Customer Service for Real Estate

Before

The Hospitality Department manages about 60 residential complexes with 1000 residents. Two contact center operators received requests from them and company employees via email, a personal WhatsApp number, and from the receptionists of the residential complexes, who manually entered them into the task tracker. The tasks were assigned to Facility managers. This solution did not meet the Company’s growth strategy and digitalization and did not allow for the creating of an omnichannel contact center. In addition, it had the following limitations:

• If solving a resident's problem required creating several tasks, they were not linked. Only the operator knew they were related to the same problem.
• There was no integration with email. Requests had to be manually entered.
• The list of property owners and tenants was maintained manually by operators with no CRM integration.
• The list of residential complexes and real estate objects was also maintained manually in Excel.

Solution

Dynamics 365 for Customer Service was deployed in the existing Dynamics 365 environment:

• The Customer Service Hub app was configured for operators, and a simplified Team Member app was deployed for facility managers.
• Both apps added functionality that was present in the previous solution: co-executors and observers in tasks, comments, in-app and email notifications about new requests, the planned resolution date for the request, new comments, etc.
• Customer Service and Dynamics 365 for Sales, use a single Dataverse database. Data about residential complexes, real estate objects, and residents were not required to be integrated further.
• Developed integration with the mobile Community App for residents, allowing users to create requests, chat with the operator, attach files, and track the request status.
• Configured integration with the Hotline shared mailbox in Outlook for working with emails in the app and automatically creating requests.
• Requests are automatically created and assigned to the duty operator.
• Requests (from residents) and tasks (for executors) are separated. Now, a single request can create several tasks for different executors.
• Available out-of-the-box additional features for operators - knowledge base and AI-based similar request recommendations.
• Implemented access control with a role model and logging of changes made.

After

Now, contact center operators and facility managers work in a unified service, focused on omnichannel customer service and already integrated with email, the resident's mobile app, and CRM for Sales:

• Operators and executors have apps tailored to their needs for handling requests and tasks, united by a single database, simplifying and speeding up their work.
• An integrated CRM database of customers and real estate objects speeds up operators' work – there is no need to search for and update information in Excel files.
• Automatic creation of requests from emails speeds up operators' work and improves the quality of customer service, as no email is lost among many others.
• The new communication channel - the mobile Community App for residents, allows residents to view all their requests, create new ones, and chat with the operator. The convenient interface and prompt assistance increase residents' satisfaction.
• Breaking down the process into three parts—handling residents' requests, assigning tasks to executors, and adding details to requests (like residental complex, specific property, and common areas)—helps build a detailed database. This database can then be used for deeper analysis and to enhance customer service.
• Built-in tools for the operator, such as a knowledge base and AI-based similar case recommendations, allow new operators to be trained faster and requests to be resolved faster.

Roadmap

• Adding new channels for receiving requests - integration with WhatsApp Business into the request creation channels.
• Expanding integration with the mobile Community App for residents: independent resident registration with operator verification, displaying the plan of the object and indicating the problem area, and surveying resident satisfaction.
• Setting up SLA depends on the request's criticality and the type of customer.