The Importance of Chatbots for Multi-Family Marketers

Have you ever considered how a chatbot could help your property management company? Chatbots are used to conduct an online conversation through text or text-to-speech instead of providing contact with a human. Throughout COVID-19, we understand that marketing resources are limited, which is why chatbots are a great option. If your property management company isn’t already using chatbots as a part of your localized marketing strategy, it’s time to start. If you are currently using chatbots, are you using them to their fullest potential? Let’s find out! 

Consolidate your localized marketing efforts 

As mentioned previously, resources are limited amid the current pandemic. Chatbots can help your property management company consolidate its localized marketing efforts. Instead of receiving countless questions about individual properties over the phone or email, a chatbot can answer them instead. 

While this takes a load off of your marketing team, it also helps your current and prospective residents. Instead of having to pick up the phone or wait for an email response, they can get their answers efficiently by communicating with a chatbot. 

If you aren’t already familiar with chatbots, it’s essential to know that you can program your chatbot to respond to answers to some of your most frequently asked questions. For instance, if your property management company receives many inquiries about pricing options, you can include detailed information about the cost associated with different properties in your chatbot. If chatbots can answer a significant amount of questions your company receives, it will leave more time for your marketing team to focus on other localized marketing efforts. 

Communicate with prospective and current residents efficiently 

Chatbots will also allow you to communicate with your residents or prospects instantly. If there’s a message that you need to get out to your target audience right away, a chatbot is a great way to do so. For instance, if your leasing office currently has reduced office hours, that information can be shared through your chatbot. 

In addition, if a specific property is having a sale or promotion, the chatbot can provide that insight. With social distancing more prominent than ever, people are spending more time online. Data shows that people are currently spending two to four hours on social media a day, allowing an excellent opportunity for your property. You can connect with your audience differently, and provide them with the information they are searching for during this difficult time. 

It’s also important to remember that chatbots allow you to connect with residents or potential residents outside of your regular business hours. Many people are still working from home during this time, so they might not be able to research your company until after hours. With a chatbot, they can have a full conversation at whatever time suits their needs, leading to a happy prospect.

Generate leads and increase your sales funnel 

While chatbots are a great way to communicate with residents, they can also be useful for lead generation. Through chatbots, you can also collect information from the user, and later transfer them into your sales funnel. There are a couple of different ways you can collect user information through chatbots. One option is to ask for a user’s name and email address at the beginning of a conversation in case you get disconnected. You can also ask for a user’s information at the end of the conversation and provide them with the option to subscribe to a marketing email, or something similar. 

Once you have the contact information you received from a chatbot, you can start to nurture the lead, and eventually try to convert them. If a prospect feels you helped answer their questions or provided them with information when needed, they will be more likely to remember your property management company and consider it when making a purchasing decision. 

Get started using chatbots

You may be thinking that all of this sounds great, but are wondering where you could find a chatbot that fulfills all of the pieces we mentioned above. While there are a number of smartbots that could fulfill what we discussed above, wouldn’t you want a chatbot that was created specifically to solve for the challenges property management companies experience? A chatbot that allows you to book appointments and communicate through multiple channels rather than just sitting on your website? 

Enter SOCi SmartBot. SOCi SmartBot is on 24/7. It doesn’t sleep, and it never misses a question or lead. This AI chatbot lives on Facebook Messenger, a network with over 1.8 billion users, and combines natural language processing and advanced machine learning to deliver localized responses to questions about your properties, including office hours, floor plans, availability, pricing, and more. SOCi SmartBot converts 100% of conversations into leads, giving you full lead source attribution. Best of all, it can book appointments and can be paired with Facebook Click-to-Messenger Ads to increase conversions across all your communities.

If you’d like to get more information about how SOCi SmartBot can help your specific property management company, or how SOCi can help your localized marketing efforts in general, email us today at [email protected]. We know that many property management companies are having to navigate uncharted territory during this pandemic, and we are here to offer the support you need.