5 Criteria to Find the Right Answering Service for Your Rental Properties

Right now, the rental market is crazy. People are renting homes just as fast as they’re buying and selling them, leaving property managers and landlords to answer endless phone calls and emails. Sometimes, even the best can’t keep up. People are reaching out about listings that are no longer available because you haven’t had time to update your website. Calls are going unanswered and often unreturned because people don’t leave messages or numbers and because you’re too busy with the day-to-day operations of your business to keep up with the phone. 

Fortunately, that’s not an issue any longer. What used to be a simple solution is now a dynamic option for businesses like yours that need a way to streamline communications and admin and make sure that people can reach you. Even if it’s not “you” that they’re reaching, your clients and leads will feel much better about a live person answering the phone when they call. 

Answering services have come a long way. They do a lot more than just answer calls. They can also make outbound sales calls, help with outreach campaigns, handle lead screening and intake, answer simple questions, schedule appointments, and the list goes on. The important thing is finding the right answering service for the job. 

Why property managers and landlords need answering services

Some people think that they can handle it on their own, or they can just hire a single in-house receptionist to field the calls. That’s all well and good, but it’s hardly the case. Even the best receptionist is only one person, as opposed to a full team of dedicated agents that are at your beck and call. 

As a landlord or property manager, the perks of hiring an answering service are also some of the most important criteria that should be on your list:

• 24/7/365 availability
• A host of features and solutions
• Customization 
• Scalability
• Image enhancement 
• Professional support
• Cost-effective solutions

Instead of asking why you need an answering service or if you can benefit, check out the criteria below and see what all they can do for you. Then, you’ll know who to hire as well as what you stand to gain from hiring them. 

1. 24/7 availability 

Tenets and properties have issues at all hours of the day and night. Pipes burst over the Thanksgiving weekend. A furnace goes out at 2 AM. People need someone to call. Unless you want your phone ringing all the time, it’s great to have an answering service that can field all these calls. Not only does it save you from having to be readily available to help customers, but it ensures that you never miss a call, no matter what you’re doing. 

Even hiring a receptionist doesn’t offer this same 24/7 availability—you can’t ask one employee to work around the clock or be constantly available. That’s where an answering service really is a great investment. 

2. Professional experience

How much experience does the answering service have? Have they ever worked for landlords or property managers before? Check out their own information, along with reviews and testimonials, to see how professional they are and how they handle various situations. This is a chance to improve your professional image, but only when you choose a company that’s got the expertise to be your best partner. 

You don’t necessarily have to find a property management-specific receptionist service, but it helps if they have familiarity with the industry and can handle the things that your business needs. 

3. Features included

As mentioned above, answering services can do a lot of different things for your business. If you’re just starting out, you might not be sure of exactly what you’re looking for. However, as you start to browse through the available services and features, you’ll see some great choices. Consider an answering service that offers a comprehensive set of features that will help your property management efforts go more smoothly.

4. Customization and scalability 

In addition to the features available, how much can you customize and adapt them to your needs? The best answering service will be the one that helps you create a solution that scales and grows with your property rental business over time. When you have a partner that can do that, you won’t have to switch providers as you grow or worry about outgrowing the company that you originally chose. 

Fortunately, today’s answering services offer a host of custom solutions and make it easy to get what you need. Don’t limit yourself to a set of standard plans and rates when you can get a tailored solution. 

5. Ease of integration

The last thing that you need is another integration that takes up a lot of valuable time and resources. Fortunately, working with a professional answering service means that you can find a simple, streamlined solution that’s easy to integrate and get started. Whether you need a few receptionists or a whole full-service answering solution, it needs to be simple, streamlined, and seamless when it comes to making the transition. 

This includes changes and additions as you grow—you should be able to step up your answering services as your rental properties become more successful and implement real-time changes so that you can stay on top of everything. 

Choose Smith.ai for all of your answering service needs

At Smith.ai, we know just how hard you work and how valuable your time is. We also know how to help you make the most of it, starting with our 24/7 answering service solutions. We can even combine that with solutions for appointment scheduling, lead intake, and live website chat. 

Plus, everything we do includes a custom-tailored strategy to ensure that we never miss a single detail and you never miss an opportunity. Reach out to us at hello@smith.ai or schedule a consultation to learn more about what our virtual receptionists can do for your property management communications and more.

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