Chatbots are not new to the internet. 67% of consumers worldwide had an interaction with chatbots last year. Whether improving customer experience or collecting information, chatbots have made their way into every industry. In real estate, they are used to interact with prospects and convert more clients. They are quick, smart, and user-friendly--making them the fastest-growing communication channels.
As the CRE industry highly depends on lead conversions, consistent lead interactions are important. Chatbots can handle many real estate processes. Let’s look at the top reasons why you need to use chatbot technology to improve property management.
Digital Rental Application
Chatbots have made rental applications easier and quicker. Instead of filling long complicated forms for every property listing, they can simply upload all their information through the chatbot. This lets AI display relevant listings for you and also send digital rental applications. Prospects who are interested in a specific listing can choose to leave their contact information or fill in their digital forms, all at the comfort of their home. They can also keep track of the applications submitted by them.
Pre-Screening Tenants
Not every lead generated through your website suits your business. Filtering hundreds of applications to identify good leads can be tedious. You might also miss out on some good tenants by overlooking certain applications. Chatbots can carry out a conversation to collect predetermined information. It can further filter leads based on this information to identify good leads. For example, if you do not allow pets, you can collect this information during pre-screening through a chatbot. This way, only those leads who do not keep pets are filtered out for further action.
Automated Follow-Ups
Generating leads is not as difficult as nurturing and retaining them. According to IRC Sales, 44% of salespeople stop following up after a single failed attempt. But 98% of sales happen only after more than one follow-ups. Chatbots can eliminate this problem by automating lead follow-ups. You can send scheduled personalized messages to your leads through emails and texts. Chatbots can also collect any additional information and redirect important emails and texts to the relevant staff. This helps you to nurture your leads through AI and also handle it manually when required.
More Lead Conversions
Prospects looking at your property listing can send in an inquiry anytime they want. During office hours, your staff can handle such queries. But after office hours, replies to lead inquiries get delayed. According to Vendasta, 78% of customers buy from a company that responds to them first. You can either hire many people to keep up with customer queries or implement a chatbot. With chatbots, you can instantly reply to any prospects to collect relevant information, no matter what time it is. They can also handle multiple prospects at a single time. This increases the chances of conversion as leads develop a positive feeling about your listing.
Virtual Property Tours
Virtual or self-guided property tools have recently become more popular. During a time when people prefer contactless technology, self-guided tours have become a boon to the real estate industry. AI-based chatbots can give 360-degree virtual tours within the application itself. This helps prospects examine the property without visiting it.
Or, interested leads can also opt for self-guided tours. Through the chatbot, leads can schedule an appointment to tour the property. They can use the bot to ask questions, collect information and send in queries. The bot fills the gap of an agent and helps deliver a complete property touring experience to the prospect.
Better Time Management
One of the biggest purposes of using AI chatbots is saving time. Chatbots can handle multiple prospects at a single time. It can interact with them with the same speed and accuracy. This can free up most of your staff that is focused on simple and small tasks. For example, the chatbot eliminates unqualified leads by collecting information. So your sales team needs to focus on a smaller number of pre-qualified clients, saving time and effort. Chatbots can handle the most mundane processes and complete tasks where human interaction is not an absolute necessity. This can boost efficiency and productivity as your staff can focus on other important tasks.
Easier Property Maintenance
Property managers receive a lot of maintenance requests every day. You can better organize your property maintenance through chatbots. They can open tickets for tenants to submit maintenance requests. As the bots are available 24x7, tenants can submit their requests anytime. If a staff member isn't available to handle the issue immediately, the chatbot can collect necessary information and forward it to the relevant person. It can also organize the requests based on priority, so you can deal with the high-priority ones first. All the maintenance requests are stored in the database, so you can keep track and handle all of them.
Better Management
Chatbots use a variety of technology such as artificial intelligence and natural language processing. This enables the bot to understand and process user messages. Even though it is a robot, the chatbot tries to generate human-like responses to prospect queries. Instead of templated answers, chatbots can read and understand prospect replies to send relevant answers. This increased engagement between the prospect and bot helps retain more leads.
For example, Yardi’s RENTCafé Chat IQ uses natural language processing to understand texts regardless of spelling and grammatical errors. It can easily read user messages that use abbreviations and slang to give custom responses.
Automate Your Property Management Through Assetsoft
Implementing chatbot technology requires the right knowledge and expertise. At Assetsoft, we have helped several clients choose and integrate the right tools for their business. Through platforms like Yardi, MRI, and Procore, we can help you leverage the best features--chatbot technology and more! We also help clients harness the benefits of automation through RPA, IoT, and AI Forecasting. Our experienced staff can provide practical solutions to all your property management problems.
To start with property management automation, reach out to us at Assetsoft!