How and Why an AI Leasing Assistant Can Help You

As artificial intelligence revolutionizes the tech world, it’s also making inroads in the multifamily industry. One of the easiest ways to take advantage of AI technology is implementing a chatbot to help your prospective residents through the leasing process. If you haven’t already hopped on this trend, here’s what you need to know about AI chatbots.

What is an AI chatbot?

Powered by artificial intelligence, a chatbot is a service that communicates directly with your customers. When advertising your apartments, you can preload it with the information you want to share about availability, amenities, and community lifestyle. You can adapt your chatbot as needed to address the goals and needs of your specific community and answer common questions.

A chatbot is an efficient way to answer these basic questions that interested renters might have, thus freeing up time for your onsite staff to handle more complex tasks and focus on the most serious renters.

Why consider an AI chatbot?

Looking to streamline your leasing and property management processes? Here are five reasons to try a chatbot:

1. Always-on customer service. Unlike human staff, a chatbot can respond to questions at any hour of the day or night. This is a great way to engage with prospects researching after standard work hours or searching from different time zones. Chatbots can also provide instant responses, eliminating the need for frustrating callbacks and back-and-forth emails.
2. Efficient leasing process. A chatbot can automate different aspects of your leasing process, such as answering basic questions, gathering leads, scheduling tours, and even collecting application information.
3. Lower costs. Easily scalable, a chatbot provides a high return on investment. Once it’s been set up, it can communicate with multiple people simultaneously, without increasing your headcount or requiring overtime. What’s more, it’ll free up your busy staff to work on higher priorities that do require human input.
4. Quality assurance. By syncing your chatbot to your current data sources, you can make sure your prospects get consistent, accurate information without human error.
5. Useful analytics. A chatbot can capture all its interactions with prospective residents and build a wealth of data to provide helpful insights into who your customers are, what they’re seeking, and how you can better serve their needs. Compared to subjective impressions from your leasing staff, this information can offer a more comprehensive, data-driven picture to inform your marketing strategy.

Do chatbots really work?

You might wonder about a chatbot’s effectiveness in converting prospects. Aren’t prospective renters just going to be frustrated they can’t talk to a real person?

The technology has come a long way since the first chatbot, ELIZA, was created in the 1960s. Today’s tools, typically powered by artificial intelligence, are much more powerful, creating a smooth, customer-friendly experience. They can pick up on the intent of the user’s question, even if the sentence uses a nonstandard phrasing or contains typos.

At the same time, renters are increasingly seeking out faster response times.

With 85 percent of customers pointing to responsiveness as an important factor in their brand loyalty, according to research by productivity expert Jay Baer, a chatbot can give you an edge. Prospective renters can get their questions answered immediately, with no need to wait or slow down their search process.

And, in fact, 62 percent of consumers say they would rather talk to a chatbot than wait 15 minutes to talk to a human, according to Tidio research.

How to start using an AI chatbot

Today, you can choose from a wide array of AI tools. For example, chat functionality may be offered through your property management software as an add-on to your community website. 

The future of AI in multifamily

AI-powered chat is one of many shifts the multifamily industry has seen in recent years. As renters continue to demand fast service and self-directed options, AI chatbot is a useful tool to help drive conversion.

With AI chat, you can provide a more efficient and personalized experience for residents and prospects while also freeing up property management staff to focus on other important tasks.