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Of Leases Generated from After-Hours Leads
Reduction in Emergency Maintenance Dispatches
Of All Interactions Automated
Woodward Properties has been a family owned and operated apartment management company since 1976, providing quality housing across the Philadelphia suburbs and, more recently, Southeast Florida. What began as a single duplex purchased by Mike and Kathy Woodward has grown into a portfolio of approximately 2,300 units of differentiated housing, with Woodward doubling its unit count over the last decade and showing no signs of slowing down. Today their son, Connor Woodward, President and CEO, is at the helm, having spent his entire career at the company while rising from Property Manager to COO to his current role.
A core tenet of that growth strategy is Woodward Properties’ commitment to operating as a “maintenance first company." They pride themselves on protecting their long-term asset value, maintaining high curb appeal, closing out work orders rapidly, and impressing residents with their attentiveness to detail. This maintenance first mindset coexists with their equally distinctive approach to company culture. Woodward Properties operates on an 8:30 AM to 5:00 PM schedule, Monday through Friday with no weekend hours. This is an almost unheard of arrangement in an industry where Saturday and Sunday shifts are standard.
Woodward’s continued commitment to work-life balance is a deliberate recruiting lever, but as new supply came online across Woodward's markets and competition for prospects intensified, Connor and the Woodward team had to rethink how they operate. This started with realizing that the same schedule that made Woodward a great place to work also meant the company was unavailable during the exact hours when the modern renter is looking for a new home.
The Woodward Properties team was well aware of the double-edged sword their commitment to manageable office hours created. Their 8:30 to 5:00, Monday through Friday schedule meant that prospects who worked during those same hours had no way to connect with the leasing team when they were actually free. So, inquiries that came in on a Friday evening sat untouched until Monday morning, when leasing agents would arrive to a backlog of emails and voicemails from prospects who had moved on days ago.
The team had explored several ways to close the gap. Weekend hours were on the table, but adding Saturdays and Sundays would fundamentally change the company's culture and erode a key recruiting advantage. And, in an industry with onsite turnover rates averaging near 50% in some markets, retaining top agents is just as important as growing the team. On the maintenance side, Woodward had considered creating a dedicated third shift to handle the volume of after-hours emergency calls that were pulling technicians out of bed for issues that often turned out to be non-emergencies. Both solutions meant more staffing, more overhead, and a departure from the people-first operating model that had defined the company for decades.
Roughly two years ago, when Woodward first encountered EliseAI, they almost chose to pass on the partnership, believing that their competitive advantage lay in having a real person answer the phone. They had seen other large companies route customers through automated, rule-based IVR systems, and didn't want that experience for their residents or prospects. But when the Woodward team re-engaged with EliseAI, about six months later, and saw how different the VoiceAI product truly was from dated IVR tools, their thinking shifted. Through the demo process, it quickly became clear that Elise’s technology met their high standards. The opportunity they had been searching for – to make Woodward a 24/7 operation without sacrificing its culture – was too compelling for the team to pass up. And so, they chose to roll out EliseAI.
Woodward Properties started with a pilot of EliseAI's LeasingAI, VoiceAI, Delinquency, MaintenanceAI, Maintenance App, and EliseCRM products across four communities totaling 630 units, choosing the name “Kathy” for their AI agent in honor of Connor’s mother. Their approach to the pilot was decisive: rather than picking a small, low-risk property to test the waters, the team chose to go big and stress test the products early. Emily Piccirelli, Director of Property Management, oversaw the rollout and implementation, selecting Regional Manager Austin McDevitt’s portfolio to start in recognition of Austin’s strength as a change management leader. The Woodward team subsequently enlisted Austin as an internal expert to train the rest of the organization ahead of the full portfolio launch. Morgan Giannone, Woodward’s Director of Marketing, took the lead on EliseAI implementation across Woodward’s marketing, website, and phone systems, ensuring the infrastructure to capture and convert leads around the clock was ready for prime time. Within weeks, and with the help of Emily, Austin, and Morgan, Connor made the decision to expand the pilot across the entire Woodward portfolio.
The leasing impact was immediate. With LeasingAI and VoiceAI handling prospect communications around the clock, Woodward went from being closed evenings and weekends to operating 24/7. More specifically, the AI responds to after-hours inquiries within seconds, engaging prospects, answering questions, and scheduling tours while the leasing team is off the clock. 46% of Woodward's leads now interact with the AI outside of traditional business hours, and 33% of all leases generated through EliseAI originated from those after-hours interactions. The Monday morning backlog that once consumed half the leasing team's day has been replaced by a pre-populated calendar of confirmed showings with prospects who have already been qualified and educated through their conversations with the AI. Across the portfolio, EliseAI automates 93% of all prospect and resident interactions, freeing up an estimated 6.6 full-time employees’ worth of staff capacity for higher-impact work.
On the maintenance side, EliseAI's Maintenance App brought a new layer of intelligence to an operation that was already running well. The app's auto-assignment engine matches incoming work orders to the right technician based on skill set and geographic proximity, eliminating the manual review-and-assign step that previously sat between a resident's request and a technician's response. Approximately 65% of Woodward's work orders are now auto-assigned, shaving hours off the resolution cycle and helping the team stay on track with their 24 hour completion goal. Additionally, their technicians have responded positively, citing a more user-friendly interface than their previous system and a preference for receiving work orders based on their current location in the field.
The after-hours maintenance experience has been equally significant. EliseAI's emergency triage capability screens incoming calls, determines whether an issue is a true emergency, and either de-escalates with troubleshooting guidance or routes to the on-call technician. The result has been a 50% reduction in after-hours emergency dispatches, cutting in half the number of times technicians are called out of bed for issues that can safely wait until morning or can be solved through simple resident-led troubleshooting. Similarly, the AI also catches real emergencies that might otherwise slip through the cracks, using triage logic to ensure those situations are escalated immediately rather than sitting in a queue until the next business day where they could cause serious damage to both the community and to resident sentiment.
For Woodward Properties, the operational gains from EliseAI have reinforced a broader conviction that investing in the resident experience pays for itself. In a market where new supply is putting downward pressure on rents across many of the company's submarkets, retention has taken on added urgency. Residents who feel their maintenance requests are handled quickly and their living experience is taken seriously are residents who renew. The combination of rapid work order resolution, around-the-clock responsiveness, and consistent communication has given Woodward a resident experience that is difficult for competitors to replicate, even those with newer product and larger teams.
The partnership between Woodward Properties and EliseAI continues to deepen. Having rolled out LeasingAI, VoiceAI, Delinquency, MaintenanceAI, the Maintenance App, and EliseCRM across the full portfolio, Woodward is continuing to evaluate how the platform can support the company's continued growth. For a company that has doubled its unit count in the last decade, and intends to keep expanding, having a technology partner that scales with them is a practical necessity.
What makes the Woodward Properties story compelling is the simplicity of the thesis behind it. Connor and his team identified a clear tension between the employee-first culture they wanted to preserve and the competitive realities of their market. Rather than compromising on either element, they found a way to have both. Woodward Properties remains a family owned, maintenance-first company with Monday-through-Friday hours and a commitment to work-life balance for its teams. It also happens to be open twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. EliseAI is proud to help make that reality a possibility.
Connor Woodward is the President and CEO of Woodward Properties. Over the past 15 years, he has developed extensive experience across acquisitions, operations, organizational leadership, and long-term portfolio strategy, with an emphasis on disciplined execution and sustainable growth. Connor earned his bachelor’s degree in Finance from Saint Joseph’s University and holds a Master’s degree in Property Management from Drexel University. He currently serves as President of the Pennsylvania Apartment Association (PAA), working with peers across the industry to advance responsible housing policy, promote best practices in property management, and serve as a resource to policymakers on issues impacting rental housing across the Commonwealth.
Emily Piccirelli has been with Woodward Properties for seven years, rising from Regional Property Manager to her current role as Director of Property Management. She is an experienced leader with a demonstrated history of working in the multifamily housing industry, as well as a Certified Apartment Manager and a National Apartment Leasing Professional with the NAA.
Morgan Giannone serves as Director of Marketing at Woodward Properties, where she brings extensive experience in the real estate and multifamily housing industry. She has built a strong track record in apartment marketing, sales strategy, and team leadership, with a focus on fostering collaboration and driving results across the portfolio. Morgan earned her bachelor's degree in Anthropology from Franklin & Marshall College. She is deeply committed to Woodward Properties' employee-centric culture and plays a key role in championing the values and vision that distinguish the company in the market.
Austin McDevitt is an outcome-oriented Regional Property Manager with an aptitude for redesigning workflows around new technology solutions. During his nearly three year tenure at Woodward Properties he has been an integral part of the EliseAI rollout, working closely with his portfolio of pilot communities to ensure portfolio-wide success for AI-powered operations.
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