Effective landlord-tenant communication is a vital part of rental property management. It helps you build trusting relationships, set clear expectations, and even increase renewals and tenant retention. In fact, 60% of tenants reported that their most desired software feature was digital communication according to Buildium’s 2021 Industry Report.
At Innago, we know the powerful role tenant communication plays in your success, and we want to make it even easier for our users to access it. We’re excited to announce the release of our chat feature to help you more easily connect with your tenants.
Our new chat feature will allow you and your tenants to message back and forth directly through your Innago accounts. You’ll also be able to:
- Message all the tenants living in a property at once
- Directly message a single tenant
- Send attachments like leases, addenda, or other documents
- Receive read receipts so you know your messages have actually been delivered and read by your tenants.
We’re eager to help our users reach their real estate goals, whether that be scaling your rental business, reducing daily management tasks, or simply improving your organization. We hope that using our chat feature to communicate with tenants directly from Innago will help you accomplish all three.
How It Works
For Landlords
1. From the Innago menu on the left, click ‘Messaging’.
2. Select the ‘Chat’ option from the messaging menu.
3. Then click the ‘new chat icon’ to start a new chat.
Individual Chat
Click the New Chat button and type in the "To" field to select a recipient. You can select a group of tenants in a specific unit, or you can select individual tenants (only tenants with verified profiles and active leases will be selectable).
Once you've selected your recipient, you can begin a conversation to send messages and even share media files. Your conversation thread will be stored and remain accessible from the conversation list on the left side of the screen.
Group Chat
You can select multiple recipients by selecting a property unit from the "To" field. All tenants of the selected unit will receive a new chat message and will be able to participate in a shared conversation with each other.
Sharing Documents and Media
Sharing media and files within an open chat is simple and easy! You can use this feature to send over copies of a lease, receive maintenance photos from tenants, and share any other documents or media.
Just click the paper clip icon located to the left of the text box, and you'll be able to upload any of the following supported file types: jpeg, jpg, png, doc, docx, xlsx, xls, pdf, txt.
If you need to review any of these previously shared files later, you can do so by clicking "View Attachments" from the action menu (three vertical dots located near the top right corner of the screen).
Please note – Tenants will not be able to start a new chat on their own. They will only be able to respond to chats that you have started.
For Tenants
- From the Innago menu on the left, click ‘Chat’.
- Here, select the chat that you would like to respond to.
Your tenants also have the ability to share documents or media directly with you.
Conclusion
There’s no better strategy for improving tenant satisfaction than regular communication. Simple reminders and check-ins can make all the difference to renters, and we hope our new chat feature will make all the difference for you and your rentals, too.
