Change can be a scary thing for individuals, and it’s no different for businesses. When you look at changing processes, even if you know they’ll benefit your business, whether that be through time saved, money saved, or the ability to provide better customer service, many times taking the jump to initiate change simply doesn’t happen due fear. Fear about adoption, push back from employees and/or residents, or that the change won’t actually yield results can keep businesses stuck in the old way of doing things. And the “old wayis likely leading to unnecessary inefficiencies that are holding your business back.
Let’s take a look at amenity reservations, for example. If you don’t have a digital booking system in place, this task becomes extremely time-consuming and manual for both residents and Portfolio Managers. Here’s a look at how this outdated process typically plays out:
- Step 1: A resident sends an email to the Portfolio Manager requesting to reserve the pool for an upcoming party.
- Step 2: The Portfolio Manager responds to the resident (hopefully soon after they receive the request) with a list of available dates and times.
- Step 3: The resident then responds with the specific time slot they’d like to reserve.
- Step 4: The Portfolio Manager adds the event to the calendar, and sends another email with a booking fee and waiver.
- Step 5: The resident pays the fee, signs the waiver, and returns it to the Portfolio Manager.
- Step 6: After the event, the Portfolio Manager must remember to follow up with the resident to ensure they had a great experience and collect any feedback they might have.
This process occurs multiple times per day, especially for Portfolio Managers who manage a number of large communities. The time adds up quickly and leaves the Portfolio Manager stuck with manual time-consuming tasks that take away from doing more beneficial, enriching work.
Not only is this process a total time suck, there’s significant room for error. Requests can get lost in the shuffle of emails and voicemails. Portfolio Managers can get distracted mid-booking, forgetting to actually reserve the amenity or accept the payment. The chance for double bookings increases significantly when it’s up to a person, not a system, to properly reserve the amenity. This can lead to poor customer service, irritated residents, and in the most unfortunate circumstances, ruined parties when two groups show up at the same time to setup parties for the amenity they believed they booked.
Discover some of the top inefficiencies facing property management companies, and how to address these issues by downloading a copy of our free infographic.
