How digital tenant management platforms are shaping the future of real estate

Choosing a digital platform to manage a property portfolio and the tenants that live in those properties can feel like a daunting task. If a real estate company is doing well and is stable, isn’t facing any major competition and isn’t especially digitally inclined, then there can be a lot of inertia when it comes to implementing new digital technology.

But smart real estate companies are starting to become more aware of the growing need for digital solutions to improve tenant relations, help their organizations become more efficient and to provide the business with the platform for future growth.

Yet it’s also clear that a good many real estate firms can be risk averse and always have an eye on Return on Investment (ROI). They also want any technology implementation to be simple, pain-free and for everything to work smoothly. Overcoming this reticence is becoming essential for real estate firms, as consumers (including tenants) increasingly use digital tools to manage their day-to-day lives.

What exactly is a digital tenant management platform?

The term ‘digital tenant management’ refers to managing, interacting and engaging with tenants via the use of a digital solution or platform. Such a solution can also be used to manage a portfolio of properties. It gives a real estate company much greater control over their tenants and portfolio, and makes operations much more efficient. It saves time, resources and money, and significantly improves the tenant experience.

Traditional tenant management involves one-to-one communication, whether in-person, over the phone or perhaps via email. This is time consuming and can feel frustrating for all parties. But when using a digital tenant management platform, the real estate firm has an instant and direct line of communication to each tenant – much more efficient and much more effective.

Here are some specific ways in which using a digital tenant management platform can help real estate firms:

Delivering greater operational efficiency

Managing a high volume of tenants across a range of different properties can be hugely time consuming. When tenants phone in to get an issue addressed for example, it needs to be logged, assessed and managed, a potentially significant challenge when you consider that maintenance is always one of the costliest elements of tenant management.

But using a digital platform for these interactions makes the entire process more efficient. A strong platform should come with an inbuilt ticketing system, which can automatically receive and pre-sort tenant requests and inquiries. This can save lots of time and means that faults can be processed and addressed much quicker and more efficiently. It also provides tenants with far greater transparency – they can see that their issue has been logged and will know when it is going to be addressed.

Such a platform will realize even more efficiency gains by providing all the documentation required in the rental process, from the initial contract to service level agreements. Storing them in one central resource like this means that users at the real estate firm need not waste time searching for documents and furthermore, means that any document can be shared securely and immediately with tenants via the platform.

Providing a superior Tenant Experience

Without tenants in a building, there is no income, so driving a first-class Tenant Experience should be a priority for all real estate firms. A digital platform is an intrinsic part of such an experience. People are used to digital interactions in almost every other area of their lives, from banking to shopping and booking travel to scheduling medical appointments. We live in a digital world and offering digital services to tenants is important.

Any digital platform should include the availability of an app for tenants, from which they can manage all aspects of their engagement with the real estate firm. If there is an issue, it can be reported immediately via the app, and then receive reassurance that it is being addressed via the integrated ticketing system. Tenants should also be able to access any document that they might need via the app, ensuring a much more convenient and efficient service, improving loyalty and satisfaction.Where such a platform can really have an impact on the Tenant Experience though, is how it uses data to constantly improve the service. By unobtrusively collecting data from tenants and the rental properties in the portfolio, the real estate firm can improve services on an on-going basis. It can even help promote additional services that will further improve the Tenant Experience, whether provided by an external firm or the real estate company itself. This added value all contributes to the first-class digital service that many tenants now expect.

Improving employee satisfaction

The improved efficiency and Tenant Experience that come from deploying a digital tenant management platform should also have a significant additional effect on the satisfaction and motivation of employees at the real estate firm. There are fewer direct queries and complaints from tenants, which can be stressful. Now such queries are submitted via the app, it removes the potential emotion and anger from such interactions.

If the platform is 100% transparent, tenants can track the status of their query via the integrated ticketing system, so real estate firm employees are spared repeat conversations when tenants feel the need to check what the latest update is.

Spending less time on such potentially difficult tasks means a happier and more engaged workforce, and frees up their time to be spent more productively elsewhere. This means more efficiency overall but also means employees can feel they are contributing in different and more rewarding ways.

There’s no time to wait

In 2019, almost every facet of life is managed digitally. Naturally, the digitalization is also having an effect on the real estate industry. Therefore, property owners and managers are advised to take advantage of the opportunities and possibilities of digital tenant platforms sooner rather than later. It is something that their competitors will be doing and that their tenants will come to expect. There are many benefits to be gained from doing so, and many challenges that could arise from not doing so – why would anyone wait?

Getting started with the right digital tenant management platform should be very straightforward. There is no lengthy roll-out process and you should be given all the support and guidance that you need to get started.

Allthings deploys a three-step process – set-up, integration of partners, activation – that will guide you toward a successful launch. Its modular design also ensures that the Allthings platform can be adapted to your digitalization strategy on an ongoing basis. To schedule an appointment to discuss how the Allthings platform could help your organization, click here, or to request a free demo, click here.