Bring Relief to On-Site Teams with SMS
Property management has some of the highest turnover rates in any industry, with percentages as high as 33%. There are many reasons for such a high churn, and one of the most prominent is on-site teams being stretched too thin.
The on-site teams take the brunt of disorderly residents and prospects, provide tours, handle administrative tasks, attempt to keep up with property issues, and are pulled in a plethora of other directions. Anything that can save them time and smooth out the job process is a huge win.
That’s why SMS messaging, particularly well-structured and competent automation, is a must for saving money (reduction in cost of new hires), saving time (workflow efficiency), increasing employee satisfaction, and boosting NOI (efficient systems equal more sales).
Will any SMS solution do?
If your on-site team is stretched thin, then residents or prospects calling in are placed on hold. 77% are unlikely to return to a business if placed on hold for more than 5 minutes (Zingle Consumer Survey). As a result, most management companies have implemented a texting solution to alleviate this burden. The problem now is that not all SMS systems are created equal.
The ability to text encouraged more participation from residents and prospects. The result was a flood of messages and notifications. This is a good problem to have but a problem nonetheless. Now, one frustration is replaced with another. Where on-site teams used to be frustrated with calls that couldn’t all be answered, now they have messages that can’t all be responded to in a timely manner. A customer waiting for a text is not too dissimilar from a customer placed on hold.
If an SMS software does not give you efficient workflow automation, you may find that on-site frustrations don’t change.
A Proper SMS Messaging Tool
As stated above, automation is the name of the game, and a big part of automation is programmed responses.
Let’s take a look at a hypothetical situation. A prospect texts in to learn more about leasing. They are automatically sent back a message that asks them to identify what kind of bedroom they are looking for. They are guided through a conversation which leads them to booking a tour. The on-site team needed to do nothing to get the tour set up.
Customer Journeys are also important. Instead of having your on-site teams set manual tasks and reminders to follow up with leads, why not have an automated SMS campaign go out with programmed touches, templates, and segmentation? This is an easy way to scoop low hanging fruit without adding strain to the team.
This can work with the resident side as well. If you find that there are FAQs and recurring comments being made by residents, you could build out a program that walks residents through a specific issue. The software is up 24 hours a day, which means a resident can text in on their timetable and still receive answers. Of course, a human touch is still very necessary, so a good SMS system will make it easy for a team member to jump in as well.
Bottom Line
While there are many things that can cause strain for on-site teams, a large volume of residents and prospects messaging in doesn’t need to be one of them. With the right software in place, leads can be responded to in a timely manner and residents can be communicated with efficiently. If you’re curious as to what a good example of a software would be that does something like this, make sure to schedule a demo for IRIO’s new platform, Indigo. You won’t be disappointed.
Authored by Jordan Hill, A Pretty Neat Dood