Better Experiences: Why CX Is Your Brand’s Best Marketing Asset

September 2, 2025

Marketing Executive Insights Operations & Technology

Is customer experience multifamily marketers' secret weapon? Melissa Brady of Fogelman Properties explains why.

Today’s best marketing strategies are all about experiences and storytelling. In multifamily, where the leasing journey can sometimes feel a bit transactional or impersonal, renters will mostly be attracted to seamless experiences paired with a well-designed campaign. They want an intuitive, consistent and human-centered approach, from their first online search to their move-in day and beyond.

Some marketers view customer experience, or CX, as a missing puzzle piece that can build trust and ultimately, make or break their whole strategy. “Multifamily teams can no longer afford to operate in silos—because our customers don’t experience us in silos,” said Mellisa Brady, Fogelman’s senior vice president of marketing, communications and customer experience. “They see one brand, one journey, one impression,” she added.

In this interview with MHN, Brady explains how a good strategy doesn’t work without being centered on outcome, connections and long-term resident satisfaction.

What is driving CX to become a central focus in marketing strategies across the multifamily housing sector?

Brady: At its core, marketing has always been about understanding people—how they think, what they value, and how they move through the world. In multifamily, we’re finally starting to treat customer experience as the connective tissue that binds every brand interaction, from digital discovery to move-in day and beyond.

What’s changed? Expectations. Today’s renter has been trained by industries that obsess over convenience and frictionless service: think Amazon, Apple, even Domino’s. We can’t afford to treat leasing as a transactional process anymore. The apartment search is personal, emotional, and, at times, overwhelming. When brands fail to acknowledge that, they lose trust and conversion.

I once heard a Google product manager explain how he initially thought the Apple Watch was unnecessary. “Why do I need a watch when I have a phone?” That changed the moment he was walking down the street, juggling a coffee and a backpack and couldn’t answer a call without contorting his body. That small but significant friction point reframed everything. The same applies here: the best CX work often lives in the small stuff—those subtle, daily annoyances that renters feel but rarely articulate. And the only way to find them is to walk in their shoes.

Considering that Fogelman Properties started implementing this approach in its marketing efforts, what motivated you to prioritize CX and how did this integration come about?

Brady: We’ve rolled out a lot over the past few years—both pre- and post-COVID—but not always with full consideration for how each solution fits into the broader ecosystem. Like many multifamily companies, we adopted tools like virtual tours, self-service schedulers, chatbots, resident apps and rewards platforms to meet evolving needs. Each served a purpose, but together, they didn’t always create the cohesive, seamless experience we were aiming for.

We stepped back and asked: Are we designing a tech stack, or are we designing an experience? That led to a reorganization of the team around three core pillars: brand and communications (because consistency builds trust), performance marketing (because data without strategy is just noise) and MarTech & CX (because customer experience is where the brand becomes real).

This shift wasn’t about chasing trends. It was born from a business need: to reduce friction, eliminate duplicative tools and ensure every investment moved us closer to a connected, human-centered experience. We’re using both data and lived experience to optimize the full renter lifecycle.

How would you define “customer experience” in the context of multifamily? What are some of the main aspects marketers should pay attention to?

Brady: CX is every interaction a customer has with your brand—full stop.

That includes everything from the vibe when someone walks into your leasing office (were they greeted?) to how fast your website loads on mobile, how intuitive it is to schedule a tour, how your community smells, and whether your chatbot can help. The mistake is thinking CX is a digital-only initiative. It’s not. It’s a phygital blend of physical and digital moments that create one continuous, cohesive journey.

At Fogelman, we look closely at the moments that matter—those key points of interaction like the first inquiry, a scheduled tour, the post-tour follow-up, the application process, move-in, maintenance, and renewal. And at each of those points, we ask: Are we showing up at the right time, on the right channel, with the right tone? Does this moment feel transactional—or intentional?

What are the most common challenges property management firms face when trying to align customer experience with marketing? How did you address them?

Brady: One word: silos. Customer experience doesn’t belong to any one department. While marketing may lead the strategy, true execution requires deep alignment across operations, IT, leasing, training, and onsite teams. I like to show a Venn diagram of marketing, ops, and tech—it’s in that center overlap where CX magic happens. That means customer experience isn’t just a talking point; it’s part of our business reviews, our leasing playbooks, our training programs, and even how we evaluate new platforms and technologies.

We’ve built cross-functional committees that bring different departments to the table early and often, ensuring that feedback loops are tight and every voice is considered before a decision is made. It’s in that shared ownership—where marketing, operations, and technology overlap—that CX comes to life. When everyone sees themselves as part of the customer journey, you stop optimizing tasks and start designing for outcomes. CX is no longer a “nice to have”. It’s foundational.

Considering the high rise of AI adoption in multifamily, how can property operators balance automation and personalization when trying to enhance the resident experience?

Brady: The question isn’t automation vs. personalization. It’s about automating the predictable so you can humanize the meaningful. That balance won’t look the same for every company, and it shouldn’t. Operators should lean into the mix that aligns with their brand and service philosophy.

Some brands are all-in on automation, while others are proudly high-touch. At Fogelman, we fall somewhere in the middle. Whether it’s an AI chatbot that responds at 11 p.m. or a warm handoff to a live agent the next morning, we’re focused on meeting prospects and residents where they are—without losing the human element that builds trust.

“Phygital” may have been a buzzword years ago, but it still perfectly captures today’s reality. We live in a blended world, and our leasing journey is designed to reflect that.

What are the main benefits of focusing on CX for your marketing strategy and the tools you use to measure the results of this new approach?

Brady: To truly measure the impact of a customer experience strategy, you must look beyond vanity metrics and focus on the indicators that reflect satisfaction, loyalty, and long-term value.

Start with reputation trends—review sentiment is often one of the earliest signals of how your experience is landing. Track application-to-move-in timelines to understand operational efficiency and monitor renewal and referral rates as indicators of resident loyalty. Comparing cost per lease to lifetime resident value—and layering in channel attribution—helps connect marketing performance to long-term business impact.

CX-specific surveys are also invaluable—especially when timed to key lifecycle moments like post-tour, move-in, or maintenance requests. While NPS has its place, we put more weight on qualitative insights. We want to know: What delighted someone? Where did we miss the mark? What would make them refer a friend?

Those answers offer more than a score—they offer a roadmap.

How is the customer experience-based approach redefining the way we view and perceive multifamily marketing?

Brady: Historically—and still, in some circles—marketing has been seen as a support function, focused on crafting clever campaigns and eye-catching design. But that’s an outdated view. Today’s marketing is both art and science, grounded in data and built to influence business outcomes. We’re not just storytellers; we’re analysts, strategists, and connectors.

What’s always set marketing apart is our proximity to the consumer. We’re trained to understand behaviors, motivations, and expectations—and those expectations have changed dramatically. Renters today are more discerning, more tech-dependent, and far less tolerant of friction. They expect immediacy, personalization, and seamless experiences at every touchpoint.

That shift has positioned marketing as a strategic partner across the organization. Our customer-first mindset has helped break down silos and build stronger connections between teams. Whether it’s journey mapping, platform evaluation, or analyzing customer sentiment, we’ve helped steer the conversation toward more intentional, experience-led decisions that benefit both residents and the business.

What advice would you give to other property managers or marketers looking to adopt a CX-first strategy?

Brady: Start small, but start intentionally. Don’t try to scale overnight.

We’re launching a “test and learn” approach through a new initiative we’re calling FCOT—the Fogelman Community of Tomorrow. It’s our way of piloting future-focused CX strategies at a single community before expanding more broadly. It gives us space to experiment, gather real feedback, and refine ideas in a controlled environment.

As we continue this work, we’re also exploring how to bring more voices into the process across departments. CX can’t be owned by marketing alone—it requires deep collaboration with operations, technology, and onsite teams. Marketing and technology can help lead the effort, but true progress comes when every team sees themselves in the experience we’re creating.

Because at the end of the day, CX isn’t just a strategy—it’s a mindset. And the companies that embrace it now will build the kind of brand loyalty no budget can buy.