Centralized Services – A Shifting Standard of Efficiency
Author: Shane Guillot – Director for Centralized Operations
AI, Automation, and Centralization have been buzzwords in the real estate industry for a few years now. However, implementing these concepts across the industry has proven more challenging than initially scoped.
New Data: Whether it’s a leasing conversation or updates to residents, Cardinal’s personification of AI, Hunter, is there for our customers. Hunter provides value to customers and operators by going above and beyond your ‘run-of-the-mill’ chatbot. Using the large language model (LLM) technology powering Hunter’s thoughtful replies, customer responses can also be turned into new data. With a consistency that cannot be replicated at scale by human operators, data collection is more precise and has less individual bias.
- Residents – There are a plethora of reasons why Team Members would communicate with residents at a Cardinal-managed asset. Here is where we’ve seen the most ROI on this new data.
- Delinquency Collection – This time-consuming and unfulfilling task is a necessary staple in the industry. However, with Hunter AI, Cardinal can now measure the precise impact each outgoing correspondence has on progress. With an average 10% landing rate, initial outreach phone calls are a perfect task for automation, while SMS can have an average landing rate of >90%. Tailoring communication to how our residents want to receive it fosters a stronger sense of community and participation from our customers.
- Renewal Outreach—All stabilized assets look forward to resident renewals for the laundry list of benefits they bring, but not all customers are ready to commit to another year. The most beneficial data is ‘Move-out reasons’. Analysts can connect seemingly disparate phenomena to paint a more accurate picture of housing trends. This information can be applied through capital expenditure projects or pricing campaigns to secure a higher retention rate.
- Prospects and Leasing – From SEO to market trends, AI and machine learning are there to help measure ROI for each dollar spent.
- Guest Cards or Initial Inquiries – Our industry primarily focuses on qualifying residents to live at our assets, but less often considers how customers qualify the community for lease. Hunter AI can use prospect objections to tell the story of our renters and streamline their needs to key decision-makers. When combined with Hunter AI’s machine learning capabilities, Cardinal Group Management can accurately analyze market trends to make the best data-driven recommendations for overcoming objections.
- Marketing Sources—Renters rarely interact solely with one individual during the qualifying and buying process, which challenges data collection. With Hunter AI monitoring every incoming lead, they can better attribute finalized leases to their marketing sources. Marketing is an ever-elusive concept for many, but knowing the precise ROI of each dollar spent on SEO and PPC ads can yield very high returns in asset management.
Shifting Consumer Trends: With marketing efforts driving traffic and leasing teams qualifying leads, urgency has never been more crucial in our industry. With companies like Amazon setting the standard for how consumers shop, agent response time has growing relevance as Cardinal shifts to meet the needs of consumers.
- Residents – A Realpage National survey in 2023 says, “79% of renters think they should be able to get everything they need from their property manager via direct message, text, or chat.”
- Accounting: Resident satisfaction heavily impacts retention at our assets, and surprise charges can affect how residents perceive our communities. Hunter AI proactively communicates all ledger charges, ,and debits and their descriptions to residents for full transactional transparency to residents. In addition to proactive communication, residents can inquire about account details or leasing terms even when the office is closed.
- Facilities – After-hours maintenance emergencies can range from flooded buildings to cold burritos with inoperable microwaves. ImplementingFacilities AI allows Hunter to diagnose emergencies and provide self-service opportunities to residents. Whether Hunter is teaching a resident how to reset a breaker or shut off their water in an emergency, monetary ROI can reach millions of dollars through risk mitigation.
- Prospects and Leasing—A community receives an average of 40% of incoming calls after hours. While 24/7 call centers can be expensive, Hunter AI can receive, respond to, and qualify prospect inquiries without staff present. With Hunter’s innovations, they can also schedule prospect appointments or tours to help close each sale before the office team arrives each morning.
- Lead Intake – Never miss a lead with Hunter AI. Whether a prospect is calling, emailing, or texting for information, the onsite staff can use notes and summaries of each conversation to determine hot leads and cold leads. Adapting to ‘when’ and ‘how’ our consumers communicate about buying allows Cardinal Group Management to capture leads even during slower times of business. Additionally, leads are no longer lost if agents are already working with another lead and unable to answer phones. Although customers rarely recognize Hunter as artificial intelligence due to his organic and warm conversational tone, customers can request an agent at any time during the buying process.
The People Behind AI: Cardinal values being at the crossroads of technology and the operational efficiency it brings. Standing on three pillars to define its centralization brand: Targeting the needs of Clients, Customers, and Cardinal Team Members, CX3 aims to apply technology solutions to innovate real estate management.
- Client – Whether you’re looking for cleaner data, higher capture rates, or anything in between to grow the value of your asset, Cardinal has a technology solution.
- Customers – From 24/7 resident conversations to our ‘no lost leads’ processes, Cardinal Customers will always have access to the information they need.
- Cardinal Team Members – As a proactive solution to turnover, our specialized teams are ready to assist in an instant. With our industry attracting less new talent every year, our fully remote support, paired with technology solutions aims to provide more fulfilling workdays for in-office and remote teams.