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...

Drones are unstoppable. Within the next one to three years we’ll receive our orders via drones if the private sector and government work hand in hand. Giants like Google and Amazon, and Wal-Mart have all announced working on developing their own fleet of drones to ship orders. The main setback remains the number of regulatory issues which need ironing out first. Currently, businesses interested in flying drones for commercial purposes need to seek approval from the Federal Aviation Administration on a case-by-case basis. Furthermore, under current drone rules, companies aren’t allowed to fly drones at night and drone operators can’t fly more than one drone at a time—well, except for the special show Intel prepared in collaboration with Ars Electronica Futurelab near Hamburg where four drone operators had each 25 drones under their command. You can watch the thing of beauty in the below video. Earlier this year, FAA Administrator Michael Huerta announced that the government plans to finalize its drone rules for commercial operations by late spring. The FAA enlisted a handful a drone makers, industry advocates, and retailers such as Google to help create the registration system and rules. The respective registration system came online in late December; since then 181,000 drones have been logged in its database. Google has been exploring the use of drones for deliveries over the past three years. Research continues under Dave Vos, head of Google X’s Project Wing experimental drone delivery program. At an aviation industry event in Washington, he stated that drones will be safer than general aviation and that they’ll operate quietly enough so as to not disturb anyone. According to Vos and his Jetsonian vision, people will eventually be transported from one point to another via autonomous airplanes. “Moving people and stuff around...