The Multifamily Leadership Summit brings together some of the greatest thought-leaders in our industry for an exclusive, hands-on experience. This year’s summit on November 20-21 in Scottsdale, Arizona was no exception, with over 200 attendees for two days of networking and learning.

Top highlights from the summit include Larry Gorman, LeaseHawk COO, presenting as part of the Multifamily Innovation Showcase, and annual awards presented to this year’s "Best Places to Work Multifamily". Read more for the insights presented on how management companies can leverage voice technology to connect with today’s tech savvy renter, and each of the award winners.

Multifamily Innovation Showcase Synopsis

Leveraging AI voice technology to connect with prospects 24/7.

Today’s consumer is conditioned to get results instantly.  The success of Amazon, Airbnb and other apps that make it easier and faster than ever to book a vacation or purchase just about anything have created an “instant gratification” mentality.  Just think about booking a hotel, airline tickets or banking.  All these interactions can be done around the clock, there are no business hours limiting the outcomes.  The same goes when hunting for an apartment.  Rental prospects want to get their questions answered instantly, or they will move on to the next option.

Why do apartment communities miss nearly 49% of their calls?

The truth is, it’s impossible for the onsite staff to answer every call.  They are showing apartments, engaging with residents and processing leasing requests.  They are also missing leasing requests with all of those unanswered calls.

Let’s bust a few myths related to missed calls:

1. The prospect will call back. Wrong, over 52% of callers will not call back if they missed you the first time.

2. The prospect will leave a voicemail.  Wrong, over 87% of callers will not leave a voicemail.

3. The calls are not really from prospects.  Wrong again, 60% of the calls are people wanting pricing and availability.  These are valuable leads that you have paid a lot of money to attract.

How can you keep your properties open 24/7 to prospects?

The answer is to leverage a virtual assistant to answer every call when your office is closed, or your team is unavailable.  The rise of Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant have made talking to a virtual assistant a common practice.  In fact, a recently completed Kingsley survey confirms this -- 33% of surveyed renters already own a voice-activated virtual assistant and 43% of renters are interested in, or in some cases won't event rent without, a virtual assistant amenity in their next home.

People are interacting with their car via voice, they are leveraging their virtual assistant on their smart phone more, they are finding tremendous value in the virtual assistant in their homes.  Leveraging a voice-enabled virtual assistant to answer calls in your leasing office can guarantee that all your calls will be answered 100% of the time, any time of day, any day of the week.  

LeaseHawk has developed ACE AI, a virtual leasing assistant, leveraging artificial intelligence and natural language processing.  ACE AI allows prospects to find answers to their common leasing questions, get information texted to their phone, and even schedule an appointment to tour units they are interested in.  Prospects can converse with ACE AI over the phone, chat on your website or even text.  ACE will create guest cards, transcribe conversations with prospects, and save the voice recording of conversations as well. This activity is shared with your CRM, ensuring you have a record of all your interactions with each of your prospects.

"Best Places to Work Multifamily" 2020 Winners

In addition to thought-provoking sessions during the summit, the winners of the annual "Best Places to Work Multifamily" were announced by Multifamily Leadership. For more details and to see the official rankings, please visit multifamilyleadership.com.

Top 10 of the Nationally Ranked 2020 "Best Places to Work Multifamily", in order:

1. The Management Group, LLC

2. Passco Companies

3. Gables Residential

4. The Bascom Group

5. The Franklin Johnston Group

6. JVM Realty

7. Olympus Property

8. Berger Rental Communities

9. Keener Management

10. Apartment Dynamics