How Millennials are Changing the Property Management Software Game

For the last decade the multi-family industry has demanded little of the software they use. While other industries progress by adopting mobile technology, predictive analytics, and automation, PM companies continue to use clunky old software that lives on their desktop. Recently, Airbnb and other startups have shed a light on the opportunities that lie in real estate and millennial designers and developers are taking notice.

It’s no secret that millennials have a reputation for staring into their phone for hours at a time, texting, snapchatting, facebooking, and tweeting. It’s not that this generation loves to enter information mindlessly into a computer, it’s that they value social connections and are driven by the need to interact with others. In fact, millennials hate data entry with a passion and rebel against it, which creates a problem for executives who analyze data. If your organization uses software that requires a lot of manual data entry, chances are your millennial workforce isn’t entering the details you need to make good decisions.

Here are a few technologies that the multifamily industry needs to adopt to stay relevant to millennial workers and job seekers.

If you’re not on mobile, you’re invisible to millennials.

Mobile increases the amount of meaningful touch points between the property management staff and customers. Mobile will allow apartment professionals to step away from their desks, get work done, and message apartment hunters while engaging with customers on the property.

Better user experience means better data.

It’s become easier than ever for designers and developers to collaborate, design and build easy-to-use products. As a result, multifamily tech will become simpler and more visually appealing. As user experience and design improve, upper level management will notice their staff utilizing the software to it’s fullest purpose, which will produce better data.

Why do tomorrow what you can automate today?

The way rental offices communicate with apartment hunters will become automated in the coming years. Adding new prospects into sales work flow products will trigger email campaigns and follow ups will be sent out automatically. New technology will ensure that every lead is nurtured no matter how busy a leasing consultant is.

Predict the future.

Reports will become more useful for management as predictive analytics are implemented. Software will be able analyze trends on a property and industry and predict what will happen next. For example, traffic reports will go deeper than ever giving the marketing staff cues about when to put more emphasis on a given marketing channel so that traffic doesn’t dip.