It’s no secret that automation and technology can help a business. But if you haven’t considered exactly how it can help — you just know that it can — you might be reluctant to make an investment and opt to do things old-school.
That’s understandable. Automation and technology can be overwhelming, especially if you’re somebody who barely understands your smartphone or DVR. But, as the CEO of a national property management company that harnesses the power of the cloud and a lot of “you can really do that?” type of tech, I can hopefully make a decent argument that your real estate company should be using automation and technology.
You’ll be a far more efficient marketer.
Whether you own an established property management company or you’re just starting out in the real estate space, you’re going to need to market your business. I learned that automating your marketing workflow, which you can do with apps and software programs, can work wonders when it comes to finding clients and customers. In the old days, you marketed to potential customers by putting out expensive ads on TV, radio or in the newspaper — and you hoped people would hear, see or read your message and come to your place of business.
That’s still done, and there’s nothing wrong with that approach. But with loyalty cards, apps that give people discounts, email lists and so on, each time a consumer engages with your company, it gives you a way to track that customer and measure how often they’re frequenting your business.
You probably, if you don’t already, should also investigate using marketing automation software. Your clients live on the internet; you pretty much need to be there all the time as well. But you have a life, and you can’t work 24/7. However, marketing automation software does operate around the clock.
There are many options out there, and they can help real estate professionals land leads by tailoring customer messages with a series of automated emails based on potential customers’ interests. You can also get your name out there by scheduling posts on social media channels, so you’re often chiming in on social media, even when you’re out showing a house to a client or picking up your kids from school.
In any case, when you automate your marketing and loyal customers do emerge, you can offer targeted discounts to try and entice them to come in even more often. Well, I could go on about this all day, but my point is that when it comes to marketing, automation can be a helpful option.
You’ll have far more efficient employees.
Automation can also help your employees become more efficient, which should only help the relationship between you and your staff. Automation allows your employees to be faster with their duties and spend more time on interesting work, rather than material that can be done by a machine.
Every business, for instance, deals with numbers. In many of the franchises I work with, just one of the many things they’re keeping track of is reconciling rent payments and expenses. They’re also monitoring dates since tenants are moving in and out.
The easier you make it for your employees to do their jobs, the better they’re going to do them. For instance, some property management software monitors resident parking permits and can log deliveries to your properties. If your employees are tracking this information themselves, then they’re going to have less time to show properties to prospective tenants and take care of current clients.
With the right automation software, you can also track the performance of your employees, such as how many apartments or condos they show. If they know you’re monitoring these numbers, they’ll likely do a better job.
Whatever the business, you probably have a lot of numbers to keep track of. If you have software that makes accounting and daily business operations easier, where people aren’t buried in paperwork and spending hours filling out forms, you’re giving your employees the tools to be more efficient and productive. You’re also going to have happier employees.
And the fact is, your staff can’t track everything that software can. And you shouldn’t want them to, because they’ll never have time to interact with tenants.
You’ll be a more eco-friendly startup.
In the long run, if you’re using less paper, that’s a good thing for the environment. Being automated also means less time driving around the city. For instance, think of how GPS has revolutionized the delivery service industry and helped make getting lost almost a thing of the past. Knowing the quickest route will save your company on gas, and that, too, makes your company greener than it might otherwise be.
You might also have fewer employees due to streamlining your operations, which means paying less for resources and, in general, that’ll help your bottom line.
You’ll run your business more efficiently as well.
Along with helping things like your accounting, marketing and making life easier for your employees, you’re simply going to find that automating your business makes you a better owner. If you have a financial dashboard, for instance, that you can use to monitor your numbers in real time, you’re always going to know and understand your business far more than if you need to gather everything, piecemeal.
Again, I know this can be overwhelming. While some people really take to technology, others, not so much. But if you get the tools you need to make your business more digital, and your business spends more time in the cloud, you’ll be on top of your business and discover so much more about your company than you would otherwise. It isn’t that you can’t eschew technology and not learn a lot about your business. You can and will — just not as fast as your competitors. When you go old-school, you tend to learn things the hard way.