Many of the UK’s residential sector met in person once again at RESI Convention 2021. Held at the Celtic Manor across 8th and 9th Sept, the two-day conference was home to many engaging panels and networking opportunities. Included in the busy agenda was a panel that discussed how operators can enhance customer experience using tech and data-led strategies. Justin Harley, regional director at Yardi was joined onstage by Christian Armstrong, chief experience officer of Get Living and Dan Brooks, COO and co-founder of Moda to talk about their experiences and opinions.
BBC Home Editor Mark Easton welcomed our panellists to the stage to discuss ‘Enhancing customer experience & creating operational efficiencies, using tech to drive data based BTR strategies’.
Diving straight into how the build to rent operators achieved a sense of community throughout the pandemic, Easton asked the panel for a first-hand summary of how their residents engaged with them and each other. Brooks explained that the Moda community was stronger than ever, with a 550% increase in uptake of residents engaging in community events, and Armstrong expressed the same sentiment with Get Living residents offering to help with food banks. It was then suggested by the pair that technology was the enabler of communication and resident support through the challenging times.
Easton received an overwhelming response as he asked the room to raise their hand if they had joined a Zoom call from home in the last 12 months, the panellists included. This demonstrated the obvious shift in demand for flexible home working, to which the panel discussed how they addressed technology provisioning during the pandemic to support changing needs.
Wi-Fi connectivity came out as the main service residents expected to have access to during 2020, but according to Harley, artificial intelligence is also on the rise and continues to improve how we operate. “AI means that menial tasks can be done by computers. This won’t replace the human touch, part of your product is your people, but AI is a game changer. For example, understanding your leasing cycle better to be able to make more informed, automated decisions.”
Brooks added, “Technology is there to ensure people have a seamless working from home experience. The tech available in BTR should be about letting people manage their life through their phones. That’s when you know the technology is working.”
Brooks then posed the question, “How do we take the data from a building and use that to design better spaces?” to which Easton plugged the hottest topic of the conference, energy management. The panel discussed how energy monitoring systems are becoming a big focus in build to rent, not only to ensure spaces are run more efficiently, but to ensure residents are comfortable and proud to live in an energy-efficient building, something that applicants are now demanding when apartment searching.
Armstrong elaborated, “Our residents now expect us to meet a certain level of energy usage, as do our investors. You can’t just build and operate; you have to think about the value and energy use.”
Easton moved the conversation onto data security and asked how residents respond to the operators collecting and holding data on their whereabouts. Brooks explained, “All of the data we collect onsite is anonymised and arrogated, so we don’t collect individuals’ data.” Chris agreed by explaining, “It’s the residents’ choice how much data we take. We give our residents control in that sense, but usually, because we are very transparent in how we use their data, they don’t mind because it’s their experience it improves.”
Easton prompted the panel to address what proportion of their lives do residents use technology to enhance their lifestyle, to which Chris explained that over 90% of Get Living residents use their resident app, for example to log maintenance requests. Brooks also demonstrated a huge proportion of their residents at Moda are searching for apartments directly on their website rather than internet listing tools such as Rightmove. This example of visitor behaviour drives the demand for quality build to rent technology, from apartment search to living as a resident.