As the competition in the UAE real estate industry is getting fierce, it has become pivotal for the developers to focus on building an unparalleled resident experience. Digital applications are a crucial factor in this success story. The journey to create a ‘wow’ resident experience starts with a first interaction between the resident and the property manager or between the resident and the property sales team. A great resident experience lays a strong foundation for resident satisfaction, retention, community value, higher occupancy rate, and building a truly unbeatable reputation.
Modern residents are now prioritizing the digital experience they have with the developer or a property management firm while making a property purchase decision compared to the location of the property.
What Is Resident Experience?
Resident experience is not a process but a journey. It encompasses a wide gamut of aspects of the resident’s stay at a property – right from the initial process of selecting a property for purchase or rent till they move in, reside, occupy and move out from the property. The real estate developers are investing in developing newfangled online portals and resident applications to provide comprehensive and faster access to information and offer a seamless experience to the residents.
The Role of Digital Applications in Boosting Resident Experience:
The dawn of a great digital experience starts with the first step residents take while shortlisting the property. Research by Birdeye – (a leading international research firm) in 2021 titled – ‘Why Resident Experience is Essential When Promoting Your Property’ reveals that 92% of residents read reviews before making a purchase decision. A blog by High-Level Marketing– (an international digital marketing agency) titled – ‘Why Not Answering Your Phone is Killing Your Business?’ finds out that 75% of potential residents who don’t reach you on the first call won’t call back. If they can’t get in touch with anyone on your team in a timely manner, they know that the competition is just a Google search away.
The advent of digital technologies has made the resident experience process much simpler. In today’s era of cut-throat competition, achieving the utmost resident experience has become a prerequisite for the real estate developers to drive investments, foster property sales, and boost occupancy rates. Resident experience and digital transformation have become a new business imperative. Real estate firms in the UAE are widely using mobile applications to boost resident engagement by optimizing real-time updates about facilities and by creating a sense of community. Real estate companies are also leveraging mobile applications to simplify their communication with the residents and pumping more investments in building advanced digital channels. Undoubtedly, focusing on creating an incredible resident experience is the best bet for real estate firms to thrive in the industry.
Digital Platforms – Simplifying Communication between the Residents and Property Management Firm:
As they say, ‘Communication works for those who work at it’. Implementing digital applications in the process simplifies the communication between the residents and the property managers. This not only leads to the faster resolution of their issues but also prevents any potential conflict of interest between the residents and the property management firm for the greater good of the residential or commercial community.
One of the wisest things to do is to ensure swift communication between the residents and the property managers through digital means is by creating an online community where residents can raise their grievances and can get real-time or faster answers to their queries. I can compare this ‘online community’ to a Slack Channel where we can contact the desired person individually or contact a Group anytime just by dropping a message stating our problem. Creating an online community channel will also allow residents to get in touch with the right party without being passed from pillar to post to get the viable solution to their query.
How Does Kaizen AMS Leverage Digital Apps. to Create Memorable Experiences for the Residents?
Being the first technology-enabled property management company in the UAE, Kaizen AMS invests significantly in offering a unique digital experience to all the residents in its managed communities. This empowers Kaizen’s team in swiftly resolving the queries.
Here are the top 7 digital platforms the Kaizen team leverages to create a great resident experience –
1. Customer Communication Platforms
Kaizen AMS understands the value Live chat can bring to communication and in elevating the resident’s experience. Leveraging our advanced communication technology, Kaizen AMS offers 24/7 support services to the residents through calls, emails, and Whatsapp.
Whatsapp Chat feature allows Kaizen maintenance and service team to transfer 70% of over 28,000+ queries received every month related to statements of accounts, proof of payments, service charge receipts, service charge collection, maintenance requests and providing them with faster response to their query within 3 minutes of getting the request. This also significantly minimizes the resolution time for the remaining 30% of the queries and elevates the overall resident’s experience.
To learn more about the impact created by our Whatsapp Chat option for the residents at Kaizen AMS managed properties, please go through our recent case study – ‘5 Ways to Achieve Resident Satisfaction with Personalization through Technology’.
2. SNAG Report
Kaizen AMS leverages state-of-art snagging software called ‘Snag Report’ to identify and list every snag in a unit that has recently been completed. These snags are then assigned digitally to the various contractors, pushed to their phone app., allowing access to live data on the progress of snags. Kaizen AMS tracks all snags and ensures that the property is snag-free while handing it over to the homeowner or the tenant.
Sharing the inspection reports digitally with the residents or homeowners is also a great way to nurture good resident relations. Furthermore, it brings more transparency to the process and makes the residents aware of the actual condition of their property before they move in. Sharing snag report digitally is also an environment-friendly practice.
3. Transactions & Requests
Transactions & Requests feature plays a crucial role in simplifying the resident journey – right from the time residents move into a Kaizen-managed property till they move out. Transactions & Requests allow the residents in getting a faster solution to all their requests in a few clicks – just by filling a form on their laptop or mobile phone for all the requests pertaining to – move-in/move-out forms, work permit forms, access card requests, barrier remote request, viewing the property, and in booking the amenities in the property such as: Tennis Courts. Transactions & Requests is also a simple way to minimize the number of emails back & forth as residents can upload their documents and can track the progress of requests or queries.
Transactions & Requests offer residents a truly digital & seamless experience and a timely resolution to their issues without compromising the comfort of their home. This results in a significant increase in the overall resident’s satisfaction.
4. Dashboard to Control Energy Usage
Kaizen AMS lays special emphasis on minimizing the energy usage in our managed communities to reduce the overall operational cost as this has a profound impact on reducing the services charges & other maintenance costs for the residents. To meet this objective, our specialized team of energy experts has developed advanced dashboards. The Kaizen team also monitors the energy usage of a building and designs effective plans to control it when it increases a certain specified limit. Kaizen AMS works with specialists to deploy advanced energy modeling software to predict the energy usage of the building based on the climate, location, construction, size, and construction material. When the usage exceeds the specified standard, the software alarms the team to take the necessary steps. The software also predicts the energy usage of the building accurately and assists the building managers in adopting the design that improves energy efficiency to maximize the overall return on investment (ROI). An online dashboard for monitoring and managing multiple building projects provides residents with access to see and manage their data.
To learn more about how Kaizen AMS reduces energy costs at its managed communities, please read our article – ‘How Does Kaizen Curtail the Energy Cost at its Managed Properties?’
5. ‘Talk To Business Development’ Option’
Digitization is an integral aspect of Kaizen AMS’ business operations and being driven by technology is among our core values. Leveraging all types of digital channels, we strive to make it simple for our clients to reach us. Our potential clients can directly get in touch with our Business Development team by clicking on the ‘Talk To Business Development’ tab under the ‘Contact us’ page on our website.
At Kaizen AMS, we make a positive difference to the lives of our clients & customers by offering unparalleled customer services to create those long-lasting experiences.
6. Video Call with your Experience Manager
Taking the standards of the resident’s service to an all-new level, Kaizen AMS offers a ‘Video Call with your Experience Manager’ service to the residents to provide them a real-time response to their concerns. ‘Video Call with your Experience Manager’ service also provides assurance to the residents that there is someone to take ownership of their issues and provide them the correct and timely response whenever they are in need.
Since the launch of this service, Kaizen AMS has witnessed a substantial rise in its resident’s satisfaction scores and the occupancy rate at its managed communities.
7. Surveys and Resident Feedback
Kaizen AMS conducts frequent surveys & organizes feedback sessions to capture the response of the residents about their experience of living at Kaizen-managed communities and quantify the responses on Net-promoter score (NPS).
The insights gathered from the surveys assist our Experience Managers and the top management in analyzing the impact of our initiatives towards creating a great experience for the residents. Furthermore, surveys also allow our Experience Managers in identifying any areas of concern and taking immediate action to fix them. Surveys and feedback sessions have been an invaluable tool for our Experience Managers in elevating its standards of resident excellence and attracting new residents to its managed communities to boost its occupancy rate, revenues, and brand image.
Summary
Resident experience has always been the talk in the UAE real estate sector. With the advent of technology and the rise in competition, the term resident experience has gained momentum and has become an integral factor. It has become a win-win situation as it makes the property more attractive which is indeed good news for the developers and assists residents in getting a unique experience and faster solution to their concerns.
Leveraging digital applications in the process of serving residents often leads to an incredible experience for them. Digital means can provide a faster solution to the residents for all their issues, questions, and concerns which have a profound impact on resident satisfaction score, retention rate, community value, occupancy rate, and on developer’s reputation.
Being a technology-enabled property management company in the UAE, Kaizen AMS invests significantly in building innovative platforms and technology mediums to provide unparalleled and distinctive digital experiences to all the residents in its managed communities.
Some of these digital tools include –
- Customer Communication Platforms
- SNAG Report
- Transactions & Requests
- Dashboard and Meters to control energy usage
- ‘Talk To Business Development’ Option
- Resident Directory
- Video Call with your Experience Manager
- Surveys and Resident Feedback
- Visitor Management and Pre-Registration