Marketplace
All the Feels
As real-time and personalized purchasing experiences become the norm, a lifestyle-focused apartment is as important as location and layout.
Hyper-informed and empowered by a tsunami of personalized, networked data, today’s consumers control their own destinies and expect immediate gratification 24/7—and that will become exponentially apparent as younger generations influenced by “friends” around the globe take command of consumption.
Author and radio personality Jim Blasingame declared several years ago that we had entered The Age of the Customer as the convergence of micro-computers and high-speed internet gave consumers immediate access to abundant information that’s not controlled, filtered or distributed by sellers. With cloud, mobile, social, and AI technology now at their fingertips, consumers have more choices than ever—and they have no problem going elsewhere if service isn’t superior.
That shift in the balance of power has never been more acutely felt, as businesses strive to not only deliver an experience along with their goods or services but one that’s accessible wherever, whenever. If experts are correct, 90 percent of the U.S. population will connect to the grid via smartphones by 2023, and they will expect the companies they interact with to know their preferences and anticipate their next moves, even before they do.7
Salesforce.com polled more than 7,000 consumer and business buyers for its 2017 “State of the Connected Customer” report and found four core elements of the new baseline customer experience: immediacy, personalization, consistency, and anticipation. The survey found that 72 percent of consumers and 89 percent of business buyers expect companies to understand their unique needs and expectations, 66 percent of consumers are likely to switch brands if they’re treated like a number, and 70 percent said technology makes it easier than ever to do so.8
In that case, customer loyalty may very well be dead, and companies that aren’t dominating consumers’ screen time or making their lives more convenient will lose in what Silicon Valley sage Ray Wang, founder of Constellation Research, calls today’s “attention economy.”9
NMHC’s recent survey results support that assumption, as nine out of 10 survey respondents (92 percent) said convenience was important to them.
Nearly two-thirds (63 percent) also agreed that their lives were so hectic that they look for ways to make things easier.
This new dynamic, according to Forrester Research, is placing “harsh and unfamiliar demands on institutions, requiring changes in how they develop, market, sell, and deliver products and services.”10 Companies that aren’t leveraging big data in creative and proactive ways are goners.
In the here and now, the multifamily industry largely knows what their customers want—and that connective technology is increasingly important. For example, NMHC recently published the results of the largest survey of apartment renters ever—more than 272,000 residents participated—and found that renters ranked amenities and features like parking, pools and fitness centers, along with in-unit washers and dryers and dishwashers, behind reliable cell reception and hi-speed internet.11
However, anticipating our residents’ needs for tomorrow is more challenging. There’s no doubt that technology will continue to be a big determinant in the future value of apartment living.
As Robert Lathan wrote in a recent article in the Cornell Real Estate Review, “If the current trends are any indication of the future, it’s clear that the service offerings of connectivity and flexibility through technology will continue to develop.” He added:
Multifamily customers exhibit the same needs and desires of homeowners, and if the sector can continue to deliver improvements that bridge the gap, the value proposition of renting versus owning increases. Technology has, and will continue to play, a part in a large part of these gains.