Property Management's Industry Standard
Use Cases and Deployment Scope
Entrata is used throughout my company: both at our properties and in corporate operations. Essentially, it's a full-service software platform for the property management industry. It can be used for customer relationship management, e-signatures, budgeting and accounting, and email marketing. It fulfills about 75% of my regular software needs.
Pros
- I send customer communications almost exclusively through Entrata because everything ports into a customer activity log. It's simple and great for record keeping.
- Invoices and payments can be handled from start to finish within Entrata. Expenses port directly into the property budget, allowing users to make informed buying decisions.
- Within Entrata, a prospective customer can move from expressing initial interest to applying, signing a lease, and eventually renewing a lease. All documents and activity are housed within that customer's profile. It is the cleanest and most efficient method of leasing that I've encountered.
Cons
- The biggest con that I can think of is that some functions are not as intuitive as they should be (while still being more intuitive than most competitors, if I'm being honest). Processes such as transferring a resident to a new unit, changing lease dates, or adding a new contact to an account can be exceedingly complicated.
- Customers can opt out of any form of information sent through Entrata. As a prospect, that makes sense. As a tenant, not so much. Management frequently shares details that are absolutely essential to customers.
Likelihood to Recommend
Entrata isn't perfect, but it is heads and shoulders above its competitors. They consistently respond to customer needs and continually add to their suite of services. The platform is attractive and was built for Google Chrome from the get-go, unlike some competitors that were stuck on Internet Explorer for years and years. That might not mean much to some, but I think it exemplifies that Entrata puts user experience first. It has a robust array of functions and I'm happy to use it.
For email marketing, Entrata is great. If you market by text message, Entrata is probably not your best bet. Customers are opted out of texts by default, so we've had to explore other avenues for mass text communications.
