Approximately every decade, a new user interface revolutionizes how people interact with technology. This was the case with graphical user interfaces (GUIs), touch UI (iPhone), and voice (Alexa, Siri, etc.) Conversational AI chatbots held that promise when we first started, and now they are everywhere. Bank apps, airlines, insurance companies, and most other businesses we deal with now use chatbots as a primary tool for support. Why are chatbots so popular?

• Human habits have changed, and people now demand meaningful answers immediately. Old-school solutions like call centers and live chat simply cannot deliver this level of service. 
• Interactions have moved to mobile devices, and websites on mobile devices need help to deliver a good experience.
• People prefer impersonal communication and don’t want to talk to people to get answers to transactional questions.

Knowing why chatbots are popular, how does it influence who you buy from? There are many options — free chat and widgets, paid bots, and full-stack marketing solutions. Here are a few things to consider when choosing which bot works best for your business. 

Purpose & Functionality of Chatbots

Consider the purpose of the tool you are looking at. Think about why you need this specific tool. Then keep in mind how this particular tool functions. Ask yourself if the functionality fits the purpose you are trying to fulfill. Complete a demo or a trial of the product to find out how it works and ensure it has all the features you are looking for. Read reviews or chat with someone who has used the product before to see how it works in the real world. Will this tool solve the problem you are trying to resolve? Ask yourself these critical questions before making any decisions.

Integrations & Partnerships

Next, consider how the tool integrates and partners with other platforms. You shouldn’t need to limit the functionality of other tools for a new one to fit in. If a new partner asks you to limit the functionality of one tool to bring on theirs, that can be a red flag. Ensure the tools you consider integrate with your existing products to provide the most helpful functionality. 

Information & Reporting

You will want to ensure that your new tools have great analytics tools. Find out if the reporting that is offered will show you metrics relevant to your business practices. Your reporting should help you decide how you do business, but that can only happen if you see the correct information to form those processes. Confirm that the tool you use is transparent about information and openly sharing that with you. If you can pull or schedule reporting from a dashboard, that is a great sign. 

Value & Pricing

Find out what the pricing will be to bring on this new tool. Is this realistic for your budget? You’ll also want to consider the value you receive for the price. Can you find similar features for a better price? Many tools will offer a free trial period or a testing feature that can help determine if this tool is worth bringing on. 

We know that sometimes adding new tools can be overwhelming, but it doesn’t have to be! We recommend considering 2-3 options and comparing what they offer against the price. Often it can be helpful to create a spreadsheet that includes all the features you are looking for and mark off which ones are available on the platforms you are looking at. It may sound like a lot of effort; however, it’s better to spend time upfront choosing the right product rather than rolling out a new tool that doesn’t perform. That way, you do not have to roll out a different product quickly. Remember, your tools are there to help you and not make things more challenging. So be sure to select the best tools for you and your team.

AI has been a hot topic, with programs emerging to create artwork, write novels, and so much more. While these features are innovative, there are specific ways that artificial intelligence can best serve multifamily. For years we have been saying that AI should exist to help leasing teams with mundane tasks. Here are some ways artificial intelligence can assist multifamily teams that may be overwhelmed and struggling to keep up with the demands of day-to-day tasks.

Information Gathering and Sharing

Artificial intelligence is most successful in helping prospects gather and share information about communities they are interested in. It can help them get baseline information while freeing up leasing teams to focus on more time-consuming tasks. In addition, prospects no longer need to search all over a property website for what they’re looking for. They can find it all in one place with a few clicks. 

Lead Nurturing

AI can assist multifamily on-site teams with lead nurturing in several ways. Most prospects need to be followed up with at least 3x before they make a decision. Artificial intelligence can take the burden off leasing teams and automate the lead nurturing process. Once those leads are nurtured, they can move to the next step in the leasing journey. When lead nurturing is automated, more qualified leads are sent directly to the property, increasing closing ratios. 

Engagement

Not only can AI help gather info and nurture leads, but it can also help engage with prospects in a way tailored to their needs. Prospects can interact with automation in a multitude of places, such as social media, ILSs, search engines, property websites, and more. Now, not only can they engage whenever they want, but they can also engage wherever they want. Leasing teams don’t have to be on 24/7. Instead, they can allow automation to jump in and continue the conversation with prospects. 

At the end of the day, automation will never replace human interaction. Instead, properties can leverage these tools to make their jobs more efficient. Instead of dealing with busy work, AI can jump in and take many tasks off the site team’s plates. If you want to learn more about automation, you can download the ultimate guide to automation, which has everything you need to know about AI in the multifamily space. 

Kudos to companies trying to help leasing agents manage the never-ending deluge of prospect emails hitting their CRMs. They saw a need, and they’re trying to help solve it.  

That being said, some ways are better than others as to how we solve this problem. It’s like the story of a transport truck just barely getting stuck under a bridge. Many engineers spent days trying to figure out how to raise the bridge or remove sections of it altogether. Then one day a kid came along and said, “Why don’t you just take the air out of the tires?”  

Email bots may appear to be solving a problem, but in reality, quite a few of them are simply over-engineered and create as many issues as they solve. This is one of those times that things appear a certain way at first glance, but upon deeper review, they are quite different.  Here is how a typical Email bot works vs. BetterBot’s NurtureSkill:

Email is slower than chat

• Email bots rely upon email back and forth to answer questions and pose Calls to Action (CTAs). This is problematic as people inherently do not want to continuously engage in email back-and-forth. They want immediate answers both for what they are asking at the moment and what they are likely to ask in the follow-up. Email bots can often have 2-4 email back-and-forths. Emails depend on typing longer messages which are not ideal on mobile interfaces. Also, because some questions are likely to be unanswered via email, there is a tendency for email bots to push prospects to schedule appointments to get answers. This, in turn, results in more agent time wasted and low appointment show rates.
• BetterBot, however, quickly moves people out of email with just a few words and into a conversational format—the chatbot. This allows the prospect to get nearly all their answers in 90 seconds or less without continuous emails back and forth. This is why BetterBot has 3x the appointment scheduling than a typical Email bot because prospects are getting the information they want in one email/conversation and in less than 90 seconds. All with little to no typing.

AI used to mimic a human agent

• Email bots often imitate a human. This is not only illegal in California and will be in more states to come, it also sets poor consumer expectations. The prospect now thinks they are engaging a human, begin to write very long and detailed emails in reply, and expects a detailed human response. Instead, they get back an email that clearly shows the imitation human cannot answer these layered, complex questions and fails. The prospect becomes frustrated. Because Email bots rely upon natural language processing (NLP), their Email bot gets confused.  A great deal of testing has been conducted on all bots in the Multifamily Industry, and typical Email bots relying on NLP fail at a very high rate. That equals a poor customer satisfaction (CSAT) score. 
• BetterBot, instead, immediately identifies itself as a bot setting a lower expectation. But because the prospect moves out of email and into a conversation, the chatbot doesn’t get confused (guided conversation vs. NLP), and the prospect receives most of their answers in less than 90 seconds. The initial expectation is lower, and actual experience is better which means a much higher CSAT score. 

Email makes navigating content difficult

• Email bots don’t provide embedded visual content such as virtual tours and videos, community maps, real-time unit-level availability with floor plans and descriptors, real-time single-click appointment scheduling for in-person, self-guided, live-video and phone appointments, neighborhood visuals, ratings and reviews, etc., etc.  Email bots may provide these upon request (which requires another email), and the prospect is often taken to exterior pages, which is confusing and non-sequential. 
• BetterBot does provide all of the above in real-time, embedded in the conversation, available in seconds and clicks, and houses all of this within the conversational experience.

The Handoff

• If an Email bot cannot answer a question, the email is redirected to a leasing agent. Because leasing agents have to work (read that as compete) within the CRM with most Email bots, the handoff often breaks. This is where we need to examine not just the professional appearance of one email but the professionalism of the entire experience.  
• BetterBot has a 60% engagement rate (converts an email to a conversation) and converts 1 in 4 email inquiries into an appointment with a 90% show rate.  If a handoff or escalation is required, BetterBot then pushes the conversation into the CRM for a leasing agent to handle.  No confusion, no breakage, no changing of workflows.

When it comes to solving automation challenges such as the high volume of web leads, BetterBot consistently chooses to let the air out of the tires by engineering smarter solutions. And that is why BetterBot is a better solution.

One trend emerging in the property management space is that fewer marketers are using “FREE” bots. Many solutions offer “FREE” add-ons, such as lead nurturing or chat solutions, to help teams cut costs. While this may sound enticing, “FREE” doesn’t always mean there is no cost associated with it, and more marketers realize that. Here is why more and more multifamily marketers are moving away from free bots and towards a paid model.

User Experience

Many free solutions offer a user experience that will get the job done. However, it’s not always satisfactory. These solutions have a CSAT (customer satisfaction) score below 30%. The mobile experience is even worse, and 60% are using the bot on their mobile. In addition, many free add-ons are simply pop-out forms that take the user away from the initial experience making them more likely to drop off. All too often, the free experience gets less than 1/3 of the appointments scheduled and delivers low-quality leads. Rather than using true AI and lead nurturing tools, the user experience tends to be a basic interaction.

Think of it this way — say you are looking for a new car. You can choose a new, reliable vehicle that gets you where you want to go and is cost-effective with a low monthly payment. Your other option is a FREE beat-up car that breaks down often, wastes time, and rarely gets you from point A to point B. Which car would you choose? 9/10, you will select the first option that can be trusted to get the job done. The same can be said for automation solutions. Sure, one is free, but it’s only reliable a small amount of the time. Solutions that cost money usually do so because they can invest in the product and provide a superior customer experience. Instead of offering a solution that saves time, teams often focus more on menial tasks. As the old saying goes…time IS money!

Customizations

To create a cohesive brand experience, customizations are key. It’s essential to be able to add customizations in several areas, including branding, integrations, and property-specific info.
Of course, it’s essential to use the branding that makes the most sense for your communities, whether custom property branding, corporate branding, or a cohesive look and feel. It’s essential to be able to make updates as needed.

ntegrations are another big area that should be customized. For instance, you want a solution that integrates with your virtual tours, videos, site maps, etc. This also becomes essential when it comes to appointment setting. It’s imperative that leads are not lost or forgotten in the process and that everything flows smoothly.

Lastly, property-specific info is an essential part of customizations. You want to be able to customize topics like sister properties and office hours. If they can’t incorporate every aspect of your community’s information, most likely, they are not getting the job done.

Reporting

Most free widgets and bots don’t offer robust reporting, if any. It’s important to understand what your prospects are looking for, when conversations are happening, and how these conversations are converting into tours. Quite often, free bots don’t offer any reporting because they don’t have tracking capabilities baked into their product.

Features

When choosing a free option over a paid model, you lose a lot of functionality regarding features. Essential information like prequalifications, waitlists, and FAQs become challenging to share. These platforms often can’t be parsed by property types like senior, student, affordable, mixed-income, etc. Making sure all of the information is embedded directly into the bot will help ensure a cohesive user experience and confirm that the prospect is given all the information they need upfront.

How does a paid model save me money?

Typically FREE widgets and add-ons are built by companies that provide a CRM, website, etc. The widget is not their primary focus, so it will only be optimized in some of the ways it should be. That said, a paid model saves time and money in numerous ways.
For example, BetterBot’s Multifamily automation solution saves an average of 100+ hours (per property, each month), allowing team members to focus on more critical tasks. On average, 300+ unique prospect conversations occur through the solution (per property each month). Because the average person uses the 1.9x, that’s nearly 600 total conversations/property/month. To see a more detailed look at how BetterBot’s automation saves time and money, check out our full article on this topic HERE.