How to Get More Tours with Less Work
Learn how you can leverage technology to get more tours with less work for your leasing team.
December 15, 2020
Marketing
Let’s face it, leasing teams have their plates full. They are tasked with helping residents with their frequent requests, conducting tours, and responding to inquiries. With all of these demands, it can be difficult for leasing teams to find the time to simply connect with prospects and schedule tour appointments. Plus, social distancing protocols and stay-at-home orders hamper the normal ability to make personal connections.
So, we are left with the age-old question—how to get more with less. Fortunately, when it comes to apartment tours, there is a solution. We are connecting with loved ones over Zoom, holding business meetings virtually and conducting most of our day-to-day activities online. We are ordering groceries, dinner and shopping on Amazon, not just to stay safe, but also for the convenience. This has conditioned us to think that every shopping experience should be easy and convenient. The leasing process is no different. Properties that create engaging and virtual experiences are finding that they are able to schedule more tours with less work on their leasing teams. That means leveraging technology to meet renters on their terms and through their desired communication channel.
Here are two ways you can leverage technology to get more tours with less work for your leasing team:
Not all prospects are available during your leasing office business hours. So, how do you capture those prospects for a tour? Stay open 24/7 with a virtual leasing assistant. To capture every leasing opportunity around the clock, you need to offer multiple ways for prospects to connect with you. A virtual leasing assistant can offer an engaging experience through voice, chat and text. The same Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology that powers Google's Home Assistant powers ACE, LeaseHawk’s virtual leasing assistant.
ACE is the industry’s only virtual assistant that gives your prospects the ability to engage with you through voice, chat and text. It gives your prospects the same, consistent experience across every communication channel. It’s like having a leasing agent on your team that works around the clock to answer over 170 leasing questions, collect guest card information and set appointments when your team is unavailable.
The average multifamily property misses nearly 50% of all their phone calls. And to make matters worse, when a prospect reaches out, they expect someone to answer and if they don’t 87% will not leave a message. That’s a lot of missed opportunities for scheduling tours.
With ACE, leasing teams can schedule more tours without ever needing to pick up the phone. They can be confident that ACE is doing its job to answer prospect calls, 24/7. It conversationally answers leasing questions, collects guest cards, and schedules tour appointments. Speaking of appointments, ACE converted 35% of prospect calls to appointments (2020 YTD, through Nov. 30).
Some management companies, like MC Companies, are seeing even higher conversion rates. “In order to successfully operate in this new leasing landscape, you need to leverage technology to connect with prospects on their terms,” says Ken McElroy, CEO of MC Companies. “As an extension of our leasing team, ACE converts over 51% of prospect calls to appointments.”
Wonder what a virtual leasing assistant sounds like? Watch this video to find out:
There are still many properties that have reduced their hours of operation and onsite tour times. So, the virtual guided tour is becoming more and more common. A virtual guided tour is any tour facilitated by a leasing agent where the prospect is not physically at the property. This tour requires the use of video conferencing technology such as GoToMeeting, Microsoft Teams and Zoom. This type of meeting allows the lease prospect to meet with a leasing agent as well as view a community and unit from the comfort of their own home—or really, anywhere with an internet connection.
The on-site self-guided tour is a self-showing where a prospect is given a code to access a unit without being accompanied by a leasing agent. This is the safest on-premise method for allowing your potential renter to tour an apartment. This technology gives the rental prospect temporary access to the property. Not only is a leasing agent not required to be present, the registering and scheduling of this tour is handled online. So, your lease prospect can schedule and conduct their own on-site tour without ever interacting with a human being.
Whether you offer virtual tours or onsite guided or self-guided tours, ACE is there to schedule the appointment so your leasing team can focus on higher value activities like closing leases. Day or night, ACE will ensure you never miss another leasing opportunity and give your prospects a consistent and engaging experience.
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By adding new technology, the diversified multifamily REIT with approximately 52,600 apartment homes, has been able to increase its tour volume, conducting upwards of 40 self-guided tours per day while employing only a fraction of multi-functional office personnel at a given community.
Are prospects still calling? Survey says… most definitely yes! According to LeaseHawk user data collected in 2020, over half of the inbound communications received by properties were phone calls. But is your leasing office answering?
ACE™ Virtual Leasing Assistant is diligently working at hundreds of communities across the country to engage with prospects 24/7. From the millions of interactions that ACE has handled, we have learned a lot about your prospective renters—so, we thought we would share!
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