Want employees to wow customers? Reward them for it.

Executives at Signature Community, a residential living property management company, know that rewarding employees based on customer-focused metrics will ultimately create satisfied residents.

Nick Jekogian, CEO and president of Signature Community, has developed an in-depth recognition and reward program that aims to motivate employees to provide residents with a high quality of life. "I don't need them to be better real estate people; I need them to be better customer service people," Jekogian says.

The largest part of his strategy includes regularly sharing ideas and recognizing employees who align themselves with the customer. Every week the company's managers, leasing agents, and leasing personnel meet on a conference call geared around service.

During the meeting, property managers and leasing agents share a "wow" story about how they helped a resident. Each week, the company awards the employee who shares the best wow story with a $100 check. One recent story involved a night manager who was asked by a resident to help cook steaks for his dinner date and did. Residents can also award employees (through the website) who go above and beyond for them.

The meetings also invite the employees to offer an outside-the-box idea that could benefit the company. Management awards employees for the best idea or action. One employee recently attended a Lynyrd Skynyrd concert in which the audience was invited to text a message to the Jumbotron. The employee posted Signature's tag line-"Love the place you live. Live in a Signature Community property."

While the awards programs keep employees motivated to provide quality service, the company's myriad blogs work to inspire employees, keep them informed, and collect their feedback. They include a customer service blog that highlights wow awards and customer service-focused articles; an acquisitions blog; a blog for investors; the CEO Monday morning message blog; a company best practice blog, which features discussions like using energy-efficient water heaters; a marketing ideas blog that collects feedback from employees; a resident feedback blog; and a blog that offers renters' information.

Jekogian says these efforts all work toward increasing job satisfaction, which continues to rise. "One of the issues is that we are a national company so there is not a lot of face time in our organization," Jekogian says. "This is just another way to keep our internal community happy and comfortable."