Customer Service Excellence for Property Managers

August 14, 2018

Improving Customer Service with ManageCasa

In reading a competitor’s software reviews, we were amazed at the volume of negative comments regarding their customer service. The disappointment and degree of bitterness expressed by tenants and property managers on review and social media sites was surprising.

What Customer Service Experience is Your Software Actually Delivering?

These were property management company’s tenants too, meaning the property management companies had their reputations damaged by the software provider’s poor customer communications and service.

The lesson learned is that excellence in customer service is worth pursuing for you as a property manager. And you provide service to a variety of end users including tenants, contractors and owners.

Becoming Customer Centric

Great customer service comes from a great product and from understanding user’s specific needs or frustrations. The big property management software companies may spend too much time on more tech add-ons, while forgetting about the customer experience and good communications. They lead property managers the wrong way.

When users can’t solve their specific problem and progress, they don’t think about the “big picture” and corporate software value, they just believe they’re unhappy.

When software doesn’t integrate with property manager’s other software, it’s an additional headache for you. Big complicated software generates a lot of these moment to moment frustrations.

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Simplicity, Ease of Use and Helpful

What we can take away from the big software experience is that delivering a simple, easy to use software platform reduces friction, confusion and other problems for customers is worth it.

Why too many behemoth proptech companies can’t deliver on customer service excellence:

they’re delivering tech solutions that real customers aren’t interested in
they’re not interested in unique problem resolution that doesn’t involve their software
the complexity distracts from everyday property management work
small accounts reduce their profits and waste their customer service time

Tenants rate your customer service based on their satisfaction, not on your effort or “all inclusive integrations.” And just because you clicked their persistent “are you satisfied” pop up box doesn’t mean they feel fully satisfied. And some problems are not software-related so big companies can botch the relationship with your very important customers. As the reviews suggested, these problems are happening.

Maintaining Good Customer Service When You Grow

If you’re a property manager or HOA manager looking jump from 500 to 4000 doors, an efficient, mobile friendly solution with great communication and reporting capabilities is a must.

HOA board staff, your staff, as well as property owners want instant access to reports on their specific portal for specific information.

They may find direct contact with you wastes time and doesn’t meet their immediate information needs. The best PM software reduces demand on customer service (although never eliminates the need for knowledgeable support from you).

Less customer service calls mean you deliver better support with single tenants, owners or board members. Let them solve the easy issues and provide the right info so you can solve them and reassure them that all is good.

When the software helps tenants collect information, describe issues, and provides some preliminary solutions, it makes it a lot easier for you to solve when they call or contact you.

Why ManageCasa Software Improves Customer Service

Here’s the 4 Key ways ManageCasa helps you excel at customer service:

1. Online Maintenance Requests: using the tenant portal, ManageCasa tenant users can submit their request and include photos and helpful information using their smartphone. They can receive SMS text or email responses and avoid making time for phone calls. Communicating via smartphones is important because tenants prefer being informed this way.

2. Online Rent Payments: the tenant portal lets them set up automatic withdrawals, or make an online rent payment and avoid the expense of late fees.

3. Online Documentation: store rental agreements and receipts online so the tenant can refer to them anytime they wish. This puts them at ease and ensures they only contact if its vital and they must have assistance.

4. Fast, Responsive Communications: With ManageCasa, you can keep tenants informed so they feel connected, confident and satisfied. If tenants feel confused about the rental contract or disappointed with maintenance, they can respond via the portal directly. This helps you ease that stress, collect information, and they’ll know you’re sincerely available if and when needed. That means less vacancies later on.

Customer service excellence does have a dollar value. In fact, you may save a tenant relationship by identifying problems through communication histories and being responsive. The point with customers is that disappointments and frustrations are remembered.

Any reduction or prevention of incidents translates to less work and more tenancy renewals.

Great Customer Service has two aspects:

1. ensuring good tenant information access (help files, documents, transactions) so they can resolve issues fast themselves.

2. ensuring you get details so you can respond quickly.

ManageCasa’s integrated modules streamline customer service and help improve customer relationships. It will help you build a solid brand image as a caring and professional property manager.