency and clarity on both sides of the experience:
- Equipping teams with the tools and autonomy to serve residents well;
- Reducing friction for both employees and customers;
- Setting clear expectations while maintaining accountability; and
- Listening to employees with the same intentionality that we listen to residents.
When those things are aligned, you create a culture where exceptional resident experiences and rewarding employee experiences reinforce one another.
What are the biggest forces shaping the multifamily resident experience today, and which of those do you think leaders still underestimate?
One of the most important dynamics shaping resident experience today is that customer expectations are increasingly being formed outside of our industry. Residents, prospects, and even clients are comparing us to the best experiences they have anywhere. With the level of automation and ease consumers have through brands like Amazon and Uber, speed, simplicity, and convenience have become the baseline expectation.
I think what leaders still underestimate is how intentional we need to be about balancing technology with authentic human connection. Right now, in multifamily especially, human interaction still matters greatly because housing is personal. Technology should support the experience and wrap around it. At the same time, digital experiences will—and should—continue to evolve and expand as customer expectations change. The opportunity is understanding where automation enhances the experience, where human connection adds the most value, and how to transition thoughtfully between the two. The goal is not preserving human interaction for its own sake, but delivering the best possible experience for the customer, regardless of channel.
How do you tie experience initiatives to outcomes that owners and operators care about—such as retention, pricing power, and operational efficiency?
At RPM, customer experience and operational performance are not viewed as separate conversations because they directly influence one another. We focus not only on measuring the experience itself, but also the downstream impact that experience has on operational KPIs [key performance indicators]. Core experience indicators like satisfaction, sentiment, responsiveness, and feedback patterns are connected back to business outcomes such as renewals, operational efficiency, reputation, and pricing power. This is where adoption truly accelerated across both our teams and clients because customer experience was no longer viewed as a “soft” initiative, but as a measurable driver of operational performance, resident loyalty, and long-term asset value.
From a marketing perspective, what changes have you seen in how renters evaluate value and trust when choosing—and renewing—an apartment?
Renters today see value through both a financial and experiential lens, looking beyond pricing and amenities alone. Community reputation (yes, this really matters!), quality of communication, and follow-through all play a significant role in both leasing and renewal decisions. Getting these fundamentals right is no longer a differentiator but a baseline expectation.
We see this reflected throughout the customer journey. Online reviews and reputation have become major drivers in leasing decisions, while resident feedback and renewal behavior consistently reinforce the importance of communication, maintenance follow-through, and overall ease of doing business.
Revenue management can sometimes clash with the customer experience. How do you balance pricing strategy with resident perception and long-term loyalty?
I don’t fully subscribe to the idea that revenue management and customer experience have to be at odds with one another. When done well, they can work hand in hand. Revenue management is incredibly important to the health of the business, but long-term performance also depends on consistent, strong CX. Where challenges tend to happen is when the pricing strategy gets disconnected from the resident experience. If operational follow-through, maintenance, communication, or service quality are struggling, even reasonable pricing decisions feel frustrating to residents. The strongest operators understand that pricing doesn’t exist separately from experience—residents evaluate value through the lens of the experience they’re having every day. In many ways, a strong resident experience actually strengthens pricing power over time because people are ultimately more willing to stay where they feel valued and supported.
On the team side, what skills or behaviors are most critical for on-site teams to deliver a strong experience in today’s operating environment?
One of the most important skills today is the ability to create genuine human connection in an environment that is becoming increasingly digital and fast-paced. We believe technology and automation absolutely have a place, but we also know that residents still want to feel heard and cared for. Especially when something goes wrong (service recovery is a big part of our CX program). The on-site teams that create the strongest experiences are the ones that combine operational excellence with empathy and authenticity.
Beyond technical skills, behaviors like proactive communication, accountability, and emotional intelligence have become incredibly important. These are all areas our CX program focuses and builds on with our associates. Residents want transparency and responsiveness, but they also want to feel like they’re interacting with people who genuinely care.
We see this and hear this directly from our residents. It was critical that when we launched the CX program, we launched our listening program alongside it. We knew that if we were truly going to build an experience-led organization, we couldn’t rely on assumptions alone—we needed a consistent way to hear directly from our residents and understand what they were actually experiencing across the customer journey.
What role does training and learning development play in creating consistency across a large, geographically diverse portfolio?
Our Learning & Development team is truly at the heart of our CX program and plays a critical role in creating consistency across the portfolio. They help translate expectations, service standards, and core values into everyday behaviors and operational execution. They serve a strong connective tissue between operations and support. This team not only identifies opportunities and gaps but also helps communicate those insights across the organization to improve performance and the CX program itself. Most important from an associate experience perspective, our teams genuinely value the support—they tell us it provides clarity, confidence, and practical tools that help them succeed.
RPM is going through significant growth and transformation, which makes Learning & Development efforts even more important right now. New technologies, changing resident expectations, operational shifts, and staffing transitions all create variability if teams are not consistently supported and aligned. Hands-on coaching and reinforcement help ensure the resident experience is not dependent on individuals or markets but instead scales more consistently across the organization.
Technology is often positioned as the answer to experience challenges. How do you decide what to automate versus what must stay human?
The key is making sure we use technology to enhance the experience, not replace the human connection. For us, the decision often comes down to understanding where speed, simplicity, and automation improve the journey versus where empathy and human judgment matter most. Equally important is continuously testing and evolving those assumptions based on resident feedback, operational insights, and team experience—which is exactly where our listening program provides tremendous value and visibility.
We have a dedicated team focused on mapping both the customer and associate journey. That work is incredibly important because it helps us understand where technology genuinely removes friction and improves the experience and where a human interaction needs to occur. Things like scheduling, self-service tools, status updates, payment workflows, and routine communication can be automated effectively because residents increasingly expect convenience and immediacy in those moments.
But when someone is frustrated, navigating a more complex issue, human interaction becomes incredibly important. Our industry continues to introduce powerful artificial intelligence and automation tools, which makes it even more critical that we stay deeply involved in the details of how those experiences are designed. One of the biggest focus areas for us is ensuring the transition between technology and human support feels seamless—residents should never feel trapped by automation, forced to repeat themselves, or unsure how to get help when they need it most.
We also think carefully about the associate experience when evaluating technology. The best solutions remove repetitive tasks, reduce operational friction, and create clarity for on-site teams so they can spend more time building solving problems and creating meaningful interactions with residents. Ultimately, the goal is balance—using technology to create efficiency and scalability while preserving authenticity and personal connection that build the best customer experience and loyalty.
Looking ahead, what is the single biggest opportunity for multifamily operators to elevate both resident and team experience over the next 12 months?
There are significant opportunities for our industry to simplify the experience for both residents and on-site teams. Elevating the customer experience does not necessarily require large teams or overly sophisticated systems (especially ones that do not integrate or seamlessly work together). The most meaningful improvements come from creating a more connected and frictionless experience—one where communication is proactive and residents feel supported throughout their journey. At the end of the day, the fundamentals still matter most—authenticity, responsiveness, empathy, and ease of doing business. Technology can absolutely help enable and scale those efforts, but the real opportunity is using it to support CX while preserving the genuine human connection that residents and associates still value deeply.