You know the drill by now: Customer experience is the new marketing, and customer experiences are the new brand. In fact, improved experience can grow revenue by 5-10%—and cost 15-20% less—over a span of three years. That’s probably why you invested in an app for your residential property’s tenants in the first place, right? You wanted to drive engagement and improve the resident experience by offering an easy and effective way for residents to communicate with property management, make maintenance requests, book on-site amenities, learn about and participate in resident events, and generally feel valued and cared for as a member of the community.

But perhaps you’re finding that, over time, residents have been accessing the app less and less. They seem unaware of its availability or its features. Maybe they’re only using it to make maintenance and repair requests. They complain that they don’t know important information about what’s going on. Maybe you’ve even spent a great deal of time and effort building partnerships with nearby businesses, only to find that your residents never take advantage of the special deals you’ve arranged for them.

What can you do to re-engage your residents? How can you get tenants to start opening your app more frequently and feeling the warm fuzzies from the great resident experience you’re working to provide? Don’t worry, it can be done.

Download our case study to learn more about how property managers at Jade Ocean are using our mobile solution to delight and engage their residents.

DOWNLOAD THE CASE STUDY

Diagnosing the Issues of Your Existing Resident App

First, evaluate what’s going on with your current app and the way residents are using it. Look at user analytics to answer questions such as:

• How active are residents in the app? How frequently do they open it, and how long do they spend using it?
• What features are your residents using the most?
• Which parts of the app are they not using?
• Are they abandoning the app at any particular point in the experience? If so, is there a discernible pattern or trend?

If analytics don’t answer your questions, ask the residents themselves. What do they like and dislike about the app? What do they wish were different? How do they want to be able to use it to make their lives in your community better, easier, more enjoyable?

Then take a look at how you’re leveraging and promoting the app. That will generate another round of questions:

• Do residents need reminders that the app is available?
  • Have you done a marketing campaign to let them know about it?
  • Have you explained the features and benefits of the solution lately?
• Are you using all the features available in your app and keeping information fresh and updated?
• Are you missing opportunities to upsell amenities or cross-promote with nearby businesses?

Answers to these questions can give you indicators of what you can improve in your app, which is a powerful marketing tool for not only attracting but retaining tenants.

3 Easy Ways to Re-engage Residents with a Mobile App

Here are some easy wins that can boost residents’ engagement with your app and, in turn, increase their satisfaction and loyalty.

1. Use push notifications.

Studies have shown that push notifications increase retention and engagement. Not sure what to push? Residents tend to appreciate announcements about community events, security alerts, amenity booking reminders, special offers and other timely, high-value notifications. Push notifications are an excellent way to communicate important information to residents quickly and easily.

2. Use location technology.

You can partner with retailers around the property and use location-based marketing technology to provide residents with exclusive offers. A resident running errands might pass a restaurant that has a special lunch discount just for your tenants. The app can push a timely location-based notification to the resident, who pops in on the spot for a nice lunch. Delivering targeted value like this is an effective way to get residents to keep the app on their phone. For more this, download our eBook: Location Tech 101.

DOWNLOAD THE EBOOK

3. Include “sticky” features.

“Sticky” features are those that ensure residents use the app every single day, sometimes multiple times per day. For example, home automation like smart thermostats and smart locks can give residents a consolidated experience. There’s no need for residents to have an app for thermostat control and another app for a smart lock key and a residential app: they can do all of this in one app. It’s all about making living at your property as smooth and enjoyable an experience as you can.

When residents have a great experience living in your community and feel well taken care of, they tend to stay—reducing churn, make-ready and advertising costs for you. Happy residents also often do your marketing for you in the form of positive word of mouth. They tell friends, family, coworkers and social media contacts what a great place your property is to live, which can in turn attract future residents. It’s worth it to take a look at your app’s analytics and start taking steps to reinvigorate your residents’ mobile experience today.

Thinking about enhancing your residential app with new features or even giving it a complete makeover? Find out the best way to reinvigorate an aging app and boost user engagement.

Download our eBook How To Re-engage Your Users Like A Boss to learn more about creating a clearly defined strategy around engaging your audience.

DOWNLOAD THE eBOOK.

The post 3 Ways to Reinvigorate Engagement With Your Resident Mobile App appeared first on Phunware.

The proliferation of home automation devices is in part responsible for this app explosion. Consumers can now download apps for monitoring and controlling practically everything in their homes, including security cameras, doorbells, thermostats, pet feeders, lights, robotic vacuums and more. Amazon’s Echo and other Alexa-enabled devices have apps, as do their counterparts made by Google and Apple. That “Home” folder can get pretty crowded.

Importantly, consumers aren’t just stocking up on smart home devices for their own personal use—they want their places of residence to offer built-in smart capabilities as well, even if they have to pay a little more for them. So how can residential property developers and managers meet residents’ expectations for a convenient, connected community—without cluttering their home screens?

Many multi-unit residential communities offer an app for paying rent, making maintenance requests and managing package deliveries. An easy place for them to exceed residents’ expectations without upping their app count is by integrating smart locks into these resident mobile apps.

Business Benefits of a Keyless Door Lock and Secure Mobile Door Access

Resident Satisfaction

Integrating secure keyless door lock and entry into a resident app makes the living experience more convenient—and consumers increasingly make home purchase and rental decisions based on convenience. A staggering 86% of Millennials say they’d be willing to pay about 20% more for a smart apartment that includes automated or remotely controlled devices like smart locks. Meanwhile, 61% of Generation Y say they’re likely to rent an apartment specifically because of its electronic-access features, including keyless entry doors. And 55% of Generation Y are likely to pay more for an apartment that has “high-tech” door locks.

In an era of explosive multi-unit residential development, brands are looking for any competitive advantage they can get. Paying attention to (and accommodating) consumers’ mobile preferences can make a big difference and set your brand apart in this critical time.

Download our eBook to learn more about how a branded mobile app can help differentiate your property and keep your residents satisfied.

DOWNLOAD THE eBOOK

Property Management Security and Efficiency

Staying competitive isn’t only about making residents happy, however. It’s about making property operations as efficient as possible—and fortunately, smart locks can assist in the efficiency department as well. Managing keys and locks used to consume a significant amount of property managers’ time (and still does at many properties), but smart door locks and access systems are changing all that.

With a smart lock system in place, no more time is wasted on finding lost keys or helping residents locked out of their homes. Confusion about who has key copies is eliminated, as are security concerns about access and permissions. Risk is reduced as well, as there’s no longer a need to leave keys under doormats for housekeepers, pet sitters, maintenance workers or guests. Property managers can even free up resources once devoted to changing locks between tenants. Who knew a small change like smart lock access could have so many operational impacts?

Consolidate Functions for a Smoother Experience

More than a superficial add-on, smart lock integrations can be big business for multi-unit properties. They are enticing to residents and helpful to property managers and staff. That’s why Phunware has partnered with electronic access control leader SALTO Systems to make integrations with their smart locks available in our brandable, pre-built residential property apps. SALTO’s wireless access control system combines a locking device with online, real-time capabilities that eliminate the need for wires or mechanical keys. While residents can gain entry and control access to their doors right from their Phunware-powered property apps, property staff can create and manage keys from the web-based staff portal. The result is a smooth and frustration-free daily experience for both staff and residents—not to mention competitive differentiation and an operational efficiency boost.

Download our case study to see how Phunware’s residential mobile solution is working for Jade Ocean in Miami to improve staff efficiency and satisfy resident needs.

GET THE CASE STUDY

Contact a Phunware residential expert to learn more about providing keyless door lock access capabilities for your property.

TALK TO A MOBILE EXPERT

The post How to Lock Down Resident Satisfaction in the Internet of Too Many Things appeared first on Phunware.

The latest cool tech making new experiences possible in the mobile space is virtual BLE beacon technology, which essentially “virtualizes” physical beacons. Mobile platforms like Phunware use beacons as sensors to trigger all kinds of cool mobile experiences—from providing indoor blue dot navigation to sending you a personalized push notification with 25% off those boots you’ve been wanting when you’re just outside the shoe department.

A virtual BLE beacon is essentially an imaginary beacon that can do the same job as a real one. From a tech standpoint, the virtual beacon works differently than the physical one. From the marketer or user perspective, they’re the same. They can both be used to trigger engaging mobile experiences and to gather location, time and other contextual data that marketers can use to understand and target their audiences.

To learn more, check out the eBook Location Technology 101.

DOWNLOAD THE EBOOK

Virtual Beacon Systems Are Easier to Install, Maintain and Manage

Physical beacons are awesome. They’re small and affordable, and they can be placed discreetly in any number of locations in a given environment. But like any physical device, they have to be installed and maintained by a person. Someone has to put them in place, change the batteries and move them around when needed.

Because multiple virtual beacons are enabled by one piece of hardware, however, they require installing and maintaining far fewer devices. The vast majority of the management and maintenance happens through a simple software dashboard. That saves time and hassle.

Virtual Beacon Systems Are Incredibly Flexible

You may not be able to stick a physical beacon on an incredibly high ceiling, but you sure can slap a virtual beacon up there. They can be added easily to an existing Wi-Fi infrastructure or physical beacon implementation. You can even create a hybrid solution that combines physical and virtual beacons to help balance costs.

Making Location-Enabled Experiences More Attainable and More Awesome

Flexibility and easy management mean that virtual BLE beacons bring location-enabled experiences within reach of more organizations—and more people. These same qualities make it viable to install more virtual than physical beacons in any given space. As a result, you get much greater accuracy and performance. And thanks to machine learning in the software backbone, the more a virtual beacon system works, the smarter and more accurate it becomes.

It’s Exciting Here at the Tipping Point

When people first got smartphones, nobody really imagined all of the different ways we’d use them—and there are still possibilities to uncover. As technology matured, use cases grew exponentially, and suddenly we don’t know what we’d do without our smartphones.

Virtual BLE beacon technology is poised to be the innovation that makes location-enabled mobile experiences ubiquitous. But for the average Joes and Janes among us, it might be hard to imagine all the ways organizations can use vBLE technology. Let’s take a look.

• A hospital nurse administrator could monitor and track every piece of valuable patient-care equipment that moves around departments—IV pumps, patient beds and more—right from her phone. She could know exactly where Doctor Adebayo is and how many minutes it’s going to take for her to get from the patient floor to the ICU. She could get an instant alert that Mr. Davis has been in recovery by himself for too long, and speed an assistant to make sure he’s all right.
• A regional outdoor store manager could quickly and easily move beacons around to gather data on shopper dwell time near a new display. When a seasonal summer department goes up, store marketers could install virtual beacons in the area to trigger highly targeted “Happy Camper” messages to shoppers right when they peer into that cool new tent, and trigger the mobile app to change over to a camping theme throughout. In the stockroom, temporary employees could use mobile to guide their re-stocking efforts, getting turn-by-turn navigation through the store and precisely to the exact rack where that flannel shirt needs to hang.
• An airport could install a dense array of virtual beacons to collect highly granular traffic data in baggage claim areas, leveraging all of that information to understand passenger traffic patterns in detail before a planned remodel. During the holidays, the airport could expand its beacon system throughout the terminal, enabling multiple marketing partnerships with retail and food / beverage concessionaires—and delighting app-using passengers with seasonal savings, or even a holiday-themed app scavenger hunt to help keep weary traveling families entertained.

These ideas are only a jumping-off point. As mobile continues to evolve and mature, location-enabled experiences and use cases will continue to expand. Personally, I can’t wait.

If you’d like to learn more about how connected mobile experiences are going to transform operations, management and the customer experience across verticals, watch our on-demand webinar “Mobile at the Intersection of Hardware and Software.”

GET THE WEBINAR

The post The No-Geek-Speak Lowdown On Virtual Beacons appeared first on Phunware.

That’s why we recently conducted a national survey of daily smartphone and tablet users to find out what mobile means to them now and what they want from mobile in the future.

In the 2017 Mobile Future Survey, we learned that daily mobile users are more—and more deeply—intertwined with their devices, with 82% reporting that having their phones with them makes them feel “safe and secure.” Three out of five admitted feeling anxious without their devices. And a few even admitted checking their phone during sex!

But it’s no real surprise that users are device-obsessed—on a daily basis, it’s likely that you unlock your own phone to interact with it tens (if not hundreds) of times. That’s why we used this survey to dig deeper into the types of apps daily mobile users turn to most often, what drives downloads and the truth about app dormancy. We also investigated what mobile’s biggest fans want from their devices moving forward. And finally, we explored the types of personal information daily mobile users will share with brands and app developers—and why.

As our CEO Alan Knitowski put it, “This study proves that mobile is no longer simply about competitive differentiation—it’s about survival.” Want to learn more? Download the full survey report and keep an eye on our blog and social media profiles in the coming weeks for a series of infographics featuring data from this survey.

DOWNLOAD THE SURVEY REPORT

The post Data Download: Phunware’s 2017 Mobile Future Survey appeared first on Phunware.

The Smart Home Summit is an event dedicated to the domestic device ecosystem where industry pros gather to discuss and understand smart home technologies and trends. Home-focused brand giants like Airbnb, Vivint and Coldwell Banker attend the Summit to keep tabs on innovation and interoperability and to understand how they can position themselves for success in the home of the future. I attended on Phunware’s behalf for the same reason—I want to make sure our solutions for the home make sense for where technology is going. Here’s what I learned.

Trends in the Smart Home

Enabling devices to communicate and share information for greater efficiency, automation, security and comfort is what drives the residential IoT market. Smart devices are already making serious headway into our home environments.

• Smart thermostats, locks and lights allow users to remotely adjust temperature, security and lighting via smartphone.
• Smart meters monitor energy consumption and allow homeowners to identify and adjust wasteful activities and appliances.
• Smart appliances help us monitor our supply levels and remind us when we need to take action.
• Virtual assistants are blurring the boundaries between device operating systems to become our constant companions.

There’s also a big focus today on “Home Observation,” the practice of using data to create user profiles and proactively trigger actions in the home based on the user’s behavior. For example: let’s say every morning I wake up and adjust my thermostat to 75, then go to the kitchen, turn on the light and get the coffee machine going. After a week of this routine, the system might send me a push notification asking if I would like to automate it. If I said Yes, this sequence would happen on its own going forward.

When high touch meets high tech, residential properties are able to differentiate themselves from the competition. Learn how mobile apps can take the resident experience well beyond amenities in our eBook: A Day in the Life with App-Enabled Luxury.

DOWNLOAD THE eBOOK

The Fragmented IoT Landscape

IoT is in its early days and the industry is very fragmented. Every company seems to be going in a different direction with its hardware. Because there is no standard of communication between devices, most devices exist in closed ecosystems where they can only communicate with others by the same manufacturer. If I have smart devices from ten different brands in my home, I will likely need ten different apps to control them.

Apple HomeKit, Amazon Alexa and Google Home are popular platforms attempting to solve this fragmentation, but there is still a long way to go. Despite their popularity, they are sold only to individual households, and no single brand has taken ownership as the standard platform for unifying smart devices under one user interface.

Most IoT companies are focused on building hardware for consumers: light bulbs, thermostats, locks and so on—not on controlling multi-unit residences at scale. This is mainly because they lack a platform that can consolidate multiple devices into one user interface to be sold as one complete solution.

While the home IoT landscape remains fragmented, Phunware’s residential solution includes capabilities to integrate common devices such as smart thermostats, smart home automation and smart lighting controls, among others. Mobile’s not going anywhere, even as the number of smart in-home devices climbs. It makes sense for the smartphone to be the hub of the home. Phunware’s residential solution can connect residents with their building services, community and smart devices in their homes, providing one easy-to-use interface for smart living that’s continually getting smarter.

To learn more about Phunware’s solution for residential properties, check out this series of short demo videos that highlight how our resident app and staff dashboard work.

WATCH THE DEMOS

The post The Smart Home of the Future: Will We Live Our Jetsons-Inspired Dreams? appeared first on Phunware.

Mixed-use properties usually center around a common theme, gaining cohesion from branding as much as geographic location.

These days, there’s another way to gain cohesion among residents, property management staff, retail tenants and the shoppers and restaurant-goers you want to attract. We’re talking about mobile apps.

A mobile app platform, like a multi-use development, can be built to serve multiple purposes. Just as your development combines live, work and play, your mobile app can and should address the needs of all stakeholders in one solution.

1) Attract and retain residents by empowering their mobile lifestyle management.

We’ve said it before and it bears repeating here: Millennials and the upcoming Generation Z run their lives via their omnipresent mobile devices. By providing a comprehensive community mobile app, you can empower residents to manage everything they do around the property in the same way—tracking package deliveries, scheduling amenities, submitting maintenance requests, etc.

The same app can extend outward into the retail space with seamless navigation to nearby restaurants and other points of interest, updates on sales at favorite stores, information about upcoming festivals and concerts, and so on. With a next-generation app, residents can manage everything they want or need to do within their community from a single interface, quickly and conveniently. It’s a compelling and useful amenity as well as a competitive differentiator.

2) Streamline resident communications and property management tasks.

A community mobile app with staff dashboard frees up the residential management team to maximize sales and keep everything running smoothly. Built-in communications tools make it easy to get the right messages to the right residents, the way they want to receive them. Contextual data helps uncover usage patterns around property amenities, maintenance performance trends and other valuable operational insights. Package tracking and notifications reduce the front desk workload. All these features and functionality help the property run better, which makes life easier for staff and residents alike.

3) Attract shoppers with wayfinding and personalized engagement.

For many large mixed-use developments with multiple buildings and plazas, physical signage isn’t enough to help shoppers and visitors find the stores and amenities they’re looking for. A community mobile app with advanced wayfinding and navigation can guide users from wherever they are, right to the closest parking lot—then step-by-step through the development to their chosen store or restaurant. Along the way, personalized push notifications can welcome the app user by name, entice her to stop at another store by offering a special sale or prolong her visit to the retail area by suggesting other venues she might enjoy.

4) Support your retail tenants through partnership programs, promotional communications, etc.

A community mobile app opens up all kinds of partnership opportunities with your retail tenants and nearby businesses. Your app users represent a unique and valuable audience that these retailers want to access. Team up to spotlight various stores and restaurants as part of your ongoing app content. Work together to send promotional push notifications about sales, special events, store or restaurant news and more. You can even develop exclusive rewards and offers just for app users. In this way, your mobile app becomes one more incentive to attract and retain your best tenants—both individual and commercial.

Download our eBook to learn more about how you can use location marketing to better engage users by personalizing their mobile app experience.

DOWNLOAD THE eBOOK

5) Save time and money by serving both retail and residential needs with one solution.

By addressing all of the above with a single mobile app platform, you eliminate the cost of purchasing multiple tools—not to mention the friction and inefficiency caused by switching back and forth. And because mobile devices and apps are nearly ubiquitous, you’re gaining efficiency by engaging with residents, property staff, shoppers and retail leasing tenants in familiar and convenient ways.

Want to see how our mobile solution can help your multi-use development? Download our case study of Brickell City Centre to learn about how Phunware’s solution has met the varied needs of residents, shoppers, office workers, retail partners and property management.

DOWNLOAD THE CASE STUDY

And, as always: please feel free to get in touch! Contact a specialist today at residential@127.0.0.1.

The post 5 Reasons Your Mixed-Use Development Needs a Multipurpose Mobile App appeared first on Phunware.

Multi-unit residential communities are buzzing with activity. It’s tremendously challenging to stay on top of the wants and needs of hundreds of residents while keeping the property running smoothly and cost-effectively. Even with all of the property management tools on the market, you might be missing out on something vitally important—data.

How Data Can Help Property Managers

Data can help property managers:

• Plan better: Use data to identify trends and forecast future needs. For example, you can look at historical trends to identify peaks and valleys in the usage of property amenities, resources and staff tasks. Then you can make smarter decisions when planning for the future.
• Do better: Use data to streamline operations and improve service delivery around the community. For example, monitoring the time to resolution on resident requests and work orders can help you identify inefficiencies you can then work with your staff to improve. You can also monitor the actions of staff members, such as completing work orders or modifying records. This data helps keep people accountable and reveals imbalances—perhaps someone is carrying too much of the workload—and it provides an impartial deciding factor in the event of a staff dispute.

Without a steady flow of reliable data (and the tools to analyze and report on it), property managers have to operate on hunches and gut instincts. That’s no way to run a business.

Download Mobile Data: The Missing Link in Your User Acquisition Strategies to learn how to harness the nonstop stream of mobile data and turn it into actionable insights and successful strategies for your property.
DOWNLOAD THE eBOOK

Data Use Cases for Multi-Unit Residences

Property managers can use data in lots of different ways to help the community run more efficiently and cost-effectively, while delivering outstanding resident experience. Here are just a few ideas and thought-starters:

• Beachside Towers (just an example) offers both jet ski rentals and sailboat rides as resident amenities. At the end of the season, Beachside compares the number requests for the two different amenities to evaluate their performance. Discovering minimal overall demand for sailboat rides, Beachside might discontinue this amenity for next year—or look for an outside provider to step in only during peak usage periods (such as holiday weekends).
• MidCity Residences takes a look at data around package deliveries to identify patterns. Finding that most packages come in on Mondays and Tuesdays, MidCity bumps up the number of front desk staff scheduled on those days to handle the inflow. MidCity reviews this data biweekly, so it quickly spots the beginning of a seasonal uptick in package deliveries (hello, Christmas shopping!) and starts ramping up staff accordingly.
• The District’s management believes that an average valet pick-up should take no more than ten minutes. In September, system data shows that more than 50 percent of valet tickets took 20 minutes to resolve. This reveals an inefficiency that the management team can address. Further investigation shows that the valet team is only checking the system for requests every ten minutes. Management can then implement steps to make sure valet attendants are notified of every request as soon as it’s received.

How Mobile Can Help

These days, a mobile app is one of the best ways to gather, analyze and report on property management data. Serving as a “goes everywhere” connection between residents and the property management team, a mobile app can capture more customer touchpoints in a single solution. If it has a back-end property management dashboard, a mobile app can also crunch all of that data into actionable reports. And with more data, made more meaningful and accessible, you can make smarter property management decisions.

Ready to learn more? Browse these quick videos of Phunware’s resident solutions in action to see what difference an app can make.
WATCH THE DEMOS

The post Property Managers: What Can Data Do for You? (LOTS) appeared first on Phunware.

Then there’s email. It works great, IF it gets read. According to March 2018 data from Constant Contact, the email open rate for its real estate customers hovers around 16.5 percent, while the click-through-rate is under 8 percent.

Text (SMS) messaging is increasingly popular, but that just adds one more task to your to-do list. And if you use an SMS marketing platform, it’s one more tool you have to remember how to use.

Of course you know residents don’t want to be bombarded by communications, so you try to target your approach. All too often, that means pulling lists of specific residents (such as those who have pets) and manually emailing or texting them. It’s a time-consuming and all-too-error-prone process.

ENOUGH ALREADY. With an advanced mobile app strategy, property managers can quickly and easily get the word out to the right residents, the way they want to receive it—and make sure the message is received.

If you want to elevate your mobile strategy you need to consider the entire app lifecycle. Download Mobile First: Harnessing the App Lifecycle for Transformative Business Success to learn how.

DOWNLOAD THE eBOOK

How Property Management Apps Improve Resident Communications

Sophisticated property mobile apps offer far more than a smartphone-optimized website—they can actually help streamline and improve resident communications. Property managers can use a simple web dashboard to tailor, automate and optimize resident communications. Here’s how:

• Only send messages to residents who want or need them. Using profile information and user data, you can easily create sub-groups of residents—such as frequent gym users, residents who use valet parking, pet owners, etc. This helps keep you from bombarding residents with messages that aren’t important or relevant to them.
• Use the method each resident prefers—text (SMS), push notifications, email or phone. Resident app users specify how they want to be reached, enabling back-end systems to segment the resident database automatically so you don’t text people who just want to receive emails.
• Create and manage email blasts in a snap. Choose from pre-designed templates that can be filled out and sent with just a few clicks.
• Send messages immediately or schedule for automated delivery. Analyzing user data can give you a sense of when non-urgent messages are most likely to be read and received.
• Use push notifications for messages that can’t be ignored or require immediate response. Push notifications show up on the resident’s smartphone lock screen and must be interacted with to be dismissed. They can also be programmed with response options, such as “yes / no” or “cancel / reschedule.”
• Match the method to the situation. For example, you might want to send an eBlast to all residents with an invitation to an upcoming event, then send a push notification requesting RSVPs, and finally an SMS reminder to those who RSVPed “Yes” on the day of the event.

Beyond resident communications, apps can elevate the entire resident experience and help property managers and staff streamline many more aspects of their daily operations and community life. See what a difference a mobile app can make in this case study featuring Jade Ocean in Florida.

DOWNLOAD THE CASE STUDY

The post Now Hear This: How a Property Management App Can Get the Right Messages to the Right Residents appeared first on Phunware.

As developers and owners plan new communities—or revamp existing ones—many are recognizing a growing shift in their resident populations. We’re talking about Generation Z here, born in the late 90s and after.

The eldest are already in the middle of college, and their fellow Gen Z-ers are in high school and starting to think about what they want and need from their college experience.

“Gen-Z” will be larger and more influential than Millennials. —Goldman Sachs & Co.

While there have been a lot of finger-wagging articles talking about resort-style pools, tanning beds and fitness centers, there’s another amenity that can make a real competitive difference for communities. By implementing a resident mobile app, properties can serve their increasingly Gen-Z resident population better and more meaningfully—with no construction or renovation required.

Let’s take a look at why resident mobile apps make so much sense for student housing.

For Gen Z, mobile convenience is table stakes

Today’s college students—and tomorrow’s students even more so—have never known a world without Google. They don’t remember a time before social media. They’re driving the sharing economy with services like Uber and Lyft. Gen Z expects to use their smartphones to manage their busy lives. According to The Center For Generational Kenetics, Gen Z (or “iGen”) “has a different experience with technology than Millennials, which will affect every area of their life—from healthcare and dating to education and shopping. What is most interesting is that what worked for Millennials does not seem to be working as well with iGen…”

According to a recent study by Common Sense Media, 67% of all US teens have their own smartphone. Among higher-income families, that figure rises to 78%. Teens who use a smartphone spend an average of 4.38 hours per day using it. As <href=”#2e3acbf71588″ target=”_blank”>Forbes contributor The Hartman Group put it, “Technology is central to every aspect of their lives, from socializing to schoolwork, entertainment to exercise, relaxation to reference.”

Why should their living environment be any different? With a resident mobile app, properties can make it easy for students to receive package deliveries, check the availability of study rooms or gym equipment via video feed, book services and reserve amenities, manage visitor lists, submit work orders and much more. Every service offered to residents can be immediately accessible through the app.

Gen Z craves community and suffers FOMO

As the first generation to grow up with social media, today’s teens are exposed to a barrage of exciting images of other people’s adventures. It’s easy to feel like everybody’s having an amazing time but you. That’s FOMO (fear of missing out) in a nutshell. However, as youth expert Kelly Lovell explains in Inc., brands can “use the desire of youth to be part of a community to create an environment where they feel special, proud, and [a] sense of exclusivity.”

For student housing brands, a property mobile app can keep residents in the loop about community activities on a daily or even hourly basis. Push notifications can provide timely alerts of evening activities the moment residents walk in the door. Daily or weekly digests can provide an overview of upcoming events, such as pool parties, mixers, study groups and game nights. Engagement can be personalized to who the resident is, where he or she is within the property, and what he or she might be doing. All on the platform Gen Z most prefers (their phones).

Mobile apps for property management

Keeping in mind that much of your on-site staff may be Gen Z or Millennials, mobile apps are just as compelling for management and operations needs. Look for built-in resident communication tools like SMS, push notifications and email options, with the ability to integrate with any existing data sources (like your CRM). Consider a branded sales and leasing app with floor plans, amenities, pricing and online applications.

Phunware has developed and built solutions for some of the world’s leading residential developments—including mobile apps that serve multi-property owners with different branding and features for each community. Our expert team is here to help you provide a more connected and empowering learning/living environment for Gen Z, while streamlining management and operations. See how these properties are using mobile apps to deliver convenience and efficiency:

Download Jade Ocean Customer Snapshot

The post Student Housing Amenities: The Next Generation appeared first on Phunware.

The most recent Package Delivery Survey from Multifamily Housing Council and Kingsley Associates found that a typical apartment community receives up to 100 packages a week. The same survey found that on-site staff spends up to five hours per week receiving and logging deliveries, storing them, tracking down recipients, and managing package retrieval. With all of that effort just to manage packages, property staff productivity can easily get buried—and it looks like things will only get worse. The latest quarterly estimate of US retail eCommerce sales was $87.5 billion and rising. That’s a lot of package deliveries.

App-enabled package tracking keeps you on top of the avalanche.

You’re a lot more likely to survive an avalanche if you stay on top of things. With package tracking and notifications built into your resident mobile app, it’s much easier for your staff to manage deliveries more efficiently.

Here’s how it works:

• When a package arrives at the property, staff scans the package label and selects the recipient’s contact information.
• The system sends a notification email directly to the resident / recipient.
• When the resident comes to pick up the package, he or she signs for it digitally—eliminating manual paper-based systems and ensuring accountability.

Today’s residents expect high-touch and high-tech service, and online shopping is a big part of how they run their lives. By leveraging the power of mobile apps, properties can exceed resident expectations and not only survive, but thrive.

Download our case study to see how a package delivery system and many other features in our mobile solution helped mixed-use property Brickell City Centre achieve their business goals.

Download the Case Study

All across the country, branded mobile apps are helping properties run more efficiently and effectively. Want to know how it’s working? Download our eBook for a 10,000-ft view.

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The post Avalanche! Handling the Resident Package Tracking Problem appeared first on Phunware.

Property Management Apps Maximize Your Marketing

Today’s consumers depend on their mobile devices to manage their lifestyle—and they have very high expectations for a unique and convenient resident experience. A branded mobile app can help your properties appear new, modern and luxurious. You’re providing residents with a sophisticated technology solution that reinforces the exclusivity of your property. Not every property has what you have—and prospects and residents know it.

Additionally, an app can help reinforce your brand. That’s because you can match the look and feel of your app to your property’s branding. Through logo placement, theme design and carefully selected images, every interaction with your app can communicate your property’s brand value.

Learn more in this case study: Jade Ocean Customer Snapshot

DOWNLOAD THE CASE STUDY

How Mobile Can Supercharge Sales and Leasing

Stop burdening potential residents (and leasing staff) with outdated brochures and flyers. Instead, give them an immersive and interactive experience that is always up-to-date. With a property management app, your sales and leasing team can give compelling presentations, display images and videos, show live camera feeds from anywhere on the property, guide prospects through an interactive virtual unit and much more.

Mobile Enhances Resident Retention and Property Management

A well-designed app makes engagement with residents dynamic and efficient without sacrificing the personal touch. Your staff can use the app’s two-way communication tools—text messages, emails and push notifications—to make instant connections. Messages can be sent on demand or scheduled for automated delivery.

Your staff can even target messages to various subgroups using resident profiles. For instance, if your property is having a problem with dog owners cleaning up after Fido, your staff can send personalized messages just to those residents. They never have to overload busy residents with communications that are unimportant or irrelevant to them.

Learn more in this eBook: A Day in the Life with App-Enabled Luxury
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Best of all, you can realize all of these benefits without changing any of your existing work processes. When integrated with your existing property management software, the app platform empowers staff to do their jobs better. It also gives you a better view of your property’s operations by providing powerful analytics, so you can make smarter marketing, sales and management decisions.

The bottom line is, if you don’t up your game across the entire leasing and sales lifecycle, your competition will. A property management app can be the tipping point that puts your property into a prospect’s consideration set, helps close the sale (or lease) and keeps your residents around for the long haul.

Ready to learn more? Browse these quick videos of Phunware’s resident solutions in action to see what difference an app can make.

The post How Property Management Apps Make a Difference Throughout the Resident Lifecycle appeared first on Phunware.

Los Angeles, CALIF. (PRWEB) [December 11, 2015] – Eighth & Grand, a new luxury residential community in downtown Los Angeles, has announced the development of a state of the art mobile application and corresponding property management system for its residents, in partnership with Phunware, a leading provider of mobile applications for high-rise residences.

Designed to integrate seamlessly with the Eighth & Grand property management features, the new app offers the full suite of amenitized services enjoyed by residents – now at the touch of a button. For example, residents can request their cars from on-site valet with a few taps and then watch them arrive with the app’s live-view cameras. Residents of Eighth & Grand will also be able to interact with the property management team at their leisure with the ability to message management, pay rent, send maintenance requests and update visitor lists in real time.

Additional property management features include a powerful resident CRM, a package delivery management solution, property marketing capabilities and resident-targeted communication tools including email, SMS and push notifications.

“In keeping pace with the dynamic lifestyle of our residents at Eighth & Grand, we’re excited to launch the Eighth & Grand mobile application, simplifying tasks like paying rent and picking up packages, while offering complete access to the amenities and service that the community has come to expect,” said Neils Cotter, Vice President, Development for Eighth & Grand. “We’re committed to adapting, evolving and implementing the latest technologies to provide unmatched, convenient service to our current and future residents.”

By working with Phunware, Eighth & Grand joins the ranks of innovative properties and REITs such as Mandarin Oriental and Crescent Heights that are leveraging mobile technology to improve the resident experience and differentiate their brands.

“With this new mobile application portfolio, Eighth & Grand is demonstrating a strong commitment to innovation and resident experience alike,” commented Alan S. Knitowski, Chairman and CEO of Phunware. “Phunware is extremely proud to bring its robust multiscreen platform and user engagement expertise to Eighth & Grand residents and staff to dramatically enhance their resident experience engagements.”

For more information about Eighth & Grand, visit www.eighthandgrand.com, https://twitter.com/8thandgrandla, https://www.facebook.com/eighthandgrandla, or call (213) 293-2447.

About Phunware

Phunware is the pioneer of Multiscreen as a Service (MaaS), the first fully integrated customer engagement platform that enables brands to engage, manage and monetize their anytime anywhere users worldwide. Phunware has introduced category-defining experiences that challenge the outer limits of the most advanced connected devices for the world’s most respected brands and develops next-generation products and solutions that transform how the world interacts with and uses these connected devices. For more information about how Phunware provides Everything You Need to Succeed on Mobile, please visit www.phunware.com and @phunware on Twitter.

The post Eighth & Grand Launches Mobile Concierge for Residents appeared first on Phunware.

Here’s the real problem: expectations are changing because the clientele for luxury living is starting to skew younger, with Millennials now accounting for 13% of the affluent population. According to a UBS Investor Watch report, affluent Millennials (people born ~ 1980-2000) are seeking to enjoy their wealth in real terms.

In the past, success in life was measured in financial and career terms. In recent years, Millennials have expanded this definition of success to include emotional and experiential factors—they want to feel good about their experiences, not just their bank balances. Luxury residential marketers: ignore these trends at your peril!

Learn more in this eBook: A Day in the Life with App-Enabled Luxury.

DOWNLOAD THE eBOOK

Here are some examples of how Millennials’ expectations impact the luxury property world:

EXCLUSIVITY

Affluent Millennials seek to live in an environment that’s distinctive, engaging, and stands out from the crowd. According to recent research, wealthy Millennials are less driven by blind brand loyalty and more attracted to unique experiences, stories and adventures—which makes a curated living experience more important than ever before. They’re expected to dominate the luxury marketplace within the next few years, so it’s time to rethink old approaches now.

TECHNOLOGY

Because Millennials have grown up with easy access to lightning-fast technology innovation, they tend to be early adopters and have high expectations. The average Millennial American internet user uses a whopping SEVEN devices. Technology that seems dated or complicated is an immediate turn-off.

EFFICIENCY

Affluent Millennials don’t just want brands to act resources to them—they expect it. They’re looking for high-tech automation in their exclusive living environments. They want to get more done in less time and with greater ease.

Learn more in this infographic: How Daily Mobile Users Live Now & Where Mobile Goes Next.

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ENGAGEMENT

Luxury property developers and managers must balance fulfilling a resident’s need for exclusivity and efficiency with the right level and quality of engagement. They may just need to rethink the engagement medium: many residents today prefer digital self-service to phone or in-person engagement. After all, 26- to 35-year-olds check their phones an average of 91 times daily, and 17- to 25-year-olds check 123 times. That’s plenty of engagement opportunity!

Millennials are looking for a distinctive way to use technology for better experiences. And a mobile app, integrated into your property management systems, is one way to give your residents what they want.

A mobile app can put luxury lifestyle management at your residents’ fingertips. With it, residents no longer need to waste time waiting for calls to be answered or returned just to reserve an amenity or request maintenance. Every service your property offers is immediately accessible through the app and satisfaction happens in real time, day or night. And luckily for you, over half of millennials (51%) will download a new app if it will connect them with a service they want to use.

An app can enhance the personalized luxury services you are already providing and make residents happy. Happy residents pay their rent on time, stay at your property longer and spread positive word-of-mouth to friends about their experience.

Imagine an app that enables these experiences and more:

• Push-button access to amenities
• View cameras around the property
• Convenient instant messaging
• Direct line to the concierge
• Package delivery alerts
• Request valet parking services
• Manage visitor lists
• Submit work orders
• Browse community calendar and news
• Explore neighborhood points of interest
• Integrate with smart home systems

The usefulness of a custom app for your property is virtually limitless. It gives your residents the experience they want, reinforces your brand and makes engagement with potential residents unique, dynamic and efficient.

For more information on how an app can differentiate your property in the eyes of prospective residents—not to mention streamlining property management—check out our eBook: Redefining Luxury LIving: Branded Apps for High-End Properties.

The post Creating a Luxury Living Experience for Millennials appeared first on Phunware.

With so many properties boasting similarly impressive amenities—floor-to-ceiling windows, Italian tile, marble countertops, designer swimming pools—how can developers, owners and management teams differentiate their properties in the minds of prospects and residents?

As veterans of the hospitality industry can tell you, “luxury experience” goes beyond amenities. Luxury experience is about providing just the right amount of service at just the right time, delivered in just the right way. The marketing adage to “go to where your customer is” is more relevant than ever. Nearly two-thirds of US adults have a smartphone, and the number is significantly higher among high-income urban dwellers. It’s up to your brand to have a presence there.

Branded mobile luxury property apps can have a big impact on resident life and can even streamline and improve operations for staff. Here are a few ways luxury properties are using mobile to connect with residents and manage operations:

1. Concierge at Your Fingertips

Now your concierge can be even more helpful. Empower residents to track packages, request restaurant reservations, inform the concierge of an expected guest or request luggage assistance—all through the mobile app.

2. Amenity Booking

Let residents quickly browse and book property amenities with the touch of a button: a tennis court, the clubroom, the service elevator or even a spa treatment.

3. Live Video Feed

Through an in-app live view of on-site video cameras, let your residents see your property in real time: is their favorite spot open at the pool? Is there anybody using the gym? Is street parking available for their dinner party guests?

4. Manage Visitor Lists

Give residents the ability to manage a secure list of authorized guests and service providers through the app, informing the front desk of changes in real time.

5. Request Valet Parking Servies

Residents can request their vehicle or a guest’s vehicle with just a couple of taps and swipes.

6. Alerts About Package Arrival, Events and More

Send residents automatic alerts about the arrival of packages, resident happy hours, facility closures and more through text, email or push notifications.

7. Submit Work Orders

Gone are the days of calling maintenance to schedule a repair and waiting for a response. Let residents submit work orders for service or repairs directly through their smartphone.

Curious about how a mobile app can improve resident life, leasing/sales and operations at your property? Review our luxury residential solution and contact luxuryresidential@127.0.0.1 for more information.

The post 7 Ways Luxury Property Apps Can Improve the Resident Experience appeared first on Phunware.

With marketing automation (MA), your brand can take targeting and personalization to a whole new level, leveraging consumer behavior and smartphone capabilities out in the real world.

What sorts of goals can you achieve with location-based marketing?

• Driving new and repeat foot traffic
• Increasing brand awareness
• Boosting the value of your mobile app
• Encouraging loyalty program sign-up
• Pushing sales with coupons and promotions
• Promoting an event, such as a store celebration, charity event or a sponsored community event such as a 5K or carnival
• Enhancing the customer experience and relationship

Want to deliver an amazing connected mobile experience? Check out this on-demand webinar: Mobile at the Intersection of Hardware and Software to learn how to engage with users where and when it matters most.

WATCH THE ON-DEMAND WEBINAR

How does marketing automation work?

Essentially, you build a strategic message plan around specific information about where your mobile app users are and what they are doing. By taking advantage of built-in technologies on the user’s smartphone—as well as intelligent analytics—you can understand your users better and reach them more effectively.

• Location-aware technologies such as geo-fencing, beacons and GPS can tell you where your mobile app users are—whether that’s your store, your competitors or anywhere that might be relevant to your brand
• Push notifications send relevant messages right to the lock screen on the app user’s phone
• Analytics provide a wealth of data about customer behavior, such as:
  • When they visit a specific location (your store, the competition, etc.)
  • How long they stay
  • Where they go before and after
  • How frequently they visit and at what intervals

By combining location insights with your back-end customer information systems, you unlock a deeper understanding of your customer than ever before. You can use this understanding to personalize very specifically—you can even target just a single person with a highly specific message. This gives your marketing much more relevance and a stronger chance to succeed.

More and more consumers are demanding a personalized experience—online, in-store, and on mobile. “Consumers want more than just an experience—we want a personal connection that identifies with who we are, our interests, expectations and abilities.” (CMSWire)  Marketing automation can help make your app super-important to your users, even as it makes their shopping experience more pleasurable and useful. And all of that helps increase customer loyalty and sales.

Want to a more in-depth look at marketing automation and insights on how different industries are using it? Download Mobile Marketing Automation: Why It Matters and How to Get Started.

DOWNLOAD THE eBOOK

The post What Can You Do with Mobile Marketing Automation? appeared first on Phunware.

To tackle these challenges, developers and management companies are turning to mobile technology to get a single point of integration for all business processes and service offerings for their residents.

For example, a property management company’s mobile app and Web portal can be integrated with the systems of an onsite, third-party valet company or restaurant. This integration enables residents to use the property management company’s custom branded app to arrange for valet service or make a dinner reservation at the onsite restaurant.

These types of integrations are available today. Crescent Heights, a leading luxury developer and management company turned to Simplikate, (recently acquired by Phunware) a provider of custom turnkey mobile app solutions, to develop a mobile app for use by residents of its properties.

The Crescent Heights mobile app enhances the experience for residents of Crescent Heights’ NEMA high-rise apartment building in San Francisco in at least 8 compelling ways. Using the app, NEMA residents can:

1. Book property amenities, such as personal trainers and massage therapists.
2. View a calendar of events at the property, such as yoga classes.
3. View and track package deliveries.
4. Browse and obtain discounts from nearby restaurants, retailers, spa services, and house cleaning services.
5. Easily interact with management, concierge and valet services.
6. Pay their rent.
7. Arrange for visitors.
8. Request work orders and repairs.

Crescent Heights’ mobile app enhances the value for its residents while also helping to more efficiently manage the property. This played a major role in NEMA’s recent 2014 IBcon award for “Most Intelligent Building – Multi-Family.”

In the past, developing an ongoing, meaningful connection to residents wasn’t practical using mobile technology. Custom app development was often prohibitively expensive at $350,000 and up. The complexities of maintaining custom mobile apps were another deal killer. Building apps that work well on all Android flavors as well as iOS can be challenging enough on its own, particularly for companies with limited IT resources.

Today, however, luxury real estate portfolio management companies can build a custom mobile app for multiple platforms for under $200,000 using a cloud-based mobile and multiscreen-as-a-service platform. Such platforms give portfolio management companies great flexibility in managing, analyzing, and optimizing the resident experience.

The benefits to property management companies can be significant. Offering a mobile app can make older properties feel ‘hip’ and ‘new’ again, attracting residents who might have ignored the property otherwise. An app gives a luxury building or real estate development a competitive edge, differentiating it from its many competitors. It can help keep residents happy, which can translate into a lower turnover rate and more positive word-of-mouth.

Ultimately, owners and residents are growing to expect more from large luxury properties—and a branded mobile app is an affordable, effective way to deliver on those expectations.

The post 8 Ways Mobile Apps Enhance the Luxury Real Estate Experience appeared first on Phunware.