Consumers want options. The way we shop, do our research online and who we choose to do business with all comes down to each individual person. There’s no difference when it comes to touring your property. Giving consumers options online for how they can tour your property on their own terms is necessary, whether that’s a video, virtual tour, self-guided tour or in-person tour.
While the majority of prospects will start their research online, the next steps they take depends on their comfort level of interacting with your team during this pandemic and how soon they’re ready to rent.
During our recent webinar, we talked to Karen Gladney, co-founder of Power Pro Leasing, about touring options, while focusing more specifically on how to offer better self-guided tours. She visited 100 properties in 100 days and says the results were alarming. “Forty-six percent of the time, I had to wait or was sent away. Just think if I had been offered a self-guided tour experience and how I could have been taken care of in that moment,” Gladney says.
When they started their “Tour Your Way” campaign eight months ago, Gladney says the studies were showing 95% consumers prefer to shop alone while going through a buying decision and 90% want to speak to a human being during that time. “How do you blend those?,” she asks. “You don’t operate in two different silos.”
Better Self-Guided Tours Start with A Plan
Self-guided tours aren’t new. Look at hotels, for example. We’re able to all check in at a desk, grab the key card and find our way to the room without hotel staff walking us there. “Walk through your property and make sure your signage is as strong as it can be to help guide prospects where they should go,” Gladney advises. It seems simple enough, yet so many properties lack the necessary signage.
Look at your current touring situation, too. What type of tours do you offer? How can you improve? As technology and smart locks continue to improve, so are self-guided tours. Gladney says even if you don’t have the budget to incorporate new features, leaving a key on a table and putting a touring plan in place will help you succeed. “You are going to see higher returns if you offer more tour options,” she says. “That’s just a fact.”
Start by sharing on your website the different options of tours you offer. Give people on your website the ability to book the type of tour they want and most importantly follow up with those who tour your property.
For someone who schedules a tour, confirm the tour time and ask them if they have any questions in advance. After the tour, ask them which unit they preferred if they looked at multiple options or ask them what their favorite features were of the property. It’s all about communication. “Follow up matters because you remain relevant and top of mind,” Gladney says.
First and foremost, be yourself when you’re talking to a prospect. “We are all salespeople, but be your authentic self. Some people will buy you and some people won’t,” Gladney says. You just have to try.
Self-Guided Tour Options Here to Stay
Training your team to role play can help each leasing specialist better understand what it feels like to be in the prospects shoes. “Make sure every team member acts like the prospect. Have them go online, go to your online scheduling tool, select the tour and then have another team member deliver the experience.” You’ll find gaps, missing signage, and most importantly how to improve.
As you map out your touring experience, you should also be able to identify gaps in technology you might have. Gladney recommends requesting a demo, not a slideshow, from vendors you’re considering. You’ll be able to see exactly how that technology will help your property.
“The best experiences and collaboration comes out of working with people you enjoy,” she says. “Be careful of vendors who try to be everything to be everyone. Typically, a jack-of-all-trades is a master of none.” Operators have the power to ask how vendors can work together to get the most benefit.
As we move into the future, remember that everyone has a different comfort level and you and your team will need to stay sensitive to that. By offering different touring options, including self-guided tours, you’re letting each prospect choose the best option for themselves. “I believe self-guided tours will stay and properties who keep it will be ahead of the curve against their competition,” Gladney says.
In today’s reality, social distancing has become a part of normal business. Brick and mortar stores have closed storefronts or have limited business hours, forcing customers to shop online. How do you make the consumer feel important when you can only interact through a screen?
Providing a personalized, top-class shopping experience should not only happen when the consumer enters through your front door. Building any kind of relationship takes time and effort. Start building that relationship online the moment the consumer visits your website. Utilizing an AI-focused website and personalized lead follow-up approach gives the online consumer an experience similar to what they would receive during an in-store visit. Here’s how your business can create a VIP customer experience.
Personalize your lead follow-up while selling remotely
Utilize data when it comes to personalized lead follow-up. Retailers should be relying on tools on their website, such as assessments and quizzes to collect as much information as possible from their customers. You can learn what style of furniture they like, what room they are looking to furnish, or how soon they are going to buy. You are also able to collect basic information such as name, phone number and email address.
With that information, your sales team is equipped to personalize the outreach. If your customers are looking for a new bedroom set, leverage targeted content through email with a catalog of this year’s hottest bedroom trends. If you’ve already been in contact with them, send a picture through text message of the new set you just got in. This is also an easy way to send incentives or discounts of products to encourage them to buy.
Personalizing the marketing experience for your shoppers is an easy way to make them feel valued and continue to shop your products.
Communicate with the consumer through text messaging
Allowing the consumer an option to ask a question via a chat tool online, which gives your sales team the opportunity to follow-up with that customer immediately by text. From there, they are able to send pictures and videos of products in the showroom that the shopper isn’t able to see. This is an effective tool because unlike a chat box, the message is delivered directly to the customers phone as opposed to a chat bot online.
Text messaging helps build the relationship with the customer before they enter the store. By being intentional and personalizing the message, shoppers will be more inclined to respond and be engaged later when they are ready to buy.
Prioritize video calls over phone calls for the VIP customer experience
When shoppers were able to go in the store, video follow-up and video appointments were nice to have. Now, video appointments are essential and will likely be a preference for shoppers to save time in the future.
Instead of just a simple phone call, video calls bring an extra level of personalization to the conversation. Shoppers are able to see the face of the person they are speaking to much like they would in an in-store visit. Through video calls, you are also able to give tours of the showroom and let the consumer see the product for themselves as you are speaking about it. Tools like Skype, Google Hangouts, FaceTime and Zoom are all platforms you can use to host video appointments. Follow these tips to ensure you host a successful video appointment.
Using these tips to treat the shopper like a VIP will ensure they choose you over another brand. Making someone feel important goes a long way in building consumer trust. Good luck!
If you’re puzzling over how to increase property tours and leases, your apartment website may be the missing piece. Sure, your multifamily team posts dazzling photos and highlights all of the amazing amenities, but does the website invoke any strong emotions or inspire prospects to take action? Or, is the site simply an online brochure that’s static, boring and just like every other multifamily property website in your market?
Multifamily brands that treat the property website as a top leasing tool, like another leasing specialist on staff, collect and convert more online leads to leases. As an on-site leasing agent works to establish good rapport with rental prospects by being helpful, your property management website should also guide website visitors along the leasing journey and build a connection with leads using a personalized approach.
Figure out how to move prospects emotionally and you’ll move them closer to signing a lease. Create these 7 feelings with an innovative apartment website that leverages artificial intelligence to win over online leads and increase leases.
1. Welcomed
Acknowledge online visitors the moment they land on your community’s website. Welcome them with a personalized message in a pop-up, banner or chat window. Offer to show them around the website with a quick virtual tour or point out some of the helpful tools you offer on the site to get them started.
Lead management is key. Sending each lead an automated email after their initial visit is another way to show prospects you’re happy they visited the property website and invite them back to continue their research. Use AI technology to personalize the marketing automation process, so the follow-up emails or texts include the lead’s name and information hyper-relevant to what they searched for on your property website.
2. Educated
Prospects do a large portion of their apartment searches online and are far along in the sales funnel by the time they actually reach out to speak or interact with an on-site leasing specialist. Give them access to all the research they seek on your website, such as information about nearby neighborhood businesses and public resources that serve the community, without making them pick up the phone or fill in a generic form to request more information.
Online consumers prefer to self-serve, so let them gather information at their own pace. The more educated a prospect feels, the more ready they’ll be to confidently make an informed decision on where they want to live.
3. Guided
While prospects prefer to gather information on their own, they do appreciate it when a website guides them along in the process. Use AI website conversion software to intuitively lead consumers in their leasing journey as they look for their next home.
Direct them to the products in your portfolio that best suit their search, and set up your apartment website so it guides them to the next best step to take in the leasing process based on the data you’ve already collected on them as they clicked around. Did they already look at or save floor plan options they’re interested in on your site? Now offer them a rent calculator to see what the full cost would be with utilities, website service and optional pet fees or garage/storage fees, for example.
4. Helped
Consumers naturally choose to do business with helpful brands when it comes time to make a decision. Right now, with so much uncertainty, it’s more important than ever to make prospects feel like you’re authentically trying to help and are there to assist their search for an apartment in any way possible — without pressuring them to sign a lease.
Use your apartment website to assist prospects with technology, through a chat tool, interactive experiences and a multi-option tour scheduler that allows them to pick if they want a virtual tour or in-person tour, for example. Show them the best floor plans for their needs based on a few online questions.
Serve up relevant incentives and personalized deals to help them out. Consider waiving the leasing fee or giving a free month’s rent to those who book a virtual tour.
5. Trusted
By being helpful and guiding prospects, your website builds trust and a connection with online leads before they ever communicate with a leasing specialist. Quick, personalized responses let prospects know they can count on your leasing office.
Set up personalized automated emails to greet each new lead after they visit your apartment website, and ensure on-site staff immediately addresses any questions or requests that come in by text or email. Prospects who value technology also value an instantaneous response that’s personal and relevant.
6. Nurtured
A property website should cultivate a belief your multifamily company truly cares and offers support in their apartment search. Nurture leads by personalizing content on the website and delivering free experiences to help them narrow their choices of floor plans, explore the neighborhood and calculate estimated monthly bills for that apartment.
By collecting lead data as they interact with the website, multifamily properties can deliver automated emails tailored to the lead’s online behavior and known preferences. Leasing specialists can also use the logged website data to personalize their lead follow-up approach when reaching out to the prospects who indicate they’re ready to rent right now.
“We use the data and analytics available to us to help tailor our approach, and to ensure we can connect in an authentic way with our customers,” says Jenny Richard, Director of Marketing at Gene B. Glick Company.
7. Special
Above all else, prospects who spend time searching your website, handing over personal information in exchange for a more personal concierge experience, deserve to feel special.
Add a personal touch by sending a customized video to introduce your leasing office and invite their questions to spark a conversation. Send them a video highlighting the exact unit they’re most interested in, showing them around the place with a personalized narrative to make them feel comfortable.
“We’ve had a handful of leasing associates really shine and put their personality to good use in the videos that are now so critical,” says Katrina Greene, Senior Regional Manager at Sheehan Property Management.
Give prospects the VIP treatment online by always addressing them by name, welcoming them back every time they return and showing helpful information catered to their individual search for a new apartment. Assist them in making an appointment by offering an online scheduling calendar, and send pertinent follow-up information to help them prepare for the virtual or in-person tour.
Your apartment website should leave prospects thinking, “That was easy!” and inspire them to take the next step toward signing a lease. Get them excited about the idea of moving to your community, and give them the online technology to make the process effortless.
No amount of automated marketing or AI technology will change the fact that customer service must remain at the top of your company’s priority list. If you’re not providing a quality shopping experience from start to finish, it won’t matter how many leads you generate or how much organic traffic you attract to the website. Unsatisfied customers will bust your bottom line over time.
“Customer service is No. 1 for us. Making our customers happy and excited about their purchase is what we are here for,” says Kelly Mullins, who oversees Marketing & Online Sales at Railway Freight Furniture based in Georgia. “And, we want them to come back and shop with us again … and send their friends and family! People want to feel like you truly care about what they need.”
Mullins says delivering that level of customer care starts on the website, where most people begin their shopping. They expect instant yet personal responses when reaching out to a business.
“It’s so important to be engaged digitally, because that’s where most start their buying decisions,” Mullins says. “They will have questions and want to talk to someone, and you have to be ready to help get their business.”
Create a Concierge Website Experience to Service Customers
Helping the customer starts with maximizing your company’s website, often a customer’s initial interaction with your brand, so it’s engaging and delivering information that’s relevant to each individual shopper.
“It’s important that your first touchpoint with the consumer, you’re getting across the information you want to, because that first touch sets the stage for everything else,” says Michael Norris, Chief Marketing Officer at Youtech, a full-service digital marketing and advertising agency with offices in Chicago and Scottsdale, Arizona. “It’s important to have a really good digital footprint, since that’s where people start their search, and then a really good response time after that.”
Make it easy for them to window shop and collect information on your products until they’re ready to visit in person to make a purchase. Create a concierge experience that serves customers with personalized, targeted content and leads shoppers to the next best step in their buying journey, based on where they’re at in the process. Offer appointment scheduling tools so they can book a tour or in-store consultation and receive VIP treatment. Then, be sure to follow up quickly with online leads or have a system in place to automate the initial response so they feel acknowledged.
“In today’s digital world, if customers want/need help or have questions, they want answers now! On their time!” Mullin says. “PERQ has helped us tremendously with this. We already talk to our customers on social media and email, but now we have a way to talk to the customer while they’re browsing on our website. It takes a lot of time and effort, but is a great way to engage with our online customers.”
As they shop around and interact with the website, put in place software to capture data about each online lead, so your sales team can use those personal details to close the deal. Knowing things like what kind of pets they own or their favorite pastimes helps you better understand what they need, and subsequently provide the customer with better service.
Your Customer Service Reps and Digital Sales Teams Drive Your Business
Customer service representatives and those who staff your digital sales teams will likely be the main people who directly interact with consumers before they come in to visit in person. Make sure they’re prepared to adequately answer all questions that come their way and appropriately direct shoppers to the right next person, because those initial interactions often determine how a consumer views your company overall.
“The people who they talk to are ultimately going to be the people who drive your business,” Norris says. “That customer service is so important, because customers now go and leave reviews online based on their experience and what they felt. It’s so important to make them feel good every step of the way, that they have a positive-enough experience they want to go and leave a review. People only leave reviews if they’re really happy or really mad. There’s really no in-between.”
Utilize AI Technology to Improve Your Customer Service
With consumers accustomed to getting an immediate response when online shopping with big brands, technology helps smaller companies meet those expectations and give leads the instant gratification (and the information) they seek.
Once a lead comes in or a consumer submits an inquiry, it’s critical for your sales team to provide an immediate response acknowledging their request and quickly follow up with additional information.
“People are used to very snippy-snappy results nowadays,” Norris says of consumer expectations across the many industries his digital advertising agency serves.
Businesses use technology to not only instantly respond but also personalize the response through automated email or text messaging. By capturing customer data as they engage with a website’s AI-powered experiences, like a chat-to-text Q&A tool or interactive quiz, lead information can be funneled directly into a CRM through a marketing cloud.
From there, schedule personalized email or text nurture campaigns to continuously nurture the lead that shows you care about their search for the perfect purchase. Cater to their needs based on what they look at on your website and the data they hand over as they shop around. Provide helpful content, offer a scheduled meeting with an expert on your staff or include an incentive to get them to take action — and to buy from you when they are ready.
“Getting all of that information into your CRM and then into an automation system is important, because that will allow you to follow up in both an efficient way for you and in an effective, personalized way for the potential client,” Norris says.
Meet Customers Where They Shop
Consumers now have more ways than ever to communicate with companies they do business with, from online chat and messenger apps to emails and text messages. To provide top-notch service, you must communicate in the customer’s preferred format.
“People are going to have issues that extend beyond just an FAQ page or what your website can answer,” Norris says. “Having different channels of communication are important. If a customer wants to email you, they are going to expect their response to that email. Same thing, if a customer reaches out on social media; or if they call, then they want to talk to a real person.”
Norris says consumer expectations remain steady across all of the various industries his digital marketing agency serves: they want quick, helpful customer service when they have questions or encounter a problem.
“I mean, in the end, people are all people,” Norris says. “Generally speaking, people buy the same ways.”
To optimize the success of PPC advertising at each multifamily property in the Fore Property portfolio, Caroline Gould, V.P. of Marketing & Branding, starts with the data.
Gould logs into Google Analytics daily to run reports, so she can closely monitor the performance of active PPC ad campaigns and the overall health of the national company’s online presence. She studies online traffic sources by market, evaluates how Fore Property’s communities rank for certain keywords, and checks bounce rates for all of the different paid ad campaigns, digital platforms and referral websites where they’ve invested marketing money.
“It’s just so fundamental to me in terms of determining marketing success and appropriate marketing to try next,” Gould says. “We’re really understanding how those PPC campaigns are performing, especially within the mix of other digital platforms. We can see our referral sources and where we’re getting the best traffic.”
By routinely checking PPC performance, Gould gains valuable insight into online leads and can easily gauge the effectiveness of digital ad spends.
“Most things are measurable, so we can really hone in on what is successful and make changes from there. What’s great with PPC is we can look at the various campaigns over a span of time,” Gould says. “We’re always assessing and always adjusting.”
Digital advertising delivers multifamily properties a plethora of data within Google Analytics that can be utilized to optimize PPC ads and maximize ROI. Here’s how to make the most of your multifamily property PPC advertising, and some common pitfalls to avoid as you decipher the data.
Link PPC Advertising Campaigns in Google Analytics
Trackable data is by far the biggest advantage of digital advertising over traditional marketing methods. But, it takes more than just logging into Google Analytics and glancing at the dashboard to make a real difference with the data.
The first mistake multifamily properties often make is failing to link PPC ads to the Google Analytics account to get campaign-specific data. It’s easy to do and provides a valuable source of information, yet many don’t take full advantage of the readily available analytics and go beyond the basics. That’s where third-party digital marketing experts can assist properties that don’t have an analytics person on staff.
“Connecting your PPC ad accounts to Google Analytics is one thing, but knowing how to interpret the data is another,” says Ali Mesick, Digital Advertising Manager at Brawn Media, which partners with PERQ to help companies achieve success through digital marketing. “Platforms like Google Analytics allow you to see so much granular info about your audiences, how they’re responding to your ads, and how they’re interacting with your website. Taking this ad data and incorporating it into your SEO and website strategy is what can really set your business apart.”
Target the Right Audience with PPC Ads
The second biggest mistake multifamily properties commonly make with PPC advertising? Casting a wide net to try to attract as many people as possible with their PPC ads, or “targeting the wrong audience,” Mesick says.
“While many properties think capturing a large audience is the most beneficial advertising tactic, it often comes with a lot of wasted ad spend,” says Catie Cambridge, Advertising Solutions Manager at PERQ. “By narrowing your audience to specific ‘in-market’ shoppers, you’re eliminating an entire audience of irrelevant shoppers.”
Using the data to define a target audience and the best PPC approach to get their attention, properties can target renters actively searching for an apartment in a specific market with the various reporting filters available in Google Analytics. They’ve displayed a search history that aligns with your ideal audience profile, and are therefore most likely to turn into conversions.
“That means not only will you be spending your budget more wisely, but your ROI will be higher,” Cambridge says.
Mesick also advises looking at the Google Analytics data to reign in PPC spending. She suggests refining the target audience by looking at what else your ideal prospects are “in-market” for, be it a nearby school district they’re researching or pet-friendly parks in the area.
“Layering this on top of your keyword and demographic targeting means you’re more likely to hit your best possible lease candidate,” Mesick says. “Plus, using this data might open up opportunities to target markets you otherwise wouldn’t have considered. The proof is in the data, and using this can propel your campaigns ahead of the competition.”
Account for Multi-Touch Attribution When Analyzing Referral Sources
While it’s important to track which digital marketing platforms convert leads into leases, conversion isn’t the only goal to keep in mind. Each kind of advertising plays a different role in a full-fledged marketing strategy, and not all lead sources should be measured with the same weight.
Traditional TV spots and display ads may work to target a wider audience to build brand awareness, and can be combined with PPC ads, retargeting and lead generation geared toward capturing lower funnel leads.
“If you’re only keeping track of the last touch before conversion, you’re missing 90% of the story,” Mesick says. “In order to understand the sales funnel and how someone goes from first hearing about the property to signing a lease, you need to know how each piece of your marketing puzzle leads people down the pipeline. This will help you make decisions about who to target, where to spend your marketing dollars, and what your message should be at each step.”
Your property needs to have a solid grip on which digital platforms convert at the highest rate, because PPC leads don’t always deliver the most relevant leads, particularly if not precisely targeted. Just because a PPC ad campaign garners a lot of clicks, that success doesn’t necessarily translate into more leases and profit.
“When looking at all of our traffic, if the majority of our traffic is coming from PPC, well that’s kind of a problem,” Gould says. “Because, that PPC traffic converts lower and just tends to not be as high quality, not as organic.”
Use Data to Study Multifamily Market Trends, Consumer Insights
With the right reporting set up, property management can better understand which digital channels perform better than others and which campaigns are underperforming. They can glean what changes to PPC ads they should make going forward and know what to expect during certain times of the year, as well as track conversions and configure ROI for each campaign.
Over time, the data also helps property managers and their marketing cohorts spot local or seasonal trends, study online browsing behaviors and nail down their target audiences. It’s a never-ending game of analyzing and adjusting, Gould says.
“What is the right radius to be in? Is it five miles or eight miles? Well, that depends on the market,” Gould explains. “It could be two miles if you’re in a really saturated, more urban market. With the right data, you can find the answer to any question you want to ask and create targeted ads that work.”
Helpful Google Resources to Get You Started
Google’s Help Center offers some great resources to help you optimize your PPC advertising, see your reports and more. Use these articles to get started:
Most PMCs have an established process for how they handle their leads. Just because that’s the way you’ve always done it, doesn’t mean it’s the best way today. The pandemic changed a lot for consumers. The need for isolation meant more needed to happen online, and consumers became more digital; embracing technology in new ways to research and purchase everything from groceries to cars. With so many people spending more time at home, a great many of them decided to relocate to a more suitable home, leading to a surge in leasing activity unlike anything we’ve seen before. With more young renters and those that are new digital buyers all looking for apartments at the same time, leasing activity began to shift to be more online.
As the volume of renters in the market rose, supply and demand changes forced those renters to begin exploring their options earlier. In fact, a recent PERQ study indicated nearly half of renters begin looking online 3 or more months in advance, a change over prior years’ result.
To compete today, you need to be very good at generating leads digitally and very good at nurturing those leads the way today’s modern renters wish to be engaged.
In our experience, it’s best to approach apartment rental lead generation and nurturing through experimentation and observation. But know that not every customer will react the same to the same marketing touch. Lead follow-up and conversions depend on where the customer is at in their buying journey and their personal communication preferences (more on that later.)
It’s time to remove the guesswork and apply these 20 creative techniques for rental leads.
1. TREAT YOUR WEBSITE LIKE YOUR TOP MARKETING CHANNEL
Recognize that your website is your greatest asset. When a website converts leads to leases, you get new lease revenue at a low cost, so having this perform well for you is paramount.
To get the most out of your website, you need to be able to engage in the ways that consumers now expect. Since today’s apartment shopper is looking months in advance and doing considerable research on their own before they are ready to tour, we need to be able to engage with them the way they want. They want to explore multiple properties, understand neighborhoods, compare floor plans and rental rates to develop a short list. And they want to do it 24/7/365. But multifamily teams are not equipped with the staff to engage with these shoppers in this way. It’s simply more than lean teams can handle.
Platforms like PERQ are designed to engage today’s digital renters. It’s natural language chatbot gathers info from the prospect and uses it to personalize the automated nurture messaging. PERQ can help guide the prospect in their shopping journey by showing them floor plans in their budget, units with amenities they are looking for, and answering their questions 24/7.
2. CREATE COMPELLING NEXT STEPS FOR THE PROSPECT
With AI technology, you’re able to create personalized interactions for the prospect based on their online behavior. Do they respond better to touches in SMS vs. email? AI software can proactively determine the next best touch.
By making the consumer journey more personalized and easier to follow for the prospect, they will become endeared to your brand.
3. INTERACTIVE TOOLS THAT INFORM
Signing a lease is a big financial and emotional commitment. Committing to paying a fixed rate every month and moving to a new location makes the decision to sign a lease with a property one that takes a lot of thought. Multifamily properties can help prospects in their decision-making process by having interactive online tools such as a rent calculator to give them an idea of total costs, including utilities, and a community-fit assessment so they can see upfront if the area has what they’re looking for without having to visit.
These sorts of interactive tools also help weed out low-intent leads from those that are serious and qualified to apply.
4. ENGAGE LEADS WITH VIDEO
Draw the customer in with a customized video on your website or in follow-up emails. From a tour of the community to a tour of the specific floor plans they were looking at, video increases traffic and interest.
“Prospective residents or shoppers can gather information online, engage with a video tour, and, for a growing number of consumers, that’s enough to make them convert or sign a lease. Video is the way to do that,” says Matt Weirich, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Realync, a video-leasing platform company that partners with PERQ to embed tour videos on our AI-powered website platform on multifamily property websites. Weirich goes more into the importance of video below:
5. SPECIAL PROMOTIONS
Build in special offers on your company’s website or in follow-up emails, but be sure those promotions are geared towards the floor plans and specific amenities the person is looking for in their next lease.
The goal is to entice a prospect and make them walk through your doors and say, ‘Hey, I have this offer I received on your website.”
6. AI CHATBOTS
Chatbots have become popular in the multifamily industry these past few years. Not only does an AI chatbot make your website more interactive, it can offer support and answer questions 24/7. Prospects don’t need to wait for the leasing office to open and can get what they are looking for much faster. The conversations a prospect has with the chatbot are also typically available in their guest card in the CRM, so leasing teams know what not to ask and can enter the initial conversation more prepared. With so many chatbots geared towards multifamily websites to choose from, knowing the main differences in how they “chat” is important.
There’s natural language chatbots and rule-based chatbots. Natural language chatbots are also called AI chatbots and they talk to prospects in a more natural way. For the prospect, they are having a real conversation, similar to that with a human, and can get their questions answered faster. With rules-based chatbots, prospects go through prompts that are set as “rules” and may or may not get their initial questions answered. Have you ever called customer service and got a robot menu telling you to “Press 1 for x, press 2 for…”? That’s the same logic as a rule-based chatbot except instead of a phone, the prospect is typing the answers on your website. This can be more frustrating. When looking between the two, a natural language chatbot gives a better user experience and therefore better customer service.
7. QUALIFIED LEADS ONLY
Not all people who visit your property website are ready to tour or even sign a lease. How they interact with your website provides insight into where they are in the leasing journey. Your messages to them need to appropriately match where they are in the leasing process.
PERQ’s lead generation and nurture platform uses AI technology to automate the management of your leads. It understands where a prospect is in the funnel and handles all the follow up, until your leads are ready to speak to a member of the team. Using this kind of technology helps to save time for your team. No more sifting through leads and hoping that the ones you’ve picked are serious and qualified to rent.
8. INTERACTIVE FLOOR PLANS
Prospects love a 3D interactive floor plan. It allows for them to fully picture the unit without having to visit in person. Whether it’s health or being located out of state, there are lots of reasons a serious prospect might not be able to come in and tour in person.
Above, we mentioned engaging through video in follow-up. The interactive floor plan models take this a step further to keep them engaged on your property website longer.
Prospects look at multiple property websites before deciding which ones to continue to engage with. The longer a prospect is on your website, the more data you can collect on them, and the more memorable your property will be. Having 3D floor plan models will help you stand out in a crowded market.
9. QUICK RESPONSE TIMES
Respond quickly to renter leads who are in the market rent now to increase your chances of catching the consumer while they’re still engaged. Immediately connecting with a qualified customer who is already on your site and engaged, decreases the chances they’ll go to a competitor’s website. One way to do this is with an AI leasing assistant solution, like the one in the PERQ platform. It keeps apartment rental leads engaged and answers their questions 24/7, so they don’t have to wait for business hours.
10. RESIDENT TESTIMONIALS & BLOGS
Having a blog for any kind of business is a good move. Sending outbound communications with resident testimonials and/or links to your blog posts about what it’s like to live in your community is a great way to personalize your multifamily outreach and give it a more human touch. While consumers expect automation now, it’s important to remember that there is an emotional aspect to renting.
These blogs and testimonials don’t need to be sent out with every touch; they can be added in when the prospect is closer to talking to a leasing specialist to help solidify their decision.
11. CONVENIENT SCHEDULING
Include scheduling tools on your website so serious prospects can easily arrange a tour of your apartment community.
Getting them to visit in person is more than half the battle to convert online leads. Let them make the first move, and conveniently do so on their own time. Talk about instant gratification!
12. A CLEAN CRM
A crowded and cluttered CRM is bad for any business. In multifamily, it leads to leads being lost or overlooked. A messy CRM takes up a lot of the leasing team’s time and gives them more work than they need. Having lead generation and nurture tools allows for only the high-intent apartment rental leads to be stored in your CRM.
A less crowded CRM that only has good leads in it means that leasing teams can do their jobs more efficiently and properly.
13. EMAIL, TEXT, OR PHONE?
Each customer prefers a specific way to communicate — phone, email, text, chat or in-person. To build trust, follow up with your customers via their preferred method of contact.
With the preferred method also comes a preferred time of day. Contacting serious leads during a time they have stated they are most likely to respond is equally important. According to PERQ data, nationally, renters prefer email follow-up in the morning. Read our article to learn other tips for effective text communication.
14. AUTOMATE LEAD FOLLOW-UP CAMPAIGNS
Use automated nurture campaigns tailored to the various stages of the leasing journey, so your team can dedicate their time where it counts – in person relationship building.
The best nurture approaches use more than one channel, like SMS and text and adjust the scheduled emails or text messages to automatically arrive at a cadence appropriate for each prospect.
15. INSIGHTFUL DATA TO BACK FOLLOW-UP
When the team is crafting a unique email to a prospect, be sure to include some personalized customer information. Leveraging in-depth customer data garnered from your website platform or CRM creates an instant connection with prospects and helps your salespeople start the conversation from a position of insight.
16. PAY ATTENTION TO INDUSTRY TRENDS
Smart website technology gives your company valuable consumer behavior insights. By regularly analyzing that data, you can spot trends and anticipate the evolving wants and needs in your market. Proactively sharing valuable content that highlights the latest trends in your industry or helpful advice can reignite their interest in your property by giving them a reason to think about you and helping them with research. Content such as “5 tips for hiring a moving company” or “What you should ask on a property tour” are great examples.
17. THE RIGHT CRM
The right CRM is of utmost importance when trying to collect, track and analyze large sets of consumer lead data. A lot happens in the digital space and it continues to evolve. Look for a data management system that provides valuable information you can sort and prioritize and works as an extension of your team.
“We utilize our CRM to leverage our data as best we can,” says Marcella Eppsteiner, Vice President of Marketing at Mission Rock Residential. “We overlay our website insights in terms of prospect engagement with a series of other data points, from our property management software and Google Analytics, just to better understand the activity of the consumer.”
18. LEVERAGE DATA TO INCREASE HIGHER QUALITY LEADS TO YOUR WEBSITE
As we discussed, you can capture a lot of data about a consumer, when they’re in the market to rent, for example, what amenities they want the most in an apartment; what they want in the community; and the activities they enjoy most. Leverage the most common answers in your digital engagement efforts to help you make decisions on site improvements and rental rates and use these to attract higher quality website visitors and retarget leads who already visited your site.
19. IMPROVE THE CONVERSATION
Your sales teams can learn a lot about leads on your website. Have them leverage the data in the CRM so they are more likely to close the sale, either by phone, chat, text, or email. Again, if a visitor told you they prefer a text, don’t make your first outreach a call. A text might start: “I saw you were looking at the two-bedroom floor plan with two-baths on our site, (Insert first name). Did you have any questions I can help you with? Being personable and helpful can go a long way.
20. DON’T FORGET TO SAY THANK YOU
In these times of advanced technology and digital messaging, people still appreciate when a company takes the time to send a handwritten thank-you note or follow up with a phone call after an initial in-person interaction. Connecting on a personal level is the touchstone of any creative lead follow-up strategy.
“Use emotional intelligence to handle interpersonal relationships with knowledge and care, while factoring in and understanding different circumstances impact lead follow-up,” says Catherine Azar, Director of Property Management for Barratt Asset Management. “Good salespeople are really important.”
PERQ integrates with your existing website and lead sources to engage, nurture and convert every lead, improving the multifamily leasing journey for everyone. Learn how PERQ it works or request a demo.
