Cortland wants to make prospective renters feel known and cared for from the first interaction. Prior to onboarding Funnel, Cortland worked with a third-party contact center to manage the first point of contact with a prospective renter. This created a disconnect between the initial lead follow-up and the Cortland team.

Now, with Funnel’s full platform, they brought the first point of contact in-house. This allows them to provide a welcoming, on-brand experience that helps to differentiate their communities from competitors. “There is seamless communication transition from one team to another,” said Bri Bocker, Director of Marketing Technology at Cortland.

Centralization means different things to each property management company because it’s not a one-size-fits-all-portfolios operating model. The foundational bones of Funnel’s renter-centric^® technology, paired with their consultative approach aligned with Cortland’s needs.

Pre-Funnel, Cortland felt constrained and locked into working the way their software platforms dictated that they run their businesses, which was property-by-property.

“Working with Funnel allowed us to create business model flexibility,” said Scott Moore, CTO at Cortland. “It’s that flexibility that’s allowed us to identify places where it makes sense to centralize some functions off-site or to leave them on-site and improve the experience.”

Instead of an all-or-nothing approach, Cortland thoughtfully identified areas where in order to create a better resident and renter experience, it made sense to bring workflows or specialized tasks to a centralized in-house team.

In addition to freeing onsite teams to focus their attention on renters, Cortland leveraged the data insights provided by the Funnel platform to create smart staffing models for their centralized teams By assessing the volume of communication — text messages, phone calls, and emails — that the centralized leasing hub handled they predicted the staffing levels needed. So, instead of leasing professionals either feeling bored or overwhelmed resulting in overall team disengagement, Cortland can optimally staff in order to operate more efficiently, and provide a positive experience for team members and renters.

Onsite team turnover is often a symptom of a bigger problem: team members are often asked to do more with less, leaving them feeling burnt out and stretched thin, but not at Cortland. By adopting a centralized model, Cortland strategically took some of these to-do’s off of their onsite teams’ plate, resulting in happier employees and happier renters.

“We believe if we can create a fantastic associate experience where they enjoy coming to work every day, they feel inspired, they feel empowered, they believe in the mission, they model the core values of our company, then that in turn can enable and hopefully be realized as a great resident experience,” said Mike Gomes, Fmr. Chief Experience Officer, Cortland. “It’s hard to have unhappy people create happy customers, so we want to make sure we have happy, engaged associates who can in turn create a really wonderful living environment for our residents. If we do that we have the fundamental faith that business results will follow.”

Centralization and AI create different efficiencies that are both vital. AI shortens lead follow-up times because it's built for speed. Leveraging AI is a component of the new operating model because it is part of restructuring the intersection of people, processes, and tech to create efficiencies.