PropTech Solutions Aimed at Improving the Tenant Experience

With a whole world of PropTech options available, which of these are worth your while? Simply put, you should be looking for opportunities to make you and your tenants’ lives easier. We’ll walk you through the tech solutions that should be on your radar.

These days, buzzwords are flying all over the place, but there’s one phrase that property managers should definitely pay attention to: PropTech. It’s a catchall phrase that encompasses technology related to real estate property (compare it to a similar buzzword for the financial services industry: FinTech). PropTech encompasses every aspect of the business, from construction and security to accounting and engineering. Increasingly, PropTech is being developed especially to serve property managers.

Arguably the reason for PropTech’s warm embrace by tenants: it’s easy use via apps on smartphones. PropTech allows tenants to do everything from entering and locking their spaces, turning on their lights and their coffeemaker, contacting the landlord, seeing who is at their door via video, order food and services and even paying rent right on their phones. Using technology to connect devices often goes by the term “The Internet of Things” (IoT), which became an $87 million industry last year, according to The Huffington Post.

The hottest PropTech Trends

Virtual Reality (VR): allows prospective buyers and tenants to view or “walk through” properties from anywhere, getting a detailed and true-to-life view of the property.

The Internet of Things (IoT): mentioned above, the IoT describes physical things (refrigerators, lights, HVAC) that are connected to the Internet. There will be over 20 billion connected devices by 2020, according to Gartner.

Rental platforms: link tenants and landlords through digital platforms so that they can find each other. Personalized data given here will make for a faster match.

Chat Bots: automated messengers that help capture leads and give better tenant service. They hold conversations with tenants and obtain needed information. Can serve property managers 24/7.

Other types of PropTech include:

Drones: used mainly by construction firms, these robots can monitor projects, prevent delays, gather data and help developers reduce risk.

Blockchain: an online recording of everybody involved in a real estate project and the involved paperwork and reporting. Participants include buyers, sellers, vendors and managers. Financial transactions are included here too, increasing transparency and greatly speeding up the entire process.

Geolocation: think of Google Maps with a little extra, including information for each property shown on the map. This can include building type, value, and area points of interest. A great tool for investors and for potential tenants/buyers.

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As more companies are shifting their tech focus from proprietary software to cloud-based tools, PropTech is becoming mainstream. Software-as-service phone apps will become a $186 billion market in 2018, according to Geekwire. That’s a huge 21 percent jump compared to 2017.

As much as tenants love PropTech, it’s also becoming a huge win for landlords and property managers. PropTech often requires personal information to be entered before it can be used by tenants. That precious information can be utilized for strengthening satisfaction and loyalty by learning more about the tenant makeup of a property. The technology sheds a brighter light on tenant experience and helps show where improvements, changes and alterations can and need to be made. The hopeful result is to earn tenant loyalty and trust, and to strengthen your return on investment.

In the Information Age, data like this is everything. Over 81 percent of companies say they have difficulty generating business intelligence that’s meaningful, according to CIO. In addition, 77 percent of companies say that they lose revenue as a result of inaccurate data. PropTech helps to accurately integrate different aspects of business in order to get a more solid footing on how the numbers are moving — and why.

As the property management industry becomes more digitized, you’ll need to closely navigate PropTech options that will make your job easier and your tenants’ experience more positive.

The right PropTech tools can help you answer questions and uncover insights and truths about your tenants. You can go beyond just knowing who is in your building to finding out why they’re there, what they want, what they don’t want, and more.

Here are just a few examples of how PropTech can be a property manager’s best friend:

• Demographics: There is PropTech available to help you calculate your tenant makeup by gender, age, title, interests and more. Tenants usually do not mind giving this type of information if it will help the property become more useful and meaningful to them.
• Traffic Patterns. Find out which areas of your property are used most, such as common rooms, elevators, pools, gyms and even entrances. This can help you prioritize tenant amenities to consider, identify safety vulnerabilities and determine appropriate preventative maintenance methods for these high-traffic areas.
• Tenant Satisfaction. Tenant-facing PropTech can ask tenants how they feel about certain aspects of the property, from HVAC to safety and Internet to elevator service convienently and seamlessly. Being able to satisfy issues quickly and efficiently will strengthen tenant satisfaction.
• Tenant Interaction. Find out if you have the type of tenants who may appreciate more community engagement. Gauge their interests on gatherings, such as welcome yoga classes, a summer BBQ or tenant meetings where they can voice their concerns.

Click here to read more about the latest tech for property managers.

When developing your PropTech mix, be sure to include emergency communications. Kings III Emergency Communications uses technology specifically designed to provide direct, emergency response whenever needed. Tenants will appreciate that you are including life-saving communication and follow-through using state-of-the-art technology. Kings III fields emergency calls from your property with a dispatch team that helps you stay informed of any emergency. This reduces risk, liability and costs. Most importantly, it helps saves lives and reinforces tenant satisfaction by providing a concierge-like service when they need help most.

Kings III staffs Advanced Emergency Medical Dispatch certified (AEMD) dispatchers on shift, a certification often not required by 911 call centers. That means they are skilled in providing pre-arrival instructions as needed. The AEMD certification exceeds all national requirements and trains the operator in giving the exact response that the situation demands.

Learn more about enhancing the tenant experience via life safety solutions by reaching out to us.