When it comes to managing valuable real estate investments and handling the day-to-day needs of multiple tenants, property management teams must have effective communication strategies to ensure everyone is happy and satisfied.
It’s crucial to ensure rental properties stay filled, owners are updated and informed, and tenant maintenance requests are quickly addressed. In this article, we’ll explore the best channels for property management communication and provide tips for creating a communication strategy that’s guaranteed to keep operations running smoothly.
Jump right to:
- Why good communication is key in property management
- Top communication channels for property managers
- Tips to improve property management communication
<h2 id="Why">Why good communication is key in property management</h2>
As a property manager, you could be responsible for handling anywhere from 50 to 100 properties at any given time. For each property, your team has to coordinate with maintenance crews, answer tenant inquiries, provide timely updates to owners, and facilitate showings for vacant properties. That’s a lot of back-and-forth communication each day.
Implementing an effective and efficient communication strategy is key to success in the property management industry. Benefits of good communication include:
- Increased tenant satisfaction. When tenants are happy, they’re more likely to renew leases, take care of the property, and recommend your management company to other renters.
- Improved relationships with property owners. Real estate investments are valuable portfolio pieces for many owners. Transparent, efficient communication with owners is key to creating lasting relationships, winning referrals, and retaining properties.
- Efficient maintenance requests. Rapidly responding to and resolving maintenance issues is key to minimizing potential damage and facilitating owner and tenant trust in your management company.
- Improved rent collection. Maintaining cash flow is a top priority for all businesses. Collecting rent on time from tenants requires sending proactive rent reminders, late payment follow-ups, and providing convenient access to payment portals.
- Better reputation. Attracting new owners and tenants to your business depends on your reputation. Effective communication leads to better reviews and referrals for your business, which in turn increases your overall reputation and chances of earning new clients.
<h2 id="Top">Top communication channels for property managers</h2>
Finding the right combination of communication channels is an essential step in developing a solid communication strategy. Let’s explore the best channels specifically for property management firms.
Texting
Text messages have an unbeatable 98% open rate and most are read within five minutes. For property managers, texting offers a quick, convenient way to ensure important messages are read and all parties are up to date. Plus, it’s the preferred communication channel for over 79 percent of tenants.
Texting’s high open and instant delivery rates can be utilized to send emergency, weather, and time-sensitive alerts to tenants, such as freeze warnings or utility outages. For sharing updates that aren’t urgent, such as upcoming rent payment reminders or lease renewals, SMS messages can be easily scheduled ahead of time and sent without manual intervention, saving staff time and minimizing missed messages.
Features like two-way SMS enable property managers and tenants to send back-and-forth messages, including photos and attachments, to help expedite maintenance requests and schedule showings on for-rent properties.
Plus, providing tenants with a quick and convenient option for reporting maintenance issues increases the chances of rapid issue resolution, further minimizing damage, protecting client investments, and boosting satisfaction rates.
Email communication is a necessary channel to include in your communication strategy. Property managers can use email to share documentation, such as lease agreements and inspection forms, and provide detailed updates to owners on rental properties.
Formal communication, such as required documentation and record sharing, is best conducted over email as it doesn’t have a character limit and can contain large file sizes. Leverage email to send recurring newsletters, share monthly listings with realtors or prospective tenants, and distribute maintenance schedules.
Chatbots and live chat
Adding an AI-powered chatbot on your firm’s homepage is a useful way to answer after-hours inquiries, respond to frequently asked questions, and cut down your response times. Chatbots can be programmed to collect preliminary information from prospects, such as budgets and move-in timelines, and schedule showings.
During operating hours, when agents are available, live web chats can offer real-time opportunities to answer questions and engage prospects. Live chats are better suited than chatbots for solving in-depth questions and quickly addressing tenant issues such as billing or maintenance questions.
Phone calls
Offering tenants and owners digital communication channels, such as email and text, doesn’t mean your staff shouldn’t be making themselves available to clients via phone. Phone calls remain crucial for providing excellent service and handling issues quickly. It’s important to know when to text customers and when a phone call would better suit the situation.
Tenants need a direct line to report urgent issues such as water leaks, fire damage, heating failures, and security concerns. Instant voice communication remains the quickest way to mediate issues and keep tenants satisfied. Plus, for complex or sensitive topics, like discussions around lease violations or disputes, personal phone conversations are best for de-escalation.
And though much of the scheduling and advertising of vacant properties can be quickly handled via text, speaking with clients over the phone is the best way to confirm tenant identity and assess the seriousness of their interest in your property.
Portals and Apps
Offer tenants self-service portals and mobile app options with property management software, such as AppFolio, Avail, or Buildium. These platforms allow users to submit maintenance requests, digitally send rent payments, and access lease details. They can also be useful ways to track and charge tenants for shared or split utilities.
Self-service options save your staff time and increase tenant satisfaction rates. In fact, 76 percent of tenants prefer to use digital rent payment options, and the vast majority of clients in general prefer businesses that offer self-service alternatives.
<h2 id="Tips">Tips to improve property management communication</h2>
By establishing clear communication practices, promptly addressing tenant concerns, and proactively updating owners, property managers can establish positive landlord-tenant relationships and minimize turnover.
The following tips will help your firm cultivate an efficient, effective communication culture.
Use multiple communication channels
For industries like property management that serve diverse clients with varying needs, an omnichannel communication approach is essential. Offering multiple communication channels ensures tenants and owners can communicate via their preferred methods.
To effectively manage daily needs without overwhelming staff, it’s important to invest in diverse channels that support different use cases. For example, use phone calls for personal communications or urgent issues, SMS for quick, asynchronous updates or day-to-day communications, email for document sharing, and self-service portals for rent payments.
Be responsive
Nothing frustrates tenants and owners quite like an unresponsive property manager. To keep satisfaction and trust levels high, acknowledge messages as soon as they are received, even if you can’t address them or are still working on a solution.
A good rule of thumb is to reply to messages within 24 hours, confirming that you’ve received the message and are in the process of resolving the issue. And when it comes to renting out vacant properties, quick response times help you capture renter attention and increase the chances of winning a new lease.
Be proactive
Tenants don’t just expect quick reactive messaging from their landlords. For instances such as planned water shutoffs, pest control, painting, or anything that may affect a resident’s day, it’s always a best practice to proactively notify tenants to avoid any unexpected delays or issues.
Automate routine messages
For notifications or reminders that need to be sent out at a certain time, schedule messages to ensure they reach the right person at the right moment.
Messages such as lease renewal notifications, rent payment reminders, or seasonal maintenance alerts can be automated to send to tenants at necessary intervals, ensuring no messages fall through the cracks.
Be clear and concise
Make sure your messages with tenants and owners are clear, concise, and relevant. Stick to the essential details and avoid unnecessary words. Shorter messages are more likely to be read and acted upon.
Apply the same practice to your email subject lines. The goal of your subject line should be to quickly highlight the intent of your message and entice your audience to read the rest of the email. Make subject lines clear and actionable, such as: Lease renewal due — Action required.
Set the right tone
When clients first communicate with your firm, it’s important to set expectations for your communications to prevent misunderstandings.
Outlining how long tenants can expect to wait for issues to be addressed, such as maintenance and repair request resolution times, can help manage expectations and keep tenant satisfaction levels up.
Provide tenants with clear instructions on how to best get help with different needs. For example, instruct tenants to file maintenance requests via your online portal and to call your office for urgent issues. Set expected response times and adhere to the communication methods and timelines you’ve established to build trust.
Keep a record of your communication
Entering into a legally binding contract with your tenants and owners makes property management documentation crucial for maintaining a clear legal history of rental agreements and staying organized.
Store email threads, SMS conversations, and call notes so that your team can reference past discussions when necessary. Owners may request detailed records of financial and maintenance history at any time, so it's important for your firm’s legal protection that all interactions, leases, damages, and communications are well-documented.
Establish a check-in cadence with property owners
Keep property owners in the loop with regular updates. Depending on the level of involvement desired by a property owner, set pre-determined times, whether weekly, quarterly, or annually, to provide key updates on information such as:
- Tenant and vacancy updates
- Detailed maintenance reports
- Current unaddressed repair needs
- Financial reports on rent collection, expenses, and performance
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Textline was built with teams like yours in mind — it’s dynamic, packed with collaboration features, and engineered to make communicating with clients easy and efficient.
Textline’s advanced SMS inbox enables property managers to engage in rapid two-way texting, automate scheduled alerts and announcements, and store endless conversation history for advanced documentation needs. Plus, Textline users can add a live web chat widget to their website that’s guaranteed to capture leads and improve your overall customer experience.
Can’t believe it’s all true? Snag a free Textline demo to see it in action, or get a free trial to try it for yourself.
