In a world of increasing automation where computers and robots are taking the place of human-powered tasks, there is a growing need for human connection. In everyday life a person can order just about all life’s essentials online and have them delivered. There’s hardly a need to leave the house. In business, companies are finding ways to use robots and AI to replace human job functions and therefore reduce overhead costs. But is this trajectory healthy for society?
Covid taught us that being shut away from each other caused emotional and even physical harm with elevated risk of disease. The World Health Organization produced a brief in 2022 that said anxiety and depression increased by 25% worldwide in the first year of the pandemic. Regardless, it seems that society is moving ever closer to a contactless life experience. This is certainly true in the residential property management industry.
Every conference that we attend provides sessions on automating the business model and vendors abound with online, computerized systems to replace almost every aspect of the property management business. From self-showings and online applications, to digital lease signings and lockbox entry move-ins, it is possible to run a property management company without ever meeting your clients or customers face to face. But at what cost?
Without a face-to-face meeting, how does an investor build trust in their property manager to efficiently and effectively manage their investment asset? How do applicants determine that a property management company is trustworthy and will treat them fairly as residents without any human interaction? How do residents and property management companies build a positive working relationship without ever meeting? We have heard countless horror stories from prospective clients, applicants and residents about how they could NEVER reach anyone on the phone, and emails were never responded to, and maintenance requests were never addressed. Making clear from the beginning that there is a human who cares on the other side of the equation pays tremendous dividends.
We believe that property management is a relationship business first and foremost. The rental home in this scenario is simply the commodity through which we build and manage the relationship. People are important. Connections are important. Trust is important. And all three of those things are fostered best by intentional human interaction.
Do we incorporate technology to help streamline our business processes and procedures? Of course. We provide online applications, digital lease and management agreement signing, resident and owner portals for payment processing and maintenance request submission. But we are a human-centric, high-touch agency FIRST, by design. Meaning, our property managers themselves show the available properties to applicants. Residents come to our office to receive their keys and meet their property manager. Our property managers do the move-in and move-out inspections themselves. They are intimately familiar with the homes that they manage and the residents we place in them.
We have an incredibly solid team that are loyal, dedicated to doing the best job possible, and who operate with honesty, integrity and transparency. To us, our team is our highest selling point and what we value most about our business. In our experience, you simply cannot replace the value of human interaction with automation and get the same result. In the words of Mark Schaefer, marketing warrior and best-selling author, “The most human company wins.”
