The Challenge

Prior to Funnel, Camden didn’t have a CRM or an AI solution. Camden wanted to both retain top talent and delight renters. They realized that the current operating model left areas of opportunity to improve their business, the employee experience and provide exceptional customer service to renters.

The Solution

Camden shifted to a centralized operating model, with regionalized groups or “nests” of properties. The technology backbone of this operational shift were a renter-centric CRM, AI, and contact center solutions.

The Results

After moving to a centralized operating model, Camden moved its leasing teams from a seven-day week to a six-day work week without a performance drop, and decreased talent churn.

Camden credited Funnel as a key part of their Work Reimagined initiative, which transformed the day-to-day, for onsite and centralized teams and will save them approximately $4 to $5 million, on a full-year stabilized basis.

KEY INSIGHTS

Insulate your company during a tumultuous economy

Camden started their Work Reimagined initiative — a grassroots listening tour that saw company execs sitting down with employees to understand all of the roles they serve at work and what strengths different teams and individuals brought to the table — during the early days of the pandemic.

This initiative led them to rethinking the intersection of people, process, and technology to shift to a new more flexible operating model with specialized roles and centralized teams providing support for onsite team members.

This move to a centralized model allowed Camden to operate with greater efficiency saving $4-5 million annually. Their timing couldn’t have been better as they are well positioned for the current challenges multifamily leaders are facing: high rising costs, continued team turnover, and slow rent growth.

The cost of not changing was high then, and is becoming increasingly expensive.

Better pay + more time off = not too good to be true

Through their Work Reimagined listening tour, Dunavant shared that “A lot of our staff were doing tasks that didn’t align with their roles – and we saw that as an opportunity to standardize and streamline some of these tasks that were taking them away from serving customers.”

Busy work isn’t analogous to meaningful work. “When you put people in a position where they’re using their strengths, it increases engagement and that naturally overall increases team performance,” says Dunavant. “That is what drives a good employee experience.”

Through Camden’s partnership with Funnel, they have been able to reimagine and restructure the entire onsite experience for renters, and for teams. Now, Camden nests two or three communities together, and operates the nested communities with a single centralized leasing team. They also layered on Funnel’s AI and automation to take care of known, routine communication without any additional effort from team members. It’s a win for Camden as they are more efficient and productive, and a win for the leasing teams as they can increase their commission and focus on selling.

The impact shows up in the numbers. From 2022 to 2025, Camden decreased voluntary turnover for onsite team members by 18%. Turnover for centralized team members fell even further, down 36%.

It’s a win for Camden because teams are more efficient, and the company spends less time onboarding and ramping team members.

Ideal renter experience

With AI and automation layered on top of Camden’s renown contact center, onsite teams can focus their time and attention on providing exceptional customer service.

Prior to Funnel, Camden didn’t have a CRM or an AI solution. Funnel’s single guest card architecture allows Camden to operate in a way that other CRMs can’t. With Funnel, all incoming and outgoing communication is stored on a single renter guest card, along with their preferences, no matter how many communities the renter inquired about. This allows teams across the company to have the context and clarity they need to nurture leads in any Camden community.

Without omnichannel communication logged in one place, regardless of what “team” you’re on, it’s impossible to know the nuances of each individual customer interaction. With Funnel, Camden team members were able to provide better customer service because they could operate seamlessly as one team.