Understanding the needs of homeowners and tenants

When it comes to understanding tenants needs, there is a huge gap between property managers’ perceptions and those of the residents.


That is according to a recent survey by US company Building Engines.


For example, 66% of building management teams communicate with tenants via phone, while only 4% of tenant employees plan to use this method in the future, according to the survey.


At Urbytus, we have been testing a prototype of Facebook integration, by means of which we allow residents to interact with a chatbot that gives them access to information of the community such as meeting records and electricity consumption. It also allows them to report issues without overloading the property manager’s inbox.


The main objective of using Facebook to communicate with users is that this is one of their most used social networks / apps. We realised that very few of them would go through the hassle of downloading a new app in order to communicate with property managers, service providers and with the community’s board.


Other communications channels currently under study include WhatsApp and even offline post-it notes.


Regarding the gap between property managers and tenants, the online publication Propmodo quotes Phil Mobley from Building Engines saying that “…real estate people have historically thought of their ‘customer’ as the single day-to-day contact person at each tenant, or maybe the lease signer. But the reality is that every person in the building is a customer, and building owners and managers are tasked with delivering a positive experience to all of them because tenants demand it for their employees. We need to do a better job helping them reach this audience.”

We have seen an increased interest by asset managers to better-communicate with residents in homeowners associations and also in commercial real estate. The future development of software in our niche should facilitate this process by collecting the right data and allowing users to interact in a seamless way.

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