Property managers are constantly juggling maintenance requests, tenant inquiries, and other communications essential to maintaining efficient business operations.
To help lighten the load, there is an innovation in proptech that many property-management companies are turning to.
Automated answering services is a kind of property technology (“prop tech”). These can help lighten the load of team members in the real-estate industry.
Sometimes, call volume is too high for real-estate professionals to handle. In these cases, inbound calls go to voicemail.
Of course, customer expectations in any industry involve timely communication. If a business misses a call, then an employee will return it. Customer experiences involving no returned calls tend to be negative.
Notify: Useful Proptech for Multifamily Properties
For real-estate professionals, this means that the bottom line depends on a long-term plan for missed calls. And for the calls that slip through the cracks, automated answering systems can help save the day.
HelloSpoke offers one such system in the form of Notify. Real-estate investors from all across the United States benefit from this service.
These are reshaping how property management businesses handle incoming calls and customer service.
The Communication Challenge in Modern Property Management
Traditional phone systems have long been a pain point for property managers.
Across all the assets in a portfolio, staff members field a wide range of requests from tenants. A single property-management company may receive hundreds of phone calls daily.
Those calls can range from urgent maintenance requests to routine inquiries about lease terms, rent payments, and property details.
Before automated solutions, property managers faced several critical challenges. Missed calls during busy periods was one of these, which could lead to problems especially in the realm of maintenance.
As any multifamily-property manager knows, maintenance issues can be one of the main drivers of lost profits. For one, unfulfilled maintenance requests ranks high on the list of reasons why residents move out.
The other major issue, of course, is that timely maintenance fulfillments can lower the chance of serious property damage. In other words, missed maintenance requests can make both the tenants angry, and the building “angry”.
Luckily, automated answering services can help address this issue.
Key Features of Modern Automated Answering Services
HelloSpoke offers an automated answering service called Notify. This service enables property-management companies to make sure that missed calls do not fall through the cracks.
The solution is simple: Notify sends the audio files and transcriptions of missed calls in an email to staff members on a list.
Those emails are sent for all missed calls’ messages, regardless of the subject matter. Whether it’s leasing, maintenance issues, or just general resident communications, a missed call with a message will be relayed via email to the list’s subscribers.
For emergency messages, email notifications can escalate to phone calls or texts. These notifications can move through the list’s order until someone on the list confirms receipt of the notification.
Once in place, this system can cycle through the on-call list until someone responds to the maintenance emergency. Otherwise, it will go for 24 hours straight, providing plenty of time to see the notification.
This list can indeed just have one person, if that is necessary. Regardless, the Notify service will continue to contact that individual over the 24-hour period until that person confirms receipt of the notification.
Overall, the purpose of Notify is to help ensure that staff members fulfill tasks in a timely manner.
Benefits for Property Managers and Real Estate Companies
Implementing an automated answering service offers numerous advantages:
- Cost efficiency
- Minimize lost productivity from missed phone calls
- Lower overhead expenses and “sweat equity” through smart technology
These things especially matter in the case of maintenance calls. A missed call in maintenance can lead to the worsening of an issue. So, Notify can help maintenance members stay on top of resident problems.
Enhanced Customer Service
- Provide immediate response to all incoming calls
- Ensure consistent, professional communication
- Offer 24/7 accessibility to tenants and property owners
When residents know that a system like Notify is in place, that can give them peace of mind knowing that the staff is more likely to answer an urgent message within the right timeframe.
Operational Improvements
There are major benefits to having an on-call list that Notify can automatically go through. For one, it can keep staff members accountable to each other—and to themselves, most of all.
Additionally, Notify can:
- Automatically record calls from the maintenance team to the residents whose calls were missed. These recordings are sent to those on the email list.
- Reduce human error in call handling and information collection. The transcription is especially helpful for ensuring that voicemails are not misunderstood.
Choosing the Right Proptech Solution
When evaluating automated answering services like Notify, property managers should consider features including:
- Compatibility with existing property-management software. (Notify integrates with Yardi, Entrata, ResMan and RealPage.
- Scalability of the solution.
- Customization options for staff members. (For instance, Notify allows staff members on the on-call list to choose between receiving a phone call or text notification.)
- Cost-effectiveness and potential return on investment.
An emerging important consideration is the technology that is on everyone’s minds right now: artificial intelligence.
A.I. can help streamline resident communications.
Notify’s handling of emergency calls is a good example of this. Notify vets a call to check whether it’s an actual emergency (e.g., a pipe bursting) and, if it is, escalates it to on-call maintenance staff.
In addition to that, Notify allows for custom responses to the resident, or even property-wide communications for issues concerning all of the residents.
Maintenance staff can also submit work orders directly from the phone call to go into the property-management system.
Recommended Evaluation Steps
- Request detailed demonstrations.
- Analyze the system’s ability to handle your specific business needs.
- Check references from similar-sized property management companies.
- Talk to staff to see what specific problems the proptech could help with.
The Future of Business Communications in Real Estate
As proptech companies continue to innovate, we can expect even more advanced automated answering services. Future developments might include:
- Advanced A.I. that can handle increasingly complex inquiries
- Real-time language translation
- Predictive communication tools
- Deeper integration with IoT devices and smart property management systems
Getting Started with Automated Answering Services
For property managers ready to embrace this technology, the first step is research.
Look for proptech solutions that offer robust customer-service capabilities and seamless integration with existing technologies.
Automated Answering Service and Other Proptech Available from HelloSpoke
Automated answering services represent a significant leap forward in property management communication.
By leveraging advanced technologies, property managers can transform their business communications, improve tenant satisfaction, and optimize operational efficiency.
The future of property management is here—and it sounds crystal clear.
About HelloSpoke
HelloSpoke is at the forefront of maintenance proptech innovation, providing cutting-edge communication solutions for modern property managers. Our automated answering services will streamline your multifamily properties’ communications. Doing that can elevate your customer service experience.
Ready to revolutionize your property management communications? Explore HelloSpoke’s advanced proptech solutions like Notify today!