For better or worse, the COVID-19 pandemic drove a drastic shift in the way (many) Americans work. Where working from home was once a perk afforded only in rare cases, WFH quickly became the norm as pandemic-era lockdowns ground ordinary business activity to a halt. While the pandemic came and went, the COVID-era perk of remote or hybrid work seems like it’s here to stay…at least, for a certain subset of Americans.
Stanford University research shows a very clear discrepancy in the socioeconomic implications of remote work.
While total yearly WFH days have declined by 16 percent for workers earning less than $100,000 a year, WFH days have only declined by 5 percent for those making $200,000 or more per annum. That’s reflected in the correlation the study showed between yearly income and average distance from the employee’s place of work. While only 5 percent of employees earning $10,000 to $50,000 a year work 50 or more miles from their company headquarters, 14 percent of those earning more than $250,000 do.
So, what does this mean for the multifamily industry?
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The Leasing Office Status Quo
One of the largest implications of the socioeconomic remote work divide is the impact it’s having on the ability of workers who do not have the option of working remotely to tour homes. Traditionally, leasing office hours have closely matched those of the standard working day, usually starting at around 9am and stretching to 5 or 6pm based on the preferences of the property management company. Some operators offer weekend touring, but flexibly scheduling leasing agents and paying to have employees working 7 days a week drives up operating expenses which contributes to the existing cost of living crisis in the United States.
For service industry professionals, essential workers, and other employees who have to be physically present at their place of work five days a week, finding time during their 9 to 5 to go view a new apartment can be a challenge. It might require dipping into a limited pool of paid time off days, taking unpaid time off, or struggling to find a colleague who can cover for them so they can go take a guided tour. If they’re not able to find a way to take time off during the workweek, they might be stuck either going on a virtual tour or using an existing self-guided tour solution that falls short of the guided tour experience.
Fortunately, EliseAI’s newest product can help bridge this gap between agent-led and self-guided tours without requiring operators to staff their communities 7 days a week.
Intro to EliseAI’s AI-Guided Tours Product
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EliseAI’s new AI-Guided Tours product combines the convenience of a self-guided tour with the personalized, in-depth nature of an agent-led tour. This innovative solution combines the human-like warmth of a live agent with advanced AI capabilities, providing personalized support via phone or SMS during the course of the tour. During tours, EliseAI’s conversational AI products serve as a virtual guide for prospects, answering questions, offering navigation assistance, and highlighting key property features, all while ensuring a secure and intuitive experience through credit card information collection and pre-screening.
By addressing the limitations of traditional touring methods, AIGT empowers property managers to meet renters’ growing expectations for convenience and personalization. It enhances operational efficiency and delivers potential cost savings by increasing tour availability, reducing after-hours and weekend staffing requirements, and automating time consuming manual tasks like follow-ups, ID verification, and application management. Through seamless integration with leading CRM and PMS systems, AIGT transforms the self-guided touring process into a streamlined experience that benefits both prospective renters and property management teams, while creating efficiencies that could subsequently be passed onto the consumer in the form of lowered housing costs.
How AIGT Can Improve Housing Access
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There’s two primary ways AI Guided-Tours can improve access to housing: through expanded touring hours for people who don’t have the privilege of working remotely, and through potential cost savings that could in turn be passed onto the consumer in the form of lowered housing prices. AIGT provides an interactive, natural language processing-driven guided tour, ensuring prospects can get the information they need to find the right home without requiring them to come to your communities during traditional leasing office hours. Now, the socioeconomic divide between who gets to work remotely will no longer impact the ability of people to find the right homes for them and their families.
Beyond improving housing accessibility, AIGT can also improve housing affordability through the reduction of onsite staffing costs for weekend and after-hours. Instead of paying staff to come in on the weekends (which, according to the NAA, significantly contributes to some of the largest challenges faced by the modern property manager like mental health and the inability to switch off), operators can now deploy AIGT to cover hours and days that are inefficient to staff. With staffing volatility and high turnover rates a major concern for many property managers, AIGT also smooths over any team inconsistencies while reducing fixed costs and improving NOI. All in all, the combination of support for those who don’t have the privilege of working from home and the reduction of costs that contribute to unaffordability of housing position AIGT as a solution that could make a positive impact on housing accessibility.
Expand Your Touring Hours with AIGT Today
For operators looking to drive down costs in order to increase housing affordability, AIGT can help eliminate costly staffing hours while enabling people who can’t get away from work during the week to have positive touring experiences. Through the reduction of onsite inefficiencies, expansion of touring hours for those who cannot work remotely, and cost savings from inefficient staffing, AI-Guided Tours has the potential to make a positive impact on the housing industry at large. Get in touch with us today if you’re interested in deploying AI-Guided Tours at your communities.