How Contact Centers Improve Work/Life Balance for Property Management Staff

Sometimes, the simple things can improve work/life balance in property management. Just having someone there to pick up the phone, answer an email or respond to a live chat request can give a leasing staff much needed breathing room, no matter the time of day or night.

Single family property managers can’t always be there to take every leasing inquiry or maintenance call, especially when call volumes are high. And believing that most prospects or tenants will call back if they don’t get an answer or reply right away is a false assumption. Covering the bases and providing a great customer experience can be stressful without a little help.

“Running a business is not an easy task, which we all know typically comes with wearing a ton of hats,” said rental industry leader Hannah Lau, a Vice President of Operations at RealPage, Inc. “We have found during office hours that the contact center can capture 50 percent of calls that would have gone to voicemail, of which 80 percent will not leave a message and 55 percent won’t inquire again.”

Associates at Blackwell Property Management in Charles Town, W.V. know first-hand the value of a contact center. Since choosing Propertyware Contact Center, the full-service property management company has been able to focus on improved customer service and grow business knowing that inbound inquiries are getting handled around the clock.

Enabling staff life after business hours

“Propertyware Contact Center gave us back our private lives, so for the first time we can really leave work behind when we leave the office,” said associate Melissa Francis.

Propertyware Contact Center ensures management companies like Blackwell Property Management are open for business after hours. Professionally-trained, live agents are an extension of the front office, capturing every leasing call and email and offering 24/7 maintenance request support on multiple channels.

The Leasing Contact Center ensures every call and email is answered in real-time, no exceptions, by live agents who are trained to fit the specific needs of the property and sales strategy. The solution has proved to enable users to sign 2.7 times more leases.

Improving customer service without hiring new employees

Patrick Blood said the Contact Center has enabled Blackwell Property Management to improve service without adding headcount. The company’s property listings have doubled in size as a result.

“When a client calls they are speaking with someone who’s seeing their account live,” he said. “This attention to detail has allowed us to double our doors in the past year, taking us from 200 to 400 properties under management.”

A contact center enables properties to optimize workforces, understand where their leads originate, gain market visibility and deliver consistent quality, among other advantages.

Maintenance teams have become essential to the image of property management companies over the years. The Propertyware Contact Center is committed to providing a great tenant experience when repairs or services need to be completed. A proprietary dispatching system allows maintenance techs or vendors to listen to a recording of the conversation between the tenant and the Contact Center agent. This allows the technician to become familiar with the issue, even before even contacting the tenant.

In addition, the vendor is provided with a work order with pertinent details in your Propertyware system, such as the issue, whether or not pets are inside, and if there are locks on the door.

It’s a level of customer service that goes above and beyond.

“We’d need two more eight-hour shifts to match the benefits we receive from the Propertyware Contact Center,” Blood said.

Learn how Propertyware Contact Center can support your business.