The real estate industry is facing changing headwinds – from tightening leasing regulations and new compliance standards to global market uncertainties and changing customer preferences. As in other industries such as retail and ecommerce, the emergence of the on-demand economy is reshaping tenant expectations in real estate. However, even as most industry respondents in a recent Deloitte survey^[i] rated tenant experience as a top priority, real estate executives are constrained by disjointed sales, property data and leasing functions.  The inability to get real time consolidated view of the sales pipeline information and take necessary action leaves executives unequipped to streamline their Tenant Acquisition Management (TAM) process, which in turn hampers lead conversion. How can real estate companies and leasing agents establish a lean lead to lease cycle and prevent it from becoming a repetitive drain on their business? 

Four best practices to delivering a superior tenant experience

Improving lead to lease conversions has two-fold benefits – it improves real estate firms’ bottom lines while driving a superior tenant experience. Here are four ways to get it right with a digital TAM solution:

1. Respond to queries with agility: Quick response time makes a big difference to the lease to lead conversion rate. Millennials especially, are driven by speed in everything they do and being the largest generation in the workforce today, are redefining business models across industries with their spending power. Property managers who respond to inquiries within 1-2 minutes vs. 24 hours later are actually 40% more likely to connect with prospective leads. What’s more - 20% of prospective renters will move on to another listing if they don’t get a response within 30 minutes.^[ii] An intelligent Tenant Acquisition Management (TAM) platform can help leading agents get real time visibility into their leads and opportunities pipeline and even screen and schedule rental showings for all prospective tenants, significantly reducing leakage of inquiries.

2. Identify right fit properties: Leveraging the right Tenant Acquisition Management (TAM) platform, leasing agents should be able to quickly search properties based on availability, location, price, and size, compare different properties and even block properties. TAM platforms display property details such as pictures, amenities, neighborhood information, maps, and customer and contract history. The result: leading agents are able to best match their clients’ criteria to properties, accelerating the conversion process and delivering a superior tenant experience.      

3. Qualify leads effectively: Leveraging the right TAM solution, leasing agents can do a tenant screening process to qualify tenants and focus their efforts on serious leads. By analyzing tenant insights derived from the platform, agents can determine what prospective tenants are looking for and include that information in the listing to drive relevant targeting and better conversions.

4. Manage all transactions under a single umbrella: Besides streamlining day to day activity planning and tracking, the right TAM solution should offer leasing agents a ready reference to historical interactions and agreement. Managing all transactions through such a centralized consolidated platform significantly improves and accelerates contract management by giving real estate executives all the information they need - quickly and accurately.   

Manage the lead to lease cycle with Wipro’s Tenant Acquisition Management (TAM) solution

Wipro’s TAM, an SAP industry cloud solution provides real estate firms comprehensive capabilities to manage the lead to lease cycle with an app that provides a 360-degree view of your properties. The app connects with your backend SAP S/4HANA REFX solution and also quickly integrates with your front-office CRM solutions to drive seamless integration between sales and leasing functions. The result: A smarter workflow that enables your leasing agents to connect with customers, search and short list properties, manage tenant interactions, and create lease agreements – cost-effectively and quickly. Our TAM solution has delivered up to 25% time saving for leasing agents and 15% savings in the cost of lease cycles for clients. It enables a lean lead to lease cycle with better and faster conversion rates in tenant lease deal closure.

^[i] Deloitte, 2020 Commercial Real Estate Outlook, https://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/insights/industry/financial-services/commercial-real-estate-outlook.html

^[ii] Zillow, Response Matters :Best Practices to Maximize Your Lead Conversion, https://www.zillow.com/multifamily-knowledge-center/rental-marketing/best-practices-lead-conversion/

Shivanand Hiremath is a Consulting Partner and Senior Digital Solutions Architect with over 22 years of global experience. He leads the Digital Innovation Solution group within Wipro's SAP Practice, with special focus on Energy, Natural Resources, Utilities, Real Estate, and Healthcare. One of his key activities includes "Incubation to GTM" for smart business applications to address business challenges, working with SAP, customers and technology partners, integrating with best-of-breed technologies. He is also the product owner for preconfigured solutions and model company solution development for real estate and utilities respectively, working closely with SAP. Shivanand can be reached at shivanand.hiremath1@wipro.com.

Satish Chandra Bhaskara
Practice Head, SAP Solutions, Wipro

Satish Bhaskara leads the SAP C/4HANA competency at Wipro Limited. He has 20 years of experience in various SAP modules. Customer Experience Management on Qualtrics and C/4HANA Integration are his focus areas. He is an expert in the areas of SAP CRM / SAP C/4HANA and has implemented multiple transformation programs.