The Great Resignation has served up greater responsibility for onsite staff left to manage multifamily apartment communities. Like other industries nationwide, the multifamily industry has been hit hard by this period where record numbers of employees are leaving their current positions.
Rental owners and operators have reported up to 70% of their workforce resigning, a contrast to historical employee turnover of 30-50% annually. In roles that often require “wearing many hats” to keep up with prospective renters and resident requests, this puts added pressure on already busy leasing teams.
With technology solutions that alleviate daunting tasks for onsite staff, you can save your staff valuable time and unnecessary manual effort. Your leasing team can simplify tour scheduling, automate routine communication and set up seamless multifamily marketing campaigns that free up time to better connect with renters.
Automate apartment tour scheduling
The first step to helping your team thrive during this spike in demand is understanding where your team can easily automate communication in the early stages of a renter’s search. Online tour scheduling options on your apartment listings and property website take the back and forth out of finding the perfect time to showcase your unit.
Instead of the leasing agent having to reach the prospect directly and coordinate meeting times, find options that allow the renters to automatically schedule an appointment while they browse. Many ILS (internet listing sites) like Apartment Guide offer the option for renters to request a tour, select the most opportune times or even tour the apartment virtually.
Quickly qualify new leads with online applications and forms
Give renters the option to complete online applications early on in their evaluation of your property. This will allow your team to quickly screen new tenants and focus on quality leads that are most likely to become new residents. Tenant screening services like RentSpree automate the process of credit and background checks so leasing staff can focus on critical tasks like apartment tours, resident requests and answering in-depth questions from renters.
Online applications can often be selected by the resident when they request a tour on ILS listings as well, so onsite staff can identify tenants that are most interested before they even show the unit.
For onsite teams that could use extra support, there are also options that fully cover prospect communication and early lead qualification. Virtual leasing centers like Contact Center offer services to book in-person and virtual appointments as well as qualifying leads on behalf of the property. These services are often available 24/7 to communicate with prospects via call centers, chat and email.
Advertise without duplicating efforts
Your team spends time gathering quality photos, descriptions, 3D videos and other content to showcase your vacant listings. Once all of the assets are ready, it can be daunting to duplicate efforts when it comes time to create the advertisements. That’s where integrated marketing solutions can help property marketers, or leasing staff, avoid unneeded busy work.
Automated advertising solutions integrate with your property’s ILS listings to source graphics and descriptions. So, ads are created without your team having to slog through countless revisions and come up with campaigns on the fly.
Solutions like Search Ads Express and Social Ads Express offer turn-key advertising services that target in-market renters based on ILS data, so your budget goes toward those who are actively looking for an apartment in your area. Finding a Fair Housing compliant advertising tool will also take the stress out of ensuring that your property’s audience targeting is within regulation.
Effortlessly communicate with renters
From your property’s voice mailbox to the inbox, inquiries can stack up while the team juggles multiple tasks. Training employees to keep up with these tasks can also be costly. According to Bersin by Deloitte, the average cost of onboarding a new employee is close to $4,000. For multifamily specifically, properties can also spend $2,500 to $3,500 a month1 on salary for each staff member that manages onsite communication.
Brainstorm ways that your team can cut down on manual communication and automate the most common requests that come through. An easy way to do this is through renter communication platforms that integrate with your PMS (property management system) and allow you to monitor and respond to email and texts in one place. Common ways that leasing teams use this is to automatically send a video tour, survey residents’ satisfaction, generate new reviews, and opt renters into marketing communications.
Recent resignations have brought on challenges for onsite staff, but removing repetitive and monotonous tasks can free up your best talent to focus on the most rewarding aspects of their job. Without the burden of these simple and time-consuming tasks, your team’s skills can be better served, not to mention they will be happier. With more efficient processes, owners and operators can get more done while saving valuable dollars that can be invested in sustaining a strong, satisfied onsite team.
1 Rent. customer testimonial. Mark Copeland, VP Operations at Related Companies. Feb 15, 2019.
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