How to WOW Your Clients using Technology (Ellen Reads Her Blog Episode #4)

Welcome to The Rent Roll Starter Podcast with me, Ellen Bathgate.

This podcast is for you, the rent roll owner.  You’re going to love it if you want ways to get more leads into your rent roll.

Today’s episode is the fourth in our 6 part series: Ellen reads her Blog.

This is the recording from a Facebook Live I just recorded recently where I share 3 ways you can wow your clients with technology. In this podcast you’ll discover:

•  How to use Instagram to connect with more potential landlords

•  3 ways to use Video messages to wow your clients (and potential clients)

•  How to use automation to get better results on your rent arrears

PLUS, you’ll get links to all of Ellen’s favourite tools and resources right here 👇

Want the links to all the tech tools and resources Ellen mentioned in her video?

Video Messaging App, Bonjoro

5 Things to Do BEFORE Your Grow Your Rent Roll Checklist

Rent Arrears Email Template is on the original blog post.

Need extra social media training? Register for The Social Summit here

If you want more ideas for growing your rent roll, register for my on-demand training: 5 Ways to Grow Your Rent Roll

Want to read the transcript instead of listening to the episode?

 

Welcome to the rent roll starter podcast. My name is Ellen Bathgate and I’m a property manager, turned rent roll owner, turned rent roll growth coach. If you want to discover how to grow your rent roll using cheap and often free marketing strategies, you are going to love the rent roll starter podcast.

Welcome to episode four of Ellen reads her blog. In this episode, this is a recording from a live stream we did on the rent. Roll start a Facebook page, talking all about three ways that you can wow, your clients, and also your prospective clients with technology. So in this episode, you’re going to learn, uh, how to use Instagram to connect with more potential landlords, three different ways. You can use video messages to wow, your clients, and also to where your potential clients. And then how do you use automation to get better results with your rent arrears? So sit back, relax, grab a cup of tea and enjoy the replay of episode four. Ellen reads her blog.

Welcome, welcome. It’s Ellen. Bathgate here from rent roll starter and I’m super excited for episode four of Ellen reads her blog because I’ve been really looking forward to this particular blog because it’s an article that I originally wrote for elite agents. So if you got a copy of that, um, episode, not episode issue of the magazine, it was towards the end of last year, but then I published it on a version of it on my website as well. And so I wanted to go through it with you because I know that technology is an amazing tool that we can be using for impressing our clients, our current clients, and also our, also our prospective clients as well. So this particular article is all about wowing your clients with technology. So I am going to share my screen with you screen with you, and we’re going to dive straight into this blog article.

I am going to share a bunch of tools and resources with you along the way as well. And what I’ll do is I’ll make sure that I’m link those tools and resources in the comments below this video or on the podcast notes. If you’re listening to this on podcast later on, all right, so let’s jump in. Technology is moving us forward as an industry, and it’s pretty exciting times, but the truth is it’s easy to lose the personal touch when you add so much automation, actually, I want to go full screen just for a moment, because this is something that I know that we all get concerned about. Sometimes when we add a huge amount of automation into our business and we are, um, we’re having all these old automated messages go out, our clients and potential clients can get used to it and it fields and fields automatic.

So we want to still use automation. We want to still use technology, but we don’t want it to feel like it’s automated. All right, let’s keep reading. So how can you use technology to connect with your clients better? Here are three ways you can harness technology to wow, your clients and grow your own role at the same time, because let’s face it. We want to do both don’t we all right. First strategy is Instagram direct messages. According to sprout, social Instagram has now got a billion. Count them 1 billion with a B monthly active users, 1 billion, goodness, me. That’s a lot of people. Chances are your landlords, your tenants, potential landlords, potential tenants are on Instagram. There’s a good chance, which means if you’re not already, you should be too. So Instagram has a feature that Facebook doesn’t and it’s one that you should be using this year, Instagram, Instagram direct messages.

So if you are not using direct messages yet, let’s talk about how you can be using them. So currently Instagram allows you to direct message pretty much anyone. This means that when you get a new follower on your Instagram account, you can send them a direct message to say, hi, you can’t do that with Facebook. So get DM-ing on Instagram. Dams are a powerful way to have one-on-one conversations with the people who are in your community. So these are the people who are following you. So reach out to them. Start those conversations, ask questions, stay in, touch with your followers. And don’t forget the value of an audio DM. So when you’re in the DM inbox on Instagram, you can see, you’ll see a little microphone icon. If you press and hold that you can record an audio message. But remember, once you let go of that little microphone button, the microphone button, the message is sent. There is no second chance. I’m going to pause just for a moment there, because if this is something that you are considering doing, I would suggest that if you do not have experienced sending audio messages, start by practicing. And if you want, you can send an audio message to me on Instagram. So we just add right roll style. And if you want to have someone that you can practice on, you can send one through to me. I would love to receive your Instagram audio direct message. Um, all right, let’s get ready.

I predict that eventually you won’t be able to direct message with your followers just like Facebook, but until then them, oh way. Let’s talk a little bit more about the value of on Instagram. DMS, give you a way of having one on one, personalized community, personalized communication with your followers, and also with people who are not your followers as well. Cause you have the ability to do that on Instagram. We don’t have that on Facebook. So just while we’ve got it, I don’t think we’ll always be able to do it, but while we’ve got it, why wouldn’t you do it? Why wouldn’t you take advantage of this feature? So it means when you get a new follower, send them a DM. When somebody interacts with your page, send them a DM. Because what we want to do is we want to get people who are our followers and turn them into either clients active prospective clients or potential referral partners, right?

We want to actually have some relationship with these people who are following us. Otherwise, if all we do is just have them follow us on Instagram and they never join out out of base. Well, they never actually have a conversation with us. Then it’s just, it’s like a vanity metric. Isn’t it. It’s just a whole bunch of people who follow you, but for you. But if it’s not turning your database into a larger database, if it’s not converting people into being paying clients in your rent role, then they’re just numbers for the sake of numbers. Like you probably have an Instagram account so that you can grow your business. So you want to be having conversations with people who are your followers. So take advantage of this while it’s available. Let’s keep reading the blog. This is the second strategy, personal video messages. I love personal video messages, video, especially personalized video is one of the most powerful ways to connect with your clients and potential clients.

It’s the next best thing to being in front of them. And let’s be honest, if you possibly can, you’re going to want to get people on the phone. You’re going to want to meet people face to face, but if you can’t do that, then a video is likely the next best play. The next best thing let’s keep rating. These are my three favorite times to send video messages to your existing landlord clients. So these are people who are already your landlord clients. We’re looking at ways we can wow them. So the first way is when you’re finishing a routine inspection and you’re locking up the house. So take 60 seconds to play a smartphone, send a quick video, tell your landlord that you’ve finished the inspection. Give a quick update on how the tenant is looking after the property. This is also an ideal time to let the landlord know when they can expect to see the inspection report, whether it’s same day or whether you there’s a little bit of lag time.

And this type of video is one that your landlords will possibly show to their friends, their landlord, friends. Right? So take a moment to impress your landlords with these videos. Um, the second time is when you’re looking up after an open home, landlords are at their most stressed when they’re investing, when their investment property is sitting vacant or about to become vacant, like that’s the most stressful time for a landlord, probably with the exception of, you know, when a tenants causing serious issues really bigger is really being damaged. So from that it’s vacancy, that’s when they’re most stressed. So take a moment to record a quick video. As you’re locking up after an argument, you can update the landlord on how the home open home went and sure. You’re probably going to send them a report after the open home too, especially if you’re using open home software, but having these as well, like adding a video to this process, offers the landlord extra reassurance that you’re on the job and prioritizing them.

Especially if you film the video while you’re at the property, there’s nothing quite like actually locking up the house, pulling the door closed behind you. As you’re speaking to the camera as king to the camera, as you’re getting ready to send this video to the landlord, because there’s a difference isn’t there between receiving a written report to say, this is how many people came through the house. This is how many people requested applications. This is what the expected turnaround time. It’s one thing to get that sort of a report. And it’s another thing to receive a 30 to 62nd video at the property giving that update. Um, and then the third time I love the idea of sending a video. When you get a new landlord late now in an ideal world, when you get a new landlord lead, you would pick up the phone and you would speak with them immediately, but sometimes you hit voicemail or sometimes you don’t get a phone number at all.

So this is the perfect opportunity to send a video message to say, hi, make a connection that feels more, more personal than a voicemail message. And remember, if this is a landlord who’s contacting, maybe a few, who’s contacting maybe a few agents in your area. There’s a good chance that you will be the only one sending them a personal video because video is still something people are uncomfortable with. So if you could be the only one who is willing to get on video and share something, introduce yourself, let them know when you’re going to call. You might be the only agent that does that. And of course the more practice you get with this sort of thing, the easier it’s going to be. Let’s keep ready.

All right. Some quick tips for sending videos like these. So if you’re sending video messages by email, then video messaging software, like bond Euro, I’ll make sure I link to that, uh, wherever you’re watching or listening to this video. Um, so, um, software platforms like these allow you to send a video message without appearing as a large attachment in your email because the video file is quite large. Um, look at your phones camera, not at the screen. It’s so tempting to look at the screen, which is where we see ourselves, but you want your client to feel as though you’re looking them in the eye. And that means you’ve got to look at the camera for that and then keep it short and sweet. Say 60 seconds from message. Like this is all you really need. And if you’re not comfortable and confident on camera, that’s okay. It’s just a practice thing. So I’m going to suggest you download a tool like bond Euro. If you want to send a practice one to me, you’re welcome to and get practicing with it. Start by sending a couple to family, friends, colleagues, or maybe just to your first couple of landlords that you know really well, who are not going to judge you for it and just stop there. Good.

Keep reading. Uh, this is the third way to wow, your clients with technology. So when it comes to the self personalized you’re on automation. So this is the third strategy. When it comes to software and automation, you have so much choice these days from leasing to maintenance, to lease renewals, to routine inspections, even your business management, there’s a piece of software for everything. The cool thing is when you bring in a new piece of software, they have templated email and SMS is usually ready, waiting for you to go. And here is where it’s easy to lose the personal touch. Those templates don’t sound like you. They sound like the brilliant person who wrote them. So when your office implements a new piece of software, you’ve got to set aside time to read the message templates and customize them to sound like you in doing this.

You’ll make them more clickable. You’ll make more readable for your clients. So here’s an example. Let’s just say you’ve got some trust accounting. So say you’ve got some trust accounting software that automatically reminds your tenant. If their rent is late and you probably do most property management trust accounting software does this for you. Does it automatically? So chances are that particular piece of software has an email template for when a tenant is like one day in a radius. So you want the email to achieve two things. You want the tenant to open the email. Cause like that’s a battle in itself. Isn’t it getting a tenant, somebody to actually open your email and then you want the tenant to either pay the rent that they owe immediately or let you know what’s happening so that you can communicate this with your owner. Because I think we’re all aware that doing a reas is not just a matter of sending the automated emails every day, every day, as you run your reports, that’s not doing a reas.

We actually want to get the rent. We want to get the rent paid, or we want to find out what’s going on. If there’s an issue there somewhere. So we need to get the tenant to open the email and we need the email to be relatable enough and inspiring enough that they are to inspired into action so that they pay the rent. Also, they reply to you and let you know what’s going on because if something’s going on, you want to know about it. Let’s keep going. So the first thing to personalize is the subject line of your email. So you get this email template from your property management software. Now it’s time to personalize it. So currently the subject line probably reads something like renter is one day 23 Smith street pretend suburb. It’s probably something like that. Right? But that subject line isn’t really interesting enough to get your tenants to read, eat email, right? So why not try a subject line like this? Something we had happened both. Are you okay, Bob? Are you okay now? Which of those emails is Bob most likely to open? Like if it bumps sees an email that says renter is one day 23 Smith straight, or if Bob sees an email subject that says something we’d have happened, Bob, are you okay?

He’s more likely to open the second one. Right? So it’s time to tackle the personalization of the, the body of the email. Once you’ve created some sort of a subject line that people are likely to open, it doesn’t have to be as weird as mine, but just something that attracted you some enough or creates intrigued enough that they will actually open the email. Then you can personalize the body of the email. So rather than being super professional or involved the tenant that they one day in a reason threatening your next sections, let’s just remember our goal. Our goal is to either get the tenant to pay the rent or, or to talk to you and let you know what is going on. So how about an email like this? I’m going to read this email to you. Hi, Bob, just check the banking this morning and it doesn’t look like you’re ranking our account.

Like it usually does. Just wanted to check in and see if you’re okay. Ellen, can you see how a short, sweet, conversational email, like this is more likely to get a response from your tenant, especially at day one, like we’re talking about day one of renters. The first time you are making contact with them. Can you see how that sort of an email is more likely to get from your tenant? Plus the tenants only one day in a reas, we really want to communicate with them effectively to increase our chances of getting them back on track. The benefit to this is that you’re going to be able to keep your landlords in the loop in a way that your competitors won’t be able to. So if you’ve got tenants ignoring your emails, you’ve got to have a hard time preserving that realtime, preserving that relationship with your landlord.

So keep your tenants talking to you and you are more likely to keep your landlords happy. So I know that for so many years, we have been had it drilled into us that we have to go hard on render readers. And for the first five years in my career in property management, I was hard on renter eats. And then when I reentered the industry, I had a little break from the industry for a couple of years. And when I re entered the industry and I took a slightly more conversational approach to renter is goodness me, my renter rates were lower. Why lower as a result, hen tendons will, to me when things went wrong. So I actually knew what was going on. I wasn’t sending out emails, sending out SMS is making calls, hitting voicemail and not knowing what’s going on. So this is where personal layer personalizing your automation is so, so important.

Making your emails that go out automatically making them sound like they actually come from you. We’re going to bring it full circle here. The truth is technology can make your job so much easier. And if you use one of these three suggestions or all three of these suggestions, you’ll be able to harness technology and build strong connections with your team clients and your potential clients. I remember before you grew up work on growing your rent roll, you need to have five extra things in place. And if you want to discover what those five things are, I’ve popped a little checklist together for you titled the five things to do before you go your rent roll, and I’ll have it linked wherever you are watching or listening to this video. So they’re the three ways that you can use technology to wow, your current clients and your perspective and your prospective clients. I want to know which one are you most excited about taking action on? Thank you so much for joining me on today’s episode of Ellen reads her blog. I can’t wait to see you for the next one.