Technology continues to connect us faster and from greater distances, until time zones and the miles between us no longer matter. These changes are happening at a blistering pace and timely information is allowing property management leaders to operate their companies and their properties with a new set of rules. Thomas Friedman, author of “The Lexus And The Olive Tree” says, “the future will require a complete integration of capital, technology, and timely information for leaders to lead”. As a property management professional, are you ready to be a leader of the future?
Reviewing some powerful statistics: Given the rapid pace of technology and innovation it’s important to realize just how fast information and ideas are reaching us, with the tap of a keystroke. Here are some powerful statistics about today and the future:
1. It took commercial radio 38 years to reach an audience of 50 million, it took 13 years for television, but the Internet only took five years to grow this large.
2. According to the Cisco Visual Networking Index global IP traffic will reach 1.1 zettabytes per year, global IP traffic has increased fivefold over the past five years, and will increase threefold over the next five years, two-thirds of all IP traffic will originate with non-PC devices by 2019, and broadband speeds will more than double by 2019.
3. 92 percent of North American Internet users currently research travel arrangements online.
4. An MBA at Duke, Purdue or Syracuse University can be earned by taking online classes.
5. E-commerce will continue to double, over the next 24 months.
Tip From The Coach: As a property management professional, do the above trends surprise you? Are you and your property management teams leveraging these trends for your competitive advantage? Remember, with the pace of technology, only the leaders who embrace this rapid pace will survive and thrive into the future!
Leading-edge uses of technology and information: Many of our property management clients are using the statistics above to create some very innovative ways of applying capital, technology and timely information. Here are some examples:
1. Property management companies are using comprehensive internal websites [intranets] and the cloud, to maximize the flow of information and ideas within their company. In addition, our property management clients are linking their marketing information to the intranets of their corporate clients.
2. Leading property management companies are offering their residents WiFi Internet access and smartly-crafted resident portals.
3. Our clients have specifically designed their websites to capture the E-mail addresses of prospective future residents, for free future permission-marketing.
4. Apartment communities are leveraging their online forms/access for handling maintenance requests and other resident services plus tracking levels of response time plus completion satisfaction.
5. Progressive companies are adding Chief Knowledge Officers to mine great ideas, share best practices, develop leading-edge technology and communicate strategic plans.
6. Our property management clients are conducting training and sharing real-time communication with their teams using a variety of training platforms.
Accessing real-time information: In addition to the examples above, leading vendors in the property management industry are providing real-time website information. Here are two examples: A leading industry website provides password-protected real-time access for its property management advertisers at a secured portion of their website. This means advertising clients can make changes to their rental rates, update property information, review web page activity and analyze monthly/year-to-date marketing reports. In a second example, a leading call tracking service is providing real-time access at their website for their property management clients. This access allows their clients to review important marketing information, compare the results of their marketing with other properties within their company, download and listen to actual in-bound telephone calls from future residents, download marketing information for their own internal spreadsheets and reports, E-mail reports to others within their company and define their own parameters for custom reports of their marketing statistics.
Want to hear more about this important topic or ask some additional questions about how to access real-time leadership information? Would you like to know how leaders in the property management industry are using internal information dashboards to drive their critical decisions? Send an E-mail to ernest@powerhour.com and The Coach will E-mail you a free PowerHour invitation.
About The Author: Ernest F. Oriente, a business coach/trainer since 1995 [37,400 hours], serving property management industry professionals since 1988--the author of SmartMatch Alliances™, the founder of PowerHour® www.powerhour.com, the founder of PowerHour SEO/SEM www.powerhourseo.com and his live weekly PowerHour Leadership Academy www.powerhourleadershipacademy.com/pm has a passion for coaching his clients on executive leadership, hiring and motivating property management SuperStars, traditional and Internet SEO/SEM marketing, competitive sales strategies, and high leverage alliances for property management teams and their leaders. He provides private and group coaching for property management companies around the world, executive recruiting, investment banking, SEO/SEM web strategies, powerful tools for hiring SuperStars and building smart teams, plus social media strategies www.powerhour.com/propertymanagement/socialmedialeadership.html . Ernest worked for Motorola, Primedia and is certified in the Xerox sales methodologies. Recent interviews and articles have appeared 9000+ times in business and trade publications and in a wide variety of leading magazines and newspapers, including Smart Money, Inc., Business 2.0, The New York Times, Fast Company, The LA Times, Fortune, Business Week, Self Employed America and The Financial Times. Since 1995, Ernest has written 260+ articles for the property management industry and created 400+ property management smartly-crafted templates, business and marketing checklists, sales letters and presentation tools. PowerHour® is based in Olympic-town Park City, Utah, at 435-615-8486, by E-mail ernest@powerhour.com or visit their website at www.powerhour.com on Twitter, https://twitter.com/PowerHourCoach on LinkedIn, www.linkedin.com/in/ernestoriente and on Facebook, www.facebook.com/powerhour2