When it comes to customer service, your residents aren’t asking for the moon. They just want relevant responses and timely help. Fortunately for property marketers and managers, automation solutions make this “dream land” a reality. These powerful tools help you not only meet those expectations but soar above them. At the upcoming 2019 Florida Apartment Association Annual Conference in Orlando, you’ll have the chance to create your own “customer service flight plan.” Yardi is sponsoring a session titled “Houston, We Have a Problem: Customer Service Levels Are Low” with Don Sanders, principal of Trainer Don’s World. Through the lens of automation, Don will explore the past, present and future of customer service, discussing creative ideas and techniques for delivering stellar experiences. Don has been in the multifamily housing industry for over two decades, and his presentations are fueled by his real-life work. His FAA session promises to be highly energetic and useful, so make sure to attend if you’re going to the conference. While you’re there, touch down at Booth 500 for a quick chat or demo. We’ll be showcasing the RENTCafé Suite, which offers marketing automation solutions that help you streamline repetitive tasks and deliver targeted content to your prospects and residents. Here’s a preview of what you can explore at the trade show: Give prospects a launch schedule to pick from Customer service begins with accessibility. Today’s prospective renter is soaring down the proverbial “home search runway,” and they need smart, simple and efficient ways to connect with your property. They need tools and technology that allow them to manage their time and search with the click of a button.  RENTCafé‘s self-scheduled tours feature gives prospects the ability to book their own appointments, directly from your website. Leasing office staff get notified...

Stress comes in different forms. The anticipation of relocating, weighing our housing options, and investing in a new lease or mortgage all lead to stress. When we’re hit with stress, we seek human interaction for help and comfort. Yet in the age of efficiency, stressed-out prospects and residents are channeled to self-service technologies like websites, apps, and robot assistants. When we fail to balance automation with the human touch, we distance ourselves from our customers and our relationships falter. Humans Prefer Humans to Close Deals Harvard Business School conducted a study on how people feel about their investment choices with and without the assistance of a human advocate. Researchers published their findings in an article in Harvard Business Review. The study reveals that, “anxious customers interacting through self-service technology feel dissatisfied with their decisions even when those decisions appear aligned with their goals. Their dissatisfaction reduced their trust in the service provider.” Researchers were able to boost investor confidence and decrease anxiety with the addition of human interaction. In some cases, the human was a peer. In other cases, the human was an investment expert. In both scenarios, “when people had the ability to connect with another person – either an expert or a peer – the deleterious effects of anxiety were offset. “ The ability to interact with a human also increases the likelihood of closing a deal. In the experiment, applicants moving forward with the deal jumped from 64 percent to 80 percent when customers receiving automated messages were also invited to interact with a human for guidance. RentCafe Connect: Streamlined Efficiency with a Human Touch As a software company, we take pride in the efficiencies that we can offer through automated services. But we also acknowledge that the human element is essential...

Leading executives will head to Washington D.C. this November to attend one of the senior living industry’s preeminent annual events, the Argentum Fall Symposium. The conference is set to take place November 8-10 at the Courtyard Washington Downtown Convention Center. The event program features three areas of focus for attendees to choose from: sales and occupancy, quality and operational efficiency, and workforce development. Sessions will focus on generating powerful business ideas to improve operations, including the importance of developing an organizational culture that will attract and retain top talent. Yardi is the sponsor of the conference keynote presentation given by Dee Ann Turner, vice president of sustainability for Chick-fil-A and corporate talent expert. Turner brings more than thirty years of experience hiring and developing talent and transforming organizational culture. She works with companies around the globe, helping transform businesses with an “It’s my pleasure” service model. According to Turner, two of the most important differentiators of a business are its talent and its culture. She believes businesses are built by growing relationships with customers and culture is created by the stories those relationships tell. When companies recognize the value of individuals, they succeed not only ethically, but financially as well. “We’re not in the chicken business, we’re in the people business,” says Turner of Chick-fil-A, which was named the number one fast food restaurant in America. “For us, in our quest to impact lives, selling chicken is only a means to an end.” She learned all the wisdom she shares from Chick-fil-A’s founder, Truett Cathy, who was known for recruiting top-tier talent and cultivating and nurturing a culture rooted in integrity, loyalty, generosity and excellence. “A company’s culture is its soul. It will define the way employees interact with one another and guests and has the potential to reach...

We already have robots serving us in different industries: they build our cars, entertain the family, and defuse bombs. A new bot has emerged from IBM’s labs as a result of collaboration with Hilton Worldwide—the first Watson-enabled robot concierge in the hospitality industry, Connie. Connie, named for Hilton’s founder Conrad Hilton, represents the first time IBM has developed a Watson-enabled robot for the hospitality sector. The automaton can already be found in the Hilton McLean hotel in Virginia, where it will work with Hilton’s team members as a regular concierge, answering questions about nearby restaurants, tourist attractions, and hotel information. Connie will not be able to check guests in to the hotel. The 23-inch wonder (that’s 58 centimeters) has as physical support Nao, a French-made android (Aldebaran) that has become the first platform used for educational and customer care tasks, partly because its relative affordability—approximately $9,000. Connie is more about brains than looks though as its brain is based on IBM’s flagship AI program Watson, the Jeopardy!-winning system engineered to understand people’s questions and answer them. Connie’s brain uses a combination of Watson APIs, including Dialog, Speech to Text, Text to Speech, Text to Speech and Natural Language Classifier, enabling it to greet guests upon arrival, and to answer questions about the hotel’s amenities, services and hours of operation. The information on local attractions and interesting sites is actually channeled from the travel platform WayBlazer’s database, also an IBM partners. What’s more interesting is how Connie improves itself through interactions with human customers, learning how to fine-tune its recommendations. “This project with Hilton and WayBlazer represents an important shift in human-machine interaction, enabled by the embodiment of Watson’s cognitive computing,” said Rob High, IBM fellow and vice president and chief technology officer for IBM Watson....

Deena Howell’s granddaughter sells an uncanny amount of Girl Scout cookies. “That’s because I taught her everything she knows about sales,” Howell smiles with a twinkle in her eye. “That’s why she’s so good at selling those cookies.” For nearly a decade, Howell worked as a leasing agent before becoming a trainer with her company. The skills she learned in the field benefited her throughout her entire career and well into her retirement as a leader in her granddaughter’s troop. Through her own experiences and training others, Howell has discovered seven pointers that help decent leasing consultants become stellar. Practice Empathy in Action Rather than selling from a script or promoting things that you like about the community, take the time to understand prospects’ needs and interests. Use those points to present the home that is right for them. “Make that unit seem like it was made for them rather than selling the first available unit. When you understand them, you understand what they need to hear and see.” Learn Active Listening Listening and processing information is vital to effective communication, especially with investments like a home. “Listening is the single best way to learn what the prospect really wants and how to sell it to them,” says Howell. “Even repeat info back to them to clarify. They will appreciate that you’re trying to understand them and they’ll trust your insights later on.” Sell Value, Not a Product “We don’t just sell a unit,” says Howell. “We sell a home, a lifestyle and possibilities.” The floor plan may encourage prospects to call but selling the lifestyle and the future possibilities will get them to sign the lease and renew later. Keep Learning About the Community This is especially important if you commute to work....