Multifamily leaders are exploring new ways to increase efficiency and enhance the resident experience throughout the renter’s customer journey by leveraging creative, digital solutions.
With new proptech solutions emerging weekly, Morgan Properties, one of the nation’s largest multifamily owners and managers, developed an Innovation Team to vet, test, and roll out new products across its portfolio. Since becoming an early adopter of proptech, the company has learned a great deal selecting and successfully implementing user-friendly technology that benefits both the employees and residents.
Streamlining Workload
In today's market, on-site teams are responsible for many labor-intensive tasks like vetting leads, answering repetitive queries, scheduling appointments, and more. To save time, consider deploying proptech for low-reward, monotonous, and repetitive tasks.
Digital leasing agents, such as bots integrated into the community’s website, can provide real-time feedback to prospective residents’ questions, direct them to virtual tours, and help schedule and reschedule in-person meetings. This tool limits the need for back-and-forth communication between the resident and leasing agent, which reduces the time between showing interest and signing a lease.
ID-verification platforms also optimize the leasing process by vetting inbound leads and identifying viable candidates. A robust verification process deters fraud upfront, forcing ill-intentioned applicants to abandon their application before hitting submit. Some tools require applicants to submit a “selfie,” in addition to their ID, to ensure the faces match up.
Another emerging proptech trend that enhances leasing is security deposit alternatives. Rather than requiring renters to lock up hard-earned cash, security deposit alternatives dramatically lower upfront move-in costs for renters. Renters pay a fraction of the deposit, which also serves as a financial guarantee that owners are protected if a tenant fails to pay for damage or skips rent payments.
Proptech is only continuing to improve and, when implemented correctly, can alleviate day-to-day tasks, allowing teams to concentrate on the in-person customer service tasks that require a personal approach like interacting with prospects and residents.
Considerations for Proptech Success
As multifamily owners and managers consider implementing proptech, there are a few essential steps to ensure success.
- Track your data: Tracking performance is critical for measuring success and improving output;
- Be innovative: Proptech is a creative solution for reducing operational inefficiencies. There are many options out there, and budding proptech companies are willing to mold their products to a company's specific needs if clear objectives are provided.
- Continue training: Multifamily owners and managers must guide their staff in properly integrating proptech into their workflow and provide regular training to keep up with the ever-evolving technology. In turn, on-site teams should know how these tools work and be prepared to assist when prospective or current residents come into their office with questions;
- Prioritize customer needs: Prospective residents want the convenience of technology at their fingertips when evaluating their next place to live. Proactively ask for feedback on their user experience and make changes accordingly; and
- Preserve the human touch: Multifamily professionals should ensure that their staff is focused on improving resident engagement now that many time-consuming tasks can be automated.
Strategically leveraging proptech and digital marketing tools can empower multifamily professionals to excel in an increasingly competitive market. Well-executed, tech-driven solutions will save multifamily owners and managers valuable time while providing a better resident and employee experience.
