Apartment pricing solutions are the latest to get the smartphone treatment as consumer search officially tips from desktop to mobile.
It's official: More Google searches are now taking place on mobile devices than on desktop computers. On May 5, the company confirmed what SEO experts (including Greg Sterling at Search Engine Land) had anticipated for sometimethe tipping point in search volume signifying that mobile has become the primary screen for computer users.
Not surprisingly, the apartment industry has already shifted a lion's share of renter-facing marketing and service technologies into the mobile arena. Up next, if revenue management is any indication, is a corresponding upload of operational and asset management systems into the mobile realm.
In February, The Rainmaker Group introduced the industry's first purpose-built revenue management mobile app at its LRO User Conference, and revenue management can also be accessed now from several system vendors via responsively designed mobile websites. Whether multifamily pricing executives ultimately opt for an app versus navigating a mobile website remains to be seen.
At Simpson Property Group, Director of Revenue Management Bryan Hilton went on a road show this spring to upgrade all of his pricing and revenue management teams to the mobile app, and found many of his pricing managers were already way ahead of him in adopting mobile for pricing and operations issues.
"It's likely because the interface requires almost no training. If you have used other apps of any kind you'll find the revenue management app incredibly easy to use," Hilton says. "The immediate benefit is having everything you need to make pricing decisions on the go: current rate, comp information, and availability and demand for our apartment homes."
Although revenue management is more often tied to operations and IT departments than to the leasing office, the intent of upgrading pricing systems to an easy-to-use mobile interface is still irrevocably linked to customer service.
By providing access to critical pricing systems on the go, operations professionals can create on-property efficiencies that ultimately lead to better customer service.
"Mobile-powered revenue management provides unparalleled access to all important property metrics required to make daily pricing and operations decisions," says Eian Counts, Vice President of Product Strategy at The Rainmaker Group. "The mobile app also facilitates site team members focusing on customers to have key info readily available like new lease pricing and even generating quote sheets to email to prospects, all without having to get back behind a desk."
As multifamily software providers inevitably upgrade their systems to a mobile-first user interface, purpose-built apps designed to complete specific actions will likely continue to compete with responsive-design websites for mobile device access. In Google's confirmation of the search shift to mobile, the company did not break down the relative share in search volume across its own mobile search apps and mobile browsers.
Just getting access to operational technologies on-the-go seems to be enough for many owners and managers now embracing mobile-powered revenue management, including Simpson Housing.
"I've shown the app to everyone I've run into in the business and they all think it's the coolest thing ever," says Simpson Regional Property Manager Becky Sanders.
"I was touring units with a maintenance supervisor at one of our properties and he was saying a unit wasn't renting because of price. In two minutes I pulled up the price and the comps and was able to speak to the issue. That's incredibly powerful technology for an operator."
Learn more about asset management at MAXIMIZE: 2015 Multifamily Asset Management Conference.