Dweller

Designed for the end user—apartment residents. Crafted for the customer—property owners/managers.

After four years working in property management, I wanted to design a better resident app experience. For now, I designed the login, homepage, and maintenance request feature for this app using Sketch. More features to come.

Besides rent payment, the most frequent interaction with management is from maintenance requests. Prototype below.

End User Journey

The rental housing industry focuses too much on the first end user interactions—the apartment tour and initial lease signing. These two stages are short moments. The average end user spends 12 months in the live-in stage of their journey. How can we better cater to the entire end user journey and provide tools for self-service?

Problems at Live-In Stage

1. Multiple maintenance requests for unresolved issues.

Residents often complain about having to submit and resubmit requests for the same issue. Maintenance technicians often complain about residents providing unclear requests and duplicate requests for items they already fixed. It seems there is a communication breakdown. How can we help residents show their concerns? How can we reduce the number of tickets for the same item? How can we help both parties to communicate and understand each other? When is a maintenance request really complete?

2. Property managers have become online moderators and party planners.

Most resident apps have a social networking feature wherein residents can connect with each other, post content and sale items. Property managers are spending too much time and developer money on this social networking feature. Better sites already exist for this purpose such as Facebook and NextDoor. These sites already have customary and mandatory content guidelines with paid moderators in place. Offering this free internal service is unnecessary. It takes time and money away from the actual business. How can we offer a similar community experience? How can we spend less money and generate more revenue?

A false perception permeates the apartment industry that residents must be entertained. Instead residents really just want self-service and consistent quality service from management when requested. I knew of a property that spent $30K each year on what they called resident retention—which consisted of elaborate gift baskets, flowers, champagne, and catered community parities. Yet the elevators often broke, hallways went uncleaned, and management ignored emails. Residents expect perfection at business basics such as paying rent, responding to emailed questions, and fixing maintenance requests. How can we streamline these basic expectations?

Solutions with Dweller

1. Confirm Repair Fix with Resident + Escalation Workflow

The end user (resident) reviews the request the maintenance tech marked as complete. If yes, the issue is fixed, then they receive a thank you message and the maintenance request is fully complete. If no, the issue is not fixed, then the resident receives an apology and the request remains In Progress status. The maintenance team and property management then have 24 hours to contact the resident to resolve the issue. Thus both parties must agree on a complete repair and duplicate tickets are reduced.

2. Generate Revenue by Selling Bulletin Add Space + Affiliate Links

The homepage bulletin board is merchandized with tiered pricing based on add position and time on page. End users (residents) can pay to market their business or sell their furniture. Local businesses and retailers can also purchase space and provide affiliate links. For every purchase an end user makes, money goes into the customer’s (property manager’s) pocket. The cost of the app’s development and maintenance could be subsidized from these sales and commissions.