Entrata Blog

A group of friends goes out for the night, but one of them forgets their wallet. One good soul in the group decides to pick up their expenses for the evening, trusting the friend to pay it back in a timely manner.

A quick review of standard customer service tips, (smile, make eye contact, use the customer’s name, match your tone of voice with your words, offer solutions) make it pretty clear that excellent customer service is, at its core, a communications issue. While it’s vital to provide the service or product, the heart and soul of customer service is communication. Regardless of whether you are educating potential residents on your property or responding to a resident’s complaints about an on-going maintenance issue, maintaining an open, two-way dialogue is essential to providing excellent customer service.

Since I have recently been working on our new product video for MobilePortal™ that includes a tool for maintenance managers, my thoughts have been turned to these invaluable members of our industry. Having a happy and skilled maintenance and grounds team will help with resident retention, make your property more attractive to visiting prospects, and possibly even help your online ratings and reviews. Maintenance workers are often an overlooked group, so on behalf of the stalwart individuals working behind the scenes Property Solutions held an internal contest to see which employee could write the best maintenance manager poem. The response was great as many PSI employees jumped at the opportunity to sing maintenance man praises, but after much deliberation we were able to pick a winner. Congratulations, Lance Halladay, and thank you for so eloquently expressing the feelings that are in all of our hearts.

NAVIGATING DATA SUBJECT ACCESS REQUESTS In this recurring blog series, Entrata will review the latest compliance information for you to help ensure you are in the loop and don’t fall out of compliance and are prepared for upcoming deadlines. However it is important to note, the information contained herein is general in nature and is not intended to provide, or be a substitute for, legal analysis, legal advice, or consultation with appropriate legal counsel. You should not act or rely on information contained in this document without seeking appropriate professional advice.

How technology can assist with offline touch pointsThroughout the tech revolution, the essential skills of a leasing agent have largely remained the same. Provide a welcoming smile, regularly walk the tour path to make certain nothing is amiss and clean up for-show units so they are ready for the eyes of prospects. It’s all part of the standardized training process, which is similar for maintenance teams and additional onsite associates. But although tech hasn’t replaced these non-digital activities, it certainly has provided a way to make them easier and more streamlined. Essentially, it serves as the conduit that can bring together various onsite teams. New technology tools allow teams to interact more rapidly, address any community issues efficiently and expeditiously, and provide modern touring experiences for both residents and leasing staff. Here are a few examples:– Through a property management app, leasing associates don’t have to leave a voice message for the maintenance team—or wait until they run into one of them later in the day—when they encounter something that needs their handiwork. Perhaps it’s a leaking sprinkler on the tour path or a smart thermostat that needs to be restarted in a display unit. Through the app, the leasing agent can immediately ship a detailed request to the maintenance team, whose first available member can embark on the task. –The app can help inter-team communication, as well. Maintenance team members can digitally alert other members of the crew when they get started on a task, which prevents overlaps and keeps processes operating smoothly. –Self-guided tours are a rapidly growing trend in this space. A good solution offers customizable and flexible settings, giving leasing associates the ability to implement a personalized touring experience at their properties and better meet the evolving needs of prospective renters. From allowing prospects to schedule tours themselves to giving managers the ability to make their properties available at any time of day, this tool can help communities connect with prospects in new and innovative ways.–In a perfect world, all community-related requests could be taken care of on site. But sometimes a vendor has to be contacted. For instance, a maintenance team member might notice that an overgrown tree has obscured key signage at a community. It’s a gigantic oak that would be unsafe for anyone but a professional tree trimmer to navigate. That request can be easily made by the maintenance team member when preferred vendors are accessible through the property management app. No matter how far the tech revolution progresses, interpersonal skills and keen observation will always be required traits for onsite associates. The right tech can help augment those qualities and create a more streamlined experience between all teams at the property.

Entrata recently hosted Ken Gould, Vice President of Insurance at Lockton, for a discussion on how multifamily businesses should approach commercial insurance and how to use it as a competitive advantage for their properties. Below are some of the key highlights.

This is part three in our series that focuses on basic digital marketing strategies that are proven to help you attract and convert leads. Recently, Entrata hosted a webinar series covering digital marketing best practices in the multifamily industry. The panel included digital marketing experts Avery Lewis, Manager of Marketing Services at Cardinal Management Group, Laura Frias, Regional VP at Entrata, and Drew Scholl, Associate Director of Digital Marketing Consulting at Entrata. Below are some of the key highlights.

Remote communication has become the new norm, and by now, everyone is used to it. But that doesn’t mean everyone in the industry has perfected the art.

As part of our ongoing Resident Experts series, Entrata recently hosted Jay Lybik, Director of Multifamily Analytics at CoStar. Jay has nearly three decades of experience in commercial real estate research, with a majority of that time spent in the multifamily sector.

Appropriate tech training increases the value of your organization’s software platform. Training platform users eliminates guesswork, improves process adoption and helps your team feel more comfortable with daily workflows. Luckily, Entrata’s training program offers a multitude of training options at no extra cost.

Building Efficiency into Accounting Processes Accounting professionals deal with a million little things every day: creating journal entries, importing entries, coordinating data from payment management tools, etc. And every task must be carried out precisely and accurately, or there will be additional work down the line as they locate and reconcile any errors.

As we step into 2024, the educational landscape is showing signs of recovery with a notable 1.2% rise in enrollment rates for the first time since the pandemic. Over two-thirds of institutions witnessed growth in undergraduate enrollment this fall, signaling a positive shift in the academic sphere. Correspondingly, in the realm of property management, we at Entrata have observed a surge in pre-leasing activities, indicative of a bustling year ahead.