Happy residents leave positive reviews and act as unofficial recruiters for your community. So, once a lease is signed, how do you keep providing high-level customer service on top of everything else you have to do? More and more, the answer is to make self-service the new customer service.
Renters increasingly want to handle things themselves. Half would rather renew a lease online than do it in person. Giving them good self-service options is how you build a strong customer experience, and it frees your team for the work that needs a person.
The customer experience is the sum of how residents feel when they do business with you, and it matters in every market.
Yardi Breeze self-service tools
| Tool | Problems it solves | Resident benefit | Property manager benefit | Available platforms |
| Resident portal | Routine volume (payments, document management, maintenance requests); excessive phone calls | Pay, submit requests and view documents anytime, on any device | Fewer routine calls; every request arrives as a trackable record | Breeze & Premier |
| Online lease renewal | Renewals that require an in-person visit or back-and-forth paperwork | Review and sign a renewal from any device; 50% of renters prefer this | Less coordination time; earlier renewal decisions | Breeze & Premier |
| Chat IQ | Prospect questions going unanswered after office hours | Instant answers on availability, pricing and bedroom options at any hour | Leads captured while interest is warm; no bot training required | Breeze Premier |
| RentCafe Connect | After-hours maintenance emergencies with no one available to respond | Urgent issues reach a live person regardless of the time | 24/7 coverage without expanding staff; can be toggled on or off | Breeze Premier |
Self-service tools help move-in day run smoother
Lease signing is a big moment, but move-in day is the one with the most emotion behind it. Also, it’s usually the day a new renter has the most questions, and a small office can spend it answering the same ones again and again.
Many of those questions can be answered online. A resident can sign the lease, pay move-in costs and find what they need in the resident portal without a string of calls to your team. The questions that are left are the ones worth a personal answer.
Online portals are key to self-service
Online portals are the core of resident self-service. They give residents, owners and investors a single place to manage their accounts, and there are a few clear reasons they work:
- Residents can pay rent and submit maintenance requests from anywhere, on any device. Only 3% of renters still prefer a paper check.
- Everyone with a login can view their documents and check the status of a request without calling in. That transparency means less back-and-forth for residents and staff.
- Fewer routine questions reach your office, so the calls your team does take are the ones that need a person.
- A small business can compete with much larger management companies, because it can offer the same online convenience renters expect from anyone.
An AI leasing chat covers your off-hours
Prospects ask questions when it suits them, and that is often after your office has closed. A question left unanswered overnight can be a lead that’s gone by morning.
Yardi Breeze clients upgraded to Breeze Premier can use Chat IQ, an AI chatbot integrated into your property marketing website. It answers prospect questions at any hour. The most common questions are about availability and price, and it can narrow a search to a prospect’s preferred number of bedrooms, then capture the lead so your team follows up while the interest is still there.
It also stays current on its own. New capabilities turn on automatically, so no one on your team has to train or publish the bot. For a small office, that’s an always-on first point of contact without another system to manage.
Maintenance made easy
Maintenance requests never stop coming, so this is where you’re going to feel the impact of your self-service tools from day one. Residents can submit requests through the portal or resident app at any hour, describe the problem and check its status later without calling to ask.
More renters want it this way. The NMHC/Grace Hill survey reveals that for non-emergency requests, more renters prefer a text (40%) or a property app (32%) than a phone call (21%).
A portal request arrives as a record that property managers can route and track, instead of a phone message taken down by hand. Fewer small jobs get lost, and the history is there if a question comes up later.
Emergencies don’t wait for business hours
Breeze Premier residential clients can add RentCafe Connect, a 24/7 call center that prioritizes emergencies, stays affordable and can be turned on or off at any time. It covers the hours when you and your team can’t be there.
Customer service is still part of self-service
Just because you have online portals set up and move-in day under control doesn’t mean you can skimp on customer service. Just the opposite. When self-service options have been exhausted, a tired, frustrated tenant is going to look to your office for help.
Are they going to hear a friendly voice on the other end of the line if they call? A prompt response to an email or chat request? Will they feel that you care as much as you did before they signed?
The best thing about self-service is that it simplifies things for you and your tenants while freeing up your staff. That makes it easier to handle the complaints that do come in. More time spent on fewer problems leads to a better customer experience.
Signs of success
Here are the signs that you’re providing a good customer experience:
- It’s easy for customers to solve their problems or get their questions answered
- Doing business is easier and less time-consuming for you and your renters
- You deliver a high level of service with fewer incoming calls and requests
- Renters are eager to share positive online reviews about their experience
Self-service and strong customer service work best together, and the right property management software makes both easier to deliver. Start a live chat to learn more about how Yardi Breeze and Breeze Premier handle online payments, maintenance and resident communication.
