Peter Lohmann's Podcast
00:09:34 · Peter Lohmann, Matt Luke
[00:09:34] S0: Okay. Very cool. Okay. So let's get into some more of the nitty gritty. So you've got 360 doors, no w two employees. What does your tech stack look like? Like, what softwares are you using? [00:09:48] S1: Yeah. So I I could pull it up on on on my computer here to remind myself because there's quite the list. But first, we're using AppFolio as the hub Mhmm. For the property management. And then, again, through your recommendation that we added LeadSimple about two years ago, and I work very diligently to update and keep those processes very refined, answering questions, resolving things ahead of time, giving people's answers before they even come to our... At my desk. And that particular software has probably saved me, I would imagine, twenty plus hours a week. Wow. Oh, easily. I mean, we have it set up where a move in process. Once the tenant signs the lease, we never actually communicate with the tenant until, I guess, at any point other than through LeadSimple. There's no phone calls. It's all automated texts and emails that answer the questions and help them work through the process. So that software has been amazing. Fantastic. Yeah. Other softwares that I have to bring it up on my computer to remind myself, but we use RingCentral for phone [00:11:01] S0: Yep. [00:11:01] S1: Tree. We use some AI tools for answering phone calls and specifically leasing and maintenance phone calls. ShowMojo is the tool we use for scheduling Mhmm. And coordinating Yep. Showings. And then we also use Property Meld for maintenance coordination.
00:11:01 · Matt Luke, Peter Lohmann
[00:11:01] S1: Tree. We use some AI tools for answering phone calls and specifically leasing and maintenance phone calls. ShowMojo is the tool we use for scheduling Mhmm. And coordinating Yep. Showings. And then we also use Property Meld for maintenance coordination. [00:11:22] S0: South Dakota company? [00:11:23] S1: Yes. It is. Yep. And then there's a number of other softwares that are ancillary to it and kinda connect such as Notion and Google Drive and Microsoft three sixty five. [00:11:35] S0: Yeah. You mentioned something about an AI tool in there. Say... Do you remember what tool that is or what you're using it for? [00:11:41] S1: So we're using Haven. A I, that tool right now is set up. They do have offer receptionist option. So if you have... Want some... An AI to answer the call as soon as someone calls in, they can take that and and send that to the right department. Or you can choose to just use the leasing or the maintenance side to take the phone calls. And that's been... Those have... That's been a game changer. [00:12:05] S0: Okay. So you're not... Are you... Sounds like you're not using the reception part of that right now? [00:12:09] S1: Not right now. So when someone calls in, they can choose two, to schedule a showing or get more information about a property, three, for maintenance, and four, if they're an investor and owner. [00:12:21] S0: Got it.
00:12:21 · Peter Lohmann, Matt Luke
[00:12:21] S0: Got it. [00:12:21] S1: So I haven't gotten to the point where I feel everybody's comfortable with talking to AI at So this the reason we left that phone tree is so that it feels a little bit more consistent to what people are used to. And then when we get... And I also like to take the sales calls personally. So I take the sales calls for investors and new owners, but then the showings and the maintenance, it feels like people are a little bit more comfortable on that end with the AI. [00:12:51] S0: Okay. So they call into your main line. It's RingCentral. They get the phone tree standard thing. It's probably you saying press 1 for maintenance, press C, whatever. And then if they click whatever the number is for leasing, at that point, it connects to Haven dot a I. Is that right? [00:13:07] S1: Yes. [00:13:07] S0: And same for the maintenance? [00:13:09] S1: Yep. And I've named her Serena, and she's also also one of them on the website in the Luke Properties. [00:13:14] S0: No way. [00:13:17] S1: Okay. Our... We call her our remote team member.
00:13:17 · Matt Luke, Peter Lohmann
[00:13:17] S1: Okay. Our... We call her our remote team member. [00:13:22] S0: So you know. Okay. I'm really interested in this part of it. I bet a lot of listeners are too because there's all this talk about AI, but very few property managers actually have it deployed in their business the way that you just described. So I just wanna ask some follow-up questions. So... And let's stick with leasing for a second. So they Mhmm. They talked to Serena, and Serena is presumably plugged in somehow to Show Mojo or AppFolio. So Serena knows your currently listed properties, the rent amounts, your policies, all that? [00:13:50] S1: Yep. So she's connected to both, so she can pull information from AppFolio. They also have a knowledge based section that we can continue to fill out. So if there's questions she can't answer, we'll get a prompt so that we can answer that question for the next time. [00:14:04] S0: So she's ready [00:14:06] S1: to answer that for the next person calling in. And then she asked, she can schedule showings. She can answer questions. She... And then they actually follow-up with text and email thread afterwards. So if the if the potential tenant wants to continue the conversation through text or email, it will automatic... The AI will automatically do that. [00:14:25] S0: So the AI will will continue the conversation on your behalf through text or email? [00:14:30] S1: Correct. Wow. And if she really gets stumped, then they will forward the call to me. [00:14:36] S0: Got it. And how many calls a week would you say the leasing Serena is handling?
00:14:36 · Peter Lohmann, Matt Luke
[00:14:36] S0: Got it. And how many calls a week would you say the leasing Serena is handling? [00:14:45] S1: Oh, probably a 100 Wow. In that range. Yeah. [00:14:50] S0: Okay. So pretty significant [00:14:51] S1: five to 10 a day. [00:14:53] S0: Yeah. Yeah. And are you... Does it seem like people are receptive? Like, do people get angry and hang up? Or, like [00:15:00] S1: Yeah. So you can listen to all the phone calls [00:15:02] S0: Yeah. [00:15:02] S1: And it will escalate if they feel like the AI isn't able to handle the call. Many of the people will not even know it's AI. There are some who say, talk to agent. Talk to person. Representative. Yep. And then it will forward over. But it still does take a lot of effort off of my plate, a lot of time. I used to use a call center to take the showing calls and that had mixed reviews. And from what I can tell, listening to the phone calls, this has a little... Has a higher review rating than the call center. [00:15:35] S0: Unbelievable. Okay. So maintenance, so same system haven dot a I, but maintenance. Still Serena? [00:15:43] S1: Nope. Now Max. [00:15:44] S0: Oh, excuse me. Yep. Max didn't didn't mean to, you know, forget about Max. Okay. Well, that's funny because Property Meld uses Max as well. I kept that name. Okay. [00:15:55] S1: We just gave him a last name. So [00:15:57] S0: So... And why not use Property Melds, Max, on call, I think is what they call it, since you're already using Property Meld elsewhere in the business. Yep.
00:15:57 · Peter Lohmann, Matt Luke
[00:15:57] S0: So... And why not use Property Melds, Max, on call, I think is what they call it, since you're already using Property Meld elsewhere in the business. Yep. [00:16:05] S1: So that's not off the table. I have... Just haven't explored it yet. I had already integrated haven.ai into Showmojo or into Property Meld. So I just stuck with that for now because it's working really, really well. At some point, I might explore that. [00:16:20] S0: Okay. Cool. So when they talk to Max, they can do things like ask about our current maintenance request, submit a new maintenance request, stuff like that? [00:16:30] S1: It is unbelievable. This particular AI tool has again probably saved us ten or fifteen hours a week. Wow. It used to push all tenants back to submitting online, which was what we're doing previously. But with the AI agent and giving them the option to call in, it does provide a higher level of customer service and it has not screwed up once. In fact, it's smarter than I am. It never sleeps. It speaks multiple languages. It can take 20 calls at the same time and it can triage all of the the questions and and issues that I prob... I wouldn't have the skill sets to to answer, and it stays friendly all the time as well too. [00:17:14] S0: Alright. This episode is sponsored by haven.ai. They may have actually sponsored a prior episode or a newsletter. I can't But... Okay. So they're hooked into meld. So they see all of your melds. They can submit melds, all that?