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Property Management
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reputation management existed well before the pandemic. But COVID-19 has magnified its importance. During the pandemic, Morgan Properties improved its website, adding chatbots to all community sites, allowing prospective residents to search directly for apartments by bedroom and price. Social media is also playing a more significant role in marketing. “We know how important it is to improve our online ratings and recognize their impact on driving traffic to our communities,” says Dan Flamini, Area Vice President for Morgan Properties.
While the industry made tremendous strides with AI and virtual leasing during the past 18 months, there is still more ground to cover. “It is very important to personalize our online experiences by marrying the high-tech and high- touch dynamic,” says Tina West, Senior Managing Director for Cushman & Wakefield. “We must also prioritize the creation of a memorable touchpoint, top-of-mind awareness for prospects and residents, engagement without face-to- face interaction, and a means for becoming the first and consistently the last interaction a customer has with our brand and our properties.”
Greg West, CEO of ZOM Living says that it is important to introduce a property both virtually and in person. “Our staff has to meet this demand through social media and community engagement,” he says. “One’s ranking on a search engine is certainly relevant, but increasingly relevant is reaching your customer in a more personal way.”
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Virtual leasing and AI weren’t the only tools that leasing agents have relied on during the pandemic. While there have been some dramatic shifts in the market over the past 18 months, Cindy Clare, Chief Operating Officer for Bell Partners, says that one established tool—revenue management—has been up to the task. “It still has to be managed and you still have to have conversations, but I do think the tools are working,” Clare says. “But I also think part of that is the parameters that you, as the operator, put in.”
Early in the cycle, Bell pulled back on its revenue management inputs and put in higher occupancies. “We decided that we needed higher occupancy versus higher rent, just because of where we were in the pandemic,” Clare says. “Then, as we started to come out of the pandemic, we adjusted those parameters.” Clare says that the revenue management levers pulled help determine outcomes. “Are you looking for maximizing revenue or are you looking to maximize occupancy?” she says. “Are you looking to balance the two? All of those things make a difference in how your revenue management system operates and how it acts in cycles like this.”
Les Shaver is a freelance writer for the National Apartment Association. This article is being reprinted with permission from the National Apartment Association and was first published by Units Magazine.
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APARTMENT AGE • JANUARY 2022 91