When talking to applicants and tenants online, understanding how to present yourself professionally through text is vital. With no tone inflections, it can be difficult for your tenants and applicants to know if you’re serious or making a joke. To further progress your relationship with your tenants, and lure in new applicants, these tips can help you understand that line between personal and professional within text messages.

Don’t use shortcuts for your text.

Ultimately you want your tenants and applicants to understand what you’re saying—especially if it has to do with rental requirements or the lease. While using acronyms like ‘Thx’ (thanks) or ‘Pls’ (please) is convenient, there’s potential for miscommunication. Use full sentences with proper grammar when texting applicants and tenants alike. If you have a lot to text, then ask them if they’d be available to talk on the phone, where you can fully explain in a few minutes.

Emoticons: good or bad?

Generally, using emoticons (like smiley faces) is frowned upon in the professional world. They’re typically reserved for conversations with someone you’re on closer terms with. That being said, if you and your current tenants have a close relationship, using an emoticon or two for non-official messages wouldn’t be the end of the world. When you’re texting your applicants, whether or not you want a close relationship with your future tenants, it’s better to establish that professional boundary from the get-go.

Be extra polite.

Most people use emoticons to produce a certain type of tone. However, in most messaging situations with your tenants or applicants, it’s better to stay clear from emoticons. To balance out this lack of tone, be sure to be extra polite in all your text messages. Although most tenants won’t take offence when you text them about scheduling maintenance work, using ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ never hurts.

Respond in a timely manner.

Communicating through text messages is only effective when you respond in a timely manner. Generally you’ll want to respond within that day. If you’re an ApplyConnect^® user, you can get notified via text message when your applicant’s background screening report and application are ready to view, so you can respond as quickly and professionally as possible.

As voice-to-text features have increasingly become available for smartphones, be aware that this feature isn’t 100% accurate all the time. If you use voice-to-text, make sure you look over your messages before sending. As a general rule, you should review all your messages to ward off autocorrect. When it comes to understanding how professional your text messages should be, it’s up to you to set your boundaries and guidelines.

Do you think emoticons are appropriate to use in professional text messages? Do you have any different guidelines when it comes to texting applicants and tenants? Let us know your opinion in the comment section below & be sure to subscribe!