Published: 19 October 2008.

Contributed by Ian Brooks of Platinum Resort Brokerage

The Ninety Ten Rule is my version of the old theory “you can’t please all of the people all of the time”. Now while I admit knowledge and acceptance of the Ninety Ten Rule may not be akin to finding the meaning of life, it can make owning management rights a more enjoyable and rewarding pastime. The Ninety Ten Rule is my case study of human nature and it goes something like this: 10% of people will give you 90% of your problems; in turn you will expend 90% of your time and effort trying to please the minority. With no formal background into behavioral science and based purely on past life and business experience it is my firm belief that approximately 10% of the population are just plain and simple unreasonable people.

So here’s the rub. You can’t reason with unreasonable people yet we, as managers, are expected to project and deliver a first class wonderful holiday experience to every one of our guests! Yes that’s right - we have to deliver 100% of our customer’s expectation 100% of the time.

Wait there’s more.

An even larger more daunting task is to simultaneously deliver 100% of our unit apartment owner’s expectation 100% of the time. While there are exceptions to every rule and I acknowledge that some managers do in fact manage to please almost everyone almost all of the time - it is my view that accepting and living by the Ninety Ten Rule will make your time in management rights more enjoyable. It will definitely reduce your burn out rate.

First look at the Ninety Ten Rule when applied to your holiday guests. One of my previous articles was titled It’s not Rocket Science. Summarised, if you are friendly and honest in your dealings with your customers and provide spotlessly clean rooms equating to good value for money, one would then expect on average nine out of ten customers to have enjoyed their stay with you and a good number of these people would have rebooked for a return visit or told their friends good things about you and your wonderful resort.

What about the one in ten that wasn’t happy? Well there is a fair chance that will be the guest who blamed you for (a) rain for the whole week, (b) getting a bad meal or bad service at one of the restaurants you recommended or (c) getting a parking ticket after finding no car parks left at the beach. It doesn’t matter if you run a three or six star establishment. Managers are still going to get unreasonable people with unreasonable expectations. Accepting this fact early and acting accordingly will do wonders for your ability to sleep peacefully knowing you did your best at the end of long hard day.

Now lets look at how we apply the Ninety Ten Rule to unreasonable unit or apartment owners. Unlike the disgruntled holiday customer who simply never returns, the unhappy apartment owner is there to make your life a misery year after year. It seems that misery only stops the day they sell up or you sell the management rights.

I became aware of the Ninety Ten Rule at my first body corporate AGM. My building had fifty apartments and I had what I thought was a great relationship with most of our owners. I spoke to them regularly on the phone and sent monthly newsletters to keep them informed of forward bookings, general tourism trends and coming events. To my surprise, only five owners turned up for the meeting! Exactly 10% (leaving 90%) that could not be bothered to attend because their very efficient manager had kept them in the loop and up to speed throughout the year.

It was at that moment that I realised the five couples in the room were the same ones that rang every month after receiving their monthly statement to question charges or some such thing. The same ones that had tried to place restrictions on the minimum number of nights per stay in their apartment, who didn’t want smokers in their apartment, complained about the cleaning standards, or wanted to use a second hand fridge and lounge from Aunty Mary’s place. To any casual observer at that meeting, the perception would have been that all of the owners in this building thought I was rip-off merchant and a person who was doing a very poor job. In yet another example of human nature, it’s the squeaky wheel that gets oiled in much the same way that minority groups lobby governments at the expense of the apathetic majority.

So it seems this is often the case with body corporate committees. As you can imagine, I went home from the meeting quite shattered and thinking I must have been delusional! I mistakenly thought I was doing a good job and all the unit owners were happy with my efforts when in fact they wanted to get rid of me. After sleeping on this the penny dropped. Forty-five out of fifty owners did, in fact, think I was doing a good job and so the Ninety Ten Rule was born!So what do we do now? This is where it becomes tricky; in much the same vain as the professional politician who panders to minority lobby groups in order not to alienate them. The manager must resist the temptation to escalate, what may seem to be unreasonable requests or behavior, from individual owners.

While in some cases and as a last resort only, terminating some owner’s PAMD letting authorities may be the ultimate course of action. This really should be avoided if at all possible Whether we like it or not, without the unit owner entrusting his apartment to our rental pool, we have no business or potential to expand our goodwill and income. When dealing with unreasonable owners, try to stay calm and address each specific area of complaint with a rational well thought out response. If you have an office full of people and don’t have time to talk there and then, make a time to ring back after hours.

It still amazes me how many managers put so little time into fostering what is their most valuable asset; the letting pool. I quite often hear manager comments like “our unit owners are great - some even send us a bottle of wine each year for Christmas!”. How many managers do the reverse and send their unit owners a bottle of wine at Christmas? Take an interest in your owners as they are your business partners. Do you know their birthdays? Send them a birthday card. If they have children, ask how they are doing at school, phone them personally at least twice a year, send newsletters and blow your own trumpet. Tell everyone what a good job you are doing, maybe buy a digital camera and email regular photos of their apartments. If the gardens have just been remulched? Email some happy snaps.

Use the Ninety Ten Rule to your advantage to try and keep the vocal minority on your side by going the extra mile. Encourage respected people to nominate for the body corporate committee. You may end up with three well oiled wheels to balance up the squeaky one.On a positive note, interest rates are starting to come down and oil has dropped $40 a barrel. Fuel is getting cheaper and the Australian dollar is starting to weaken, making holidays in Australia cheaper. Buyer interest in management rights is starting to pick up again. Lastly, I hope I have helped you towards the goal of staying calm and peaceful using the Ninety Ten Rule!

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