Customer Experience Specialist (Leasing/Customer Service)

Leasing consultant roles at well-run apartment companies tend to get underestimated. On paper, it looks like a front-desk job. In practice, it's where you build the foundational skills that feed every management track in this industry: traffic conversion, resident retention, tour execution, and the kind of situational judgment that no classroom teaches. Cottonwood Residential's Customer Experience Specialist position at Sugarmont Apartments in Salt Lake City is that kind of role.

What the Work Actually Looks Like

You'll be the first point of contact for prospective residents and the ongoing face of the community for current ones. That means managing inbound inquiries across phone, email, and text with consistency and speed, walking the tour path and vacant homes daily to make sure everything meets Cottonwood's standards before a prospect ever sees it, and staying current on pricing and availability so you can answer questions without hesitation. Move-in readiness falls partly on you too: making sure apartments are prepped and the welcome experience lands the way it should.

Beyond leasing, the role pulls you into community operations in ways that compound quickly. You'll coordinate with vendors, support community events, help with social media marketing, and keep the package room organized. None of those tasks sound glamorous, but together they give you a full picture of how a well-run property actually functions day to day.

The schedule requires flexibility, including evenings and weekends. That's standard for leasing roles and worth knowing upfront. Peak traffic almost always falls outside the traditional nine-to-five window.

What Separates Strong Candidates Here

Cottonwood was an early adopter of self-guided tours, which shifted how their leasing teams operate. You're not just delivering a scripted walkthrough; you're creating an experience that holds up even when no one is guiding it. That means the physical condition of the units and common areas matters more, not less. Candidates who take the daily walk-through seriously and treat the tour path as a product they're responsible for will stand out from those who treat it as a checklist.

Strong communication instincts matter too. Prompt, clear responses to inquiries directly affect conversion rates, and a leasing team that follows up well consistently outperforms one that doesn't, regardless of the asset class.

Where This Role Leads

Cottonwood explicitly frames this as a starting point with a path toward management. That's worth taking seriously. Leasing consultants who develop sharp occupancy instincts, learn to read traffic patterns, and understand the connection between resident experience and renewal rates tend to move into assistant manager roles faster than those who treat the job as transactional. The skills you build here, converting prospects, managing resident communications, supporting operations, transfer directly to every step up the property management ladder.

• Full health, vision, dental, life, and disability benefits
• 401k and HSA with company match
• Three weeks of paid time off available in the first year
• 10.5 paid holidays
• Quarterly bonus structure on top of base pay