Traditional forms of connecting with your tenants, such as mail or printed flyers, are now obsolete. If you’re still slipping important announcements under their door or posting to a bulletin board, it’s time to switch to business text messaging.
Nearly everyone owns a cellphone capable of sending and receiving text messages. Text messages have a 98% open rate and are read within three minutes of receiving them. And they are preferred by younger people over almost all other forms of communication.
Texting Tenants and Prospects
Text messages can improve your services and develop more direct and personal interactions. As a property manager, you need to send timely communications to your tenants, especially when emergencies arise. More importantly, if there is an emergency, your tenants will want to know what’s happening right away.
You can set appointments with prospects and have two-way conversations to answer their questions about a potential property. Texts also provide a digital record of each conversation so you can manage accounts better and connect them with the exact property that fits their needs.
Better Lists for Targeted Communications
Separating everyone on your list into groups based on their needs will ensure that you send the right message to the right audience. This is the best way to personalize your communications, which increases engagement and fosters a connection with tenants and prospects.
It’s also important that when reaching out to them you use their first name. We have a significant attachment to our first name. Our identity and individuality are connected to it. Generic communications look like spam and will get ignored.
Keywords and Alerts
Having keywords, such as Maintenance or Comment, for pressing issues allows tenants to report something quickly and send it directly to the right people. No more missed phone calls or unproductive voice messages. Keywords reduce the lag in time for communicating with staff or outside service providers. It can transform your customer service by addressing complaints faster and avoiding unhappy tenants and customers.
Keywords are also an excellent way for prospects to get on a list of potential properties. Simply texting the keyword begins the onboarding process, where the prospect can answer a few simple questions to categorize their needs. This will improve search results and future communications. Using only one keyword makes it easier to remember and recall at a later time. This also makes it easy to pass on to others in the market for a property.
Two-Way Conversations
One-sided communications feel generic and do little to engage audiences. A two-way conversation establishes a stronger connection and encourages engagement through thoughtful responses and humor. It’s one of the ways you can humanize your interactions and not appear to be an unfeeling robot.
Increase Renewals and Reviews
Text messaging solidifies the connection between you and your tenants. Better communication with tenants leads to a better overall experience, and they are more likely to renew their leases or contracts with you. Plus, it can reduce the traffic in your leasing office, which frees your time to attend to prospects and other areas of your business.
People are using online reviews as a research tool for finding information and advice about your property. And you can text your tenants to give your property an honest online review. A happy tenant is more likely to share their experience and leave a positive review. This reassures future tenants that you will be receptive to their concerns.
Employees and Text Marketing
With business text messaging, you can segment employees into teams or communicate across teams and make sure that your important messages are received. This streamlines task management and organizes workflow to increase productivity. Outside vendors and service providers can also be added to those teams to eliminate slow response times for repairs or maintenance calls.
Text messaging improves your overall inbound marketing through direct engagement. It reduces lost time chasing leads, spotting issues, and problem-solving. Plus, the cost of this type of engagement has become extremely affordable, so this is the perfect time to take advantage of one of the best tools for marketing, sales, and all of your operations.