Referral-Bot

Announcing Multifamily’s First and Only Referral Bot

April 11, 2022

Today BetterBot launched its new and improved Referral Bot. Property owners and management companies can now group nearby sister properties on one bot solution. When a prospective renter enters their ideal move-in date, the number of bedrooms, and budget, BetterBot’s Referral bot searches for availability in the primary apartment community and all nearby apartment communities of the management company’s choosing.

“Our commitment is to replicate every property’s best leasing agent,” said Robert Turnbull, BetterBot co-founder. “And every good leasing agent is going to refer a prospective renter to a sister property in the event their community doesn’t have what the prospect is looking for, but their sister property does.”

What Is the Referral Bot? 

The Referral bot can be used in both BetterBot’s Chat skill and Lead Nurture skill because BetterBot’s Chat skill can be deployed anywhere on the Internet. This includes your property website, Yelp, Google My Business, Instagram, Facebook, etc.

3 Ways Referral Bot Helps

Drives Interest Anywhere, Any Time

Referral bot helps drive interest to sister properties even when not used on your property website. BetterBot’s Lead/Nurture skill helps convert one lead for one of your properties into one lead for all your nearby properties. So now your ILS leads are even more valuable.

Manages Property Demand

If your communities are at capacity, the referral bot jumps in and directs that traffic to your communities that have open availability. It manages the demand for your properties so that they can save time and focus on more critical tasks.

User-Friendly Experience

The referral bot offers a user-friendly interface that allows for a seamless experience—no jumping from one place to another for information. Every piece of information is shared right within the bot so that the user is most likely to engage. Take BetterBot’s Referral bot for a spin to see how it can save your team’s time and why BetterBot is…well…better.

April 11, 2022
Can-Chatbots-Replace-Humans

Can Chatbots Replace Human Agents?

January 10, 2022

Imaginations run wild as soon as you mention the word “chatbot.” Recent movies have contributed to the idea that bots can be dangerous and jeopardize human jobs. While that may be the case in the film, in reality, chatbots should not replace humans. Chatbots are great for fulfilling simple intents and menial tasks. However, when it comes to higher-level problems, that’s where humans excel.

Instead of looking at chatbots and humans as either/or propositions, it’s crucial to think about them as a creative way to solve problems. Chatbots can supercharge the abilities of human agents by focusing on those repetitive tasks so that humans have time to focus on solving more complex issues that require emotional and intelligent engagement. In fact, a study conducted by Informs PubsOnLine shares that when chatbots are upfront about the fact that they are bots, prospects are 79.7%. more likely to buy. So why not let chatbots jump in and do some of the heavy lifting?

Some ways chatbots can help support leasing teams include: 

24/7 Availability

Use a chatbot on your website to assist visitors 24 hours a day. The chatbot can help prospective renters find the information they are looking for, like finding a home, and subsequently hand them off to the appropriate person. The chat transcript is shared with the human agents, eliminating repetition and speeding up the process.

Boost Engagement

Chatbots can be used to boost engagement with existing clients. A chatbot can be perfect for managing maintenance or other simple requests without the necessity for phone calls. This can speed up the time it takes to service a request and, in turn, improve customer satisfaction.

Nurture Leads 

Frequently properties become overwhelmed with the number of leads entering their inbox. That’s where chatbots come in. Some chatbots (including BetterBot) offer the ability to follow up with and nurture leads in the beginning stages while handing off only the most qualified leads. This allows for better closing ratios, as these leads are most likely to convert. 

In conclusion, chatbots won’t be completely replacing humans any time soon. They are meant to help them with simple tasks so that humans can focus their attention on more complex tasks. If you’re considering chatbot solutions, check out our article on 6 things to consider when looking for a chatbot solution. 

January 10, 2022

Put Down the Wide Brush – Why You Should Tailor Your Chatbot to Your Unique Property Type

December 6, 2021

Under the multifamily umbrella, there are various property types – and no two properties are the same. And while innovations in proptech have made it much easier for property management teams to do everything from schedule tours to convert leads into new renters, no technology is a one-size-fits-all solution. Especially in the case of a multifamily chatbot, we’ve found that the more you can personalize and tailor your bot to your unique property type, the more effective it will be in the long term.

In this quick resource, we’ll outline both the benefits of tailoring your multifamily bot and how to go about it with specific examples.

Why tailoring your multifamily chatbot is important

More qualified leads

A great chatbot can help you insert yourself in conversations when and where it matters most. Still, a generic property chatbot can only help you get so far. Tailoring your chatbot to fit your property’s unique type and renter requirements can help you secure even more qualified leads and tours.

Meet your prospective renters where they are

Depending on your property type, prospective renters may be on the hunt for specific amenities and features. For example, students looking for housing may be interested in knowing how many beds an available room has. Customizing your bot to feature this and other relevant information can make it much easier to meet prospective leads’ needs directly without going back and forth with a property management team.

Give your team valuable time back

When your chatbot can more effectively meet people’s needs and provide relevant information, it can save your property management team valuable time. Instead of fielding endless email and phone queries, any information a person needs can be quickly obtained through your custom chatbot.

How to tailor your bot to common property types

Student

The apartment rental process can be unique for students, which is why it’s a great idea to craft a chatbot solution that can meet their needs. A few ways to tailor your bot for the student housing experience include:

Allowing students to search by unit availability: With many looking for apartments at the beginning and end of semesters, it can be helpful to search by availability at the touch of a button.

Search by the number of beds: Many students will opt to live with roommates to minimize the amount spent on rent. Your chatbot should be searchable by number of beds, not only to help your prospects find the right space but to help your property management team stay organized.

Student scheduling: The school year can look different based on the type of school and location. Our student bot offers a custom scheduling tool to schedule by semester, trimester, or quarter calendar.

Access to student resources: Providing interactive student resources is a great way to help your renters stay up-to-date with what’s going on at their building and school.

Conventional

Looking to spruce up your apartment chatbot? Here are a few of our recommendations:

Add multilingual support: Don’t leave great leads hanging just because English isn’t their first language. BetterBot offers multilingual support so you can easily communicate with all your prospects.

Offer virtual tours/videos: Although we’re a far cry from the beginning of the pandemic, many prospective renters may feel more comfortable taking a virtual tour of your property. With BetterBot, you can easily embed your virtual tours from Matterport, LCP360, Zillow, Vimeo, Helix, Realync, YouTube, and more.

Embed your photo galleries: Instead of sending users away from your chatbot to check out your fantastic pool and tennis court, you can quickly embed all the galleries you want directly into your chatbot.

Affordable

Especially in affordable/section 8 housing, it can be challenging for property management teams to keep up with the volume of leads and daily requests for information. A personalized chatbot can help make your life much easier by offering the following:

Waitlist management: With a user-friendly dashboard, our Affordable Bot makes it simple to view your waitlist at a glance. And once a renter moves out, you can easily choose the next – no physical list needed.

Affordable-specific dialogue: For example, you can pre-qualify leads by asking for yearly income and the number of residents looking to move in. This can help prospective renters know quickly and easily whether or not they qualify to move into your affordable spaces before even speaking with your team.

Affordable-specific reporting: Even at an affordable property, it’s still crucial that your team can sell your property experience. Our affordable-specific dashboard allows your team to quickly assess top-of-funnel leasing performance, helping you determine what’s working – and what isn’t.

Lease-Up

A Lease-Up specific bot can be beneficial for communities that may be so new that they don’t have a website up and running yet.

Offer community-specific information: Your bot will be the first (and likely only) place people go to learn about your upcoming community. Make sure to customize it with plenty of relevant information, including info on parking, amenities, and whether or not your facilities will be pet-friendly.

Set up tour appointments: Just because you don’t have a site yet doesn’t mean you can’t start booking tour appointments. Set up and manage tour appointments directly from your bot from the get-go.

In almost every industry today, personalization and customization reign supreme. And it’s not just about better serving your leads and renters – it’s also about helping make your teams’ life easier too. With the right chatbot solution at their fingertips, property management teams can feel empowered to spend less time on repetitive, low-value workflows. For more chatbot guides and insights into multifamily industry trends, check out the BetterBot Blog.

December 6, 2021

What Problems Your Bot Should Solve

July 21, 2021

In the past decade, no tech has advanced customer service more than chatbots. From changing when and how audiences connect with brands, to transforming the way brands personify themselves, bots have had an incredible impact on the industries they’ve been adopted into. And if you’re in customer service, chances are you’ve seen firsthand just how bot technology can make you and your team’s lives easier. If you’re new to chatbots though, it can feel overwhelming trying to integrate them into your processes. In today’s BetterBot blog, we’re going to hopefully create a little more clarity by zooming into several common ‘problems’ customer service teams face – and why the right chatbot will solve them. 

5 problems your chatbot should solve

Giving back precious time to your teams

In the multifamily real estate space, around half of all prospective leads go unanswered. Why? Simply because property management teams don’t have enough time. This is a common problem across many industries and is one that’s easily remedied with a bot. A chatbot is like a customer service rep that’s always available, 24 hours a day, 365 days of the year. And with less time spent answering hundreds of inquiries each day, you and your team can spend more time on high-level tasks – like improving your social media presence. In fact, bots can save on average 57.1 hours a month per property. That’s a huge chunk of time your team could be saving.

Handling endless queries with ease

We’ve all experienced that one type of customer that can’t stop with just one question (or five). It can be frustrating and time-consuming to go back and forth with someone when you’re trying to juggle the rest of your day’s tasks. Enter a chatbot, which allows customers to ask as many questions as they’d like and always receive service with a smile. Never again will you have to deal with these extra-inquisitive prospects.

One of the great things about chatbots is that, with the right programming, they can not only share information but crunch numbers and handle tasks like resetting passwords as well. All of the dull and repetitive tasks your customer service team used to have to handle can be taken off your plate!

Personifying your brand

Many brands struggle to create an engaging presence and persona online. It can be tough to create a tone of voice that people want to engage with on your website alone, which is where a chatbot comes in. Guided conversation chatbots like BetterBot are programmable with a variety of different conversational styles and “personalities”. Want your brand to come off as fun and humorous, or direct with no-frills? It’s easy to give your chatbot whatever personality you think your customers will engage the most with. And when you strike the right tone, your audience will keep coming back to engage with your bot (and your brand). 

Less stress on your audience

Most people today don’t want to have to call or email a customer service rep to get an answer on something. It’s time-consuming and anxiety-inducing – especially for those of us who dread phone calls. Having a one-stop customer service bot can greatly reduce the stress on your customers and make it easier for them to engage with you in positive ways. And, if they have a question or complaint that can’t be answered by your bot, they can let you know how best to contact them with a human representative. 

Making it easier to get customer info

Traditionally, if you wanted to get information from a customer, you had to direct them to an oftentimes tedious form. Unless people really want to do business with you, they’re unlikely to spend 5 minutes on a form and freely offer up their info like that. With chatbots, you don’t necessarily need to shove forms in your customer’s face. Chatbots can actually get all the information that traditional forms can, like email address, phone number, etc. And, they can do this through a naturally-flowing conversation. If you’ve had a hard time following up on leads because you didn’t have any contact info, a bot can help you get the info you need to be able to reach out and convert that lead. 

While chatbots can’t solve all our problems (we wish!), they’re definitely a powerhouse when it comes to creating easy solutions for everyday customer services issues. Learn more about chatbots and what they can do for both your teams and your audience in our guide here. 

July 21, 2021

How Apartment Chatbots are Redefining Multifamily Customer Support

July 12, 2021

We’ve said it once, and we’ll say it again: chatbots are the future of multifamily customer support. In today’s world, traditional customer support methods just can’t keep up with the 24/7, 365 needs of consumers. But chatbots can, and they can do a lot more than simply showing off floorplans. Here’s how multifamily chatbots like BetterBot are redefining customer support for today’s property management teams.

Always-on service

58% of all of our customer’s traffic occurs after hours – that’s pretty significant. People today expect great customer service on their own time, whether that’s 8 am or 8 pm. By limiting your available hours to regular business hours, you’re greatly reducing your capacity to connect with these prospective leads. What’s more, we’ve found that, 20 years ago, 50% of prospective renter leads go unanswered by the property – and that stat is surprisingly the same today. What we hear through this stat is that property management teams are understaffed and don’t have enough time in the day to respond to each and every lead themself. Unfortunately, this is the case with most property teams, and likely won’t change. It’s a big problem, but fortunately it’s one that chatbots can help solve. 

When you start using chatbot tech, you’re essentially creating a customer service rep that’s always on and available. People looking for information on your property or wanting to set up an appointment can do so whenever they’re free. All you have to do then, is follow up!

A wealth of resources in the palm of your hand

Today’s chatbots can do so many things, and are fully customizable based on your team’s (and customers’) unique needs. Want to show off your property’s amenities? Check. Really excited to let people schedule appointments online? It’s simple to do with a bot. From giving prospects access to 3D tours to allowing current residents to request and schedule maintenance, what your bot can do is only limited by your imagination. Check out our BetterBot Demo to see a sampling of what your bot could do.

Guided conversation makes it easy to get leads

There are several different types of chatbot solutions available on the market today, and not all are created equal. From bots that use AI-based natural language processing to mimic human speech, to those leveraging pre-written conversations to some that use a mixture of both, there is a lot of variety in terms of the bots your property management team could potentially use. And through our trials, we’ve found that guided-conversation bots (those that use pre-written, branched dialogues) outperform other bots by a wide margin. 

When it comes to getting leads, you want to create a naturally-flowing conversation with your prospect. Lead gating doesn’t work, but by engaging customers in conversation with your chatbot, you can naturally lead your prospect where you want them to go, whether that’s to an information form, or to book an appointment. 

Better access and time saved

One of the awesome things about having a chatbot is that it allows customers to reach you across a variety of channels – not just on your property’s website. Our chatbot can be integrated wherever you have a digital presence, which means that people can interact with your bot and reach you on any social media platform. If you’ve built up a great digital marketing strategy, this means that people who learn about your property from Facebook, for example, can go to your Facebook page and immediately get answers to any questions they have without having to navigate to your website. 

Now more than ever, people value time and accessibility, and they want to be able to find you on the platforms they’re already on. The easier you can make it to engage with your customer service team, the more likely you’ll be able to convert those leads to new renters. 

Where the future of multifamily chatbots is headed

So where will we see chatbots go in the future? Ultimately, we think chatbots will become the primary marketing channel for people to connect with properties. As the multifamily space continues to integrate social media into their strategy, ensuring bots have an omnichannel presence across these platforms will be key in boosting engagement and generating new leads. 

Ready to build a bot for your property management team? BetterBot can help. And when you’re done, don’t forget to check out our guide to making your bot the best it can be. 

July 12, 2021

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