New Technology and Property Management: A Symbiotic Relationship?

From a marketing perspective, we are always on the lookout for the next “big thing”. When it comes to technology, things come and go in the blink of an eye. The real trick is catching on while the item is hot, otherwise you are on the tail end of technology, and possibly viewed as “late to the game” by your clients or prospects. One example of catching on late to the game is QR codes. Of course there are still practical uses for these in some form or another; however, they lost their momentum of being on every billboard, business card/handout, and even some T.V. commercials. This loss of interest is brought about by many reasons, the main being loss of consumer interest, smartphone developers not integrating software for easy use, or any number of reasons.

Back to the initial point, companies need to keep up with technology and we believe the next big boom in the consumer technology front is NFC. NFC stands for Near Field Communication, or in basic terms the “bump” option on your smart device that allows you to transfer data from one device to the other by just bringing them in close proximity of one another. This works by using radio communications on a low range basis (hence near field) to transfer data from one device to another.

This technology has already been implemented into most smart devices; however, how can we utilize this in property management? For one, you can build advertisements for information distribution by having people hold their device to advertisement and transfer data that way. Imagine embedding NFC tags in your print brochures prompting apartment hunters to check availability and even reserve a specific apartment by “bumping” the floor plan they like. Or place an NFC tag next to your out-of-office sign on the leasing office door encouraging residents to use your resident portal to communicate with the leasing and service staff after hours.

Check out this video demonstration of an advertisement for CemusaNA that delivers a free song to the user via NFC. Some other potentials that NFC carries is the ability to store and exchange data in credit card transactions (acting as a virtual wallet, ticket holder, or even business card), send contact information, or even increase the way consumers use, access, and even view social media.