resident portal

Are you constantly fielding inbound calls at your property management office? Do you find that you are spending a lot of money printing and mailing documents, event invites, or rent statements? Or, are you trying to find ways to gain the trust of your tenants and improve engagement? If you answered yes to any of these questions, then it\’s important to consider implementing a tenant portal for your apartment community. In this article, we discuss 10 reasons why a tenant portal can be a great asset for your apartment community.    

What is a tenant portal?

First, let’s consider what a tenant portal is.  A tenant portal allows tenants to log into a website and view information about the unit and community.  The portal login is personalized to an individual tenant’s experience.  The portal organizes important unit information such as financial balances, payments, work orders, and communication preferences.  It also helps a tenant get connected to the apartment community through events, documents, surveys, and other features.

10 reasons why you should provide a tenant portal

When a tenant portal consists of information your tenants find valuable, it can be a great tool for your business. Let\’s take a look at 10 reasons why you should provide a tenant portal, and how it benefits management and tenants.

1) Access to 24×7 information, anywhere

With information readily available on the internet, it is no longer a luxury to provide unit and property information online. In fact, your tenants have come to expect it. A tenant portal that is user-friendly, modern, and is mobile-responsive allows your tenants to easily access information from anywhere. 24×7 access to unit and community information anywhere gives your tenants peace of mind, so they can thoroughly enjoy the apartment-living experience.

2) Display financial balances & allow residents to make online payments

The convenience of an online payment system gives your tenants a contactless way to pay their rent on time.  The portal also provides tenants with an easy way to view their balance and ledger in real-time.

3) Encourage tenants to update their own information

Give tenants the ability to update their own information. For example, the information they should update includes phone and email address, contacts, vehicles, pets, insurance, and more.  The reason why this is so critical is so that management has accurate information when there is an emergency situation and need to send bulk messages.

4) One of the best ways to communicate with your tenants

You may already be communicating with your tenants through email, phone, and text.  The tenant portal is another way you can communicate with your tenants and keep them informed. 

5) Build a sense of community

Tenants want to have a sense of belonging in the community they live in.  Therefore, it’s important that through the tenant portal, you’re able to build a positive community culture and living experience.  

How do you build a sense of community through a resident portal?

  • Organize virtual events to bring your tenants together, get them excited to participate, and keep them connected.  Display the events in a calendar with a link to join and send them an email notification with details.  
  • Send a survey to your tenants at least twice a year to understand how they feel about your services and what you can do better to improve the experience for them. That way, your tenants know that you value their opinion and are open to doing something about it.

6) Increase transparency with your tenants

Maintaining transparent operations and communicating about what you do helps build trust in management.  The way a tenant portal helps build transparency is through keeping tenants informed about their unit and what is happening in the community.

How can you increase transparency through the portal?

  • As mentioned earlier, display financial balances in real-time so tenants can go back and see what they paid. 
  • Answer commonly asked questions or post documents about your company policy, lease agreements, amenity rules, and maintenance equipment.  
  • Communicate to your tenants regularly about what is happening in the community, work order updates, and more.

7) Generate more renewals through increased tenant satisfaction

Tenants expect to hear from management more frequently with updates they care about.  When you keep tenants informed, they will be more satisfied with your customer service.  They’ll also be more likely to renew their lease year after year if you provide consistent value to them. 

8) Save time and improve operational efficiency

A portal eliminates a lot of manual work that managers would otherwise have to do to maintain their properties and keep track of tenants.  An online payment system in your tenant portal eliminates the need for managers to go to the bank or scan checks in.  Having your tenants update their contact information decreases the chance of your messages missing the inbox and going back and forth with them to correct it.  Managers can also reduce inbound calls and emails to the office by answering commonly asked questions in the portal, sending messages, and emailing the progress on maintenance requests. 

9) Increase Net Operating Income (NOI)

As we stated earlier, a well-maintained portal reduces manual work for managers.  What if you could spend less time fielding inbound calls? What if you could save money by transitioning documents, announcements, and updates online?  Management would be able to significantly reduce operating expenses and increase the profitability or the net operating income (NOI) of the property. 

10) Impress new prospects

A well-maintained portal is a significant part of the value you promise to deliver to your prospective tenants.  Since today\’s renters want transparency and ease of access to information, a portal can provide the advantage your company needs over a competing property that may not have a portal (or a modern, easy to use portal).  

Take your apartment community experience online with Pilera

Pilera\’s integrated property management suite – communication, maintenance, customer support, and tenant portal – all work together to help you deliver the level of customer service your tenants expect and grow your company. Pilera\’s tenant portal increases tenant satisfaction through self-service features such as occupant management, online payment, work order requests, tenant directory, and more. Through the portal, managers reduce operational expenses and thus increase NOI with features such as automatic email updates to tenants, documents, knowledge base, events, and more.

To learn more about how Pilera can help you better manage properties and increase tenant satisfaction, contact us at [email protected].

Note: This article has been updated on August 16, 2022, to include the latest resident portal features in Pilera.

Giving residents the tools that they need to have an enriching experience in their community is critical to delivering good customer service.  Tools that are built with a self-service mindset enables residents to access information quickly, on any device, and with a minimal amount of help.  A self-service resident portal is just as beneficial to residents as it is to managers. It reduces calls to the office, giving managers more time back in the day to focus on other projects. As a management company, your customer service efforts will pay off with happier communities that want to retain your services for years to come. In this article, you’ll learn about 12 features within Pilera that will impress your residents while improving employee workload.

What is a Resident Portal?

A resident portal is a place for residents to log in and view important information about their community.  Residents can access documents, learn about upcoming events, and see messages that managers send them.  When residents need to request a repair in the unit, they can submit a work order and track the status.  Additionally, if residents want to make structural improvements, they can submit architectural change requests for the board\’s approval.  Portals provide residents with a convenient way to pay dues online and view their financial transactions with the community.

12 Features of a Self-Service Resident Portal

1) Resident Portal Dashboard

The resident dashboard, released in January 2020, gives residents a high-level insight into what is occurring in their unit and the community.  Residents can see their current balance, open work orders and ACRs, messages received, and packages waiting to be picked up.  The dashboard also gives residents quick access to view more information for each key metric.  Additionally, residents can update their contact information so they\’ll never miss out on important communication from the community. 

Dashboard in the resident portal

2) Manage unit information in the resident portal

Residents can gain access to and maintain their unit information all in one place.  Residents can upload unit documents for management to see. They can view the latest messages that managers have sent them and view updates on their work orders or architecture change requests.  They can also manage other occupants in the unit, and keep vehicle, alternate addresses/contacts, and pet information updated. Additionally, multi-unit owners can manage all their respective information for each unit under one login, a capability not provided by many community management platforms.

Unit document

3) Online Payment

As more residents continue to use their smartphones for everyday tasks, it’s important to provide them with flexible ways to pay their dues online.  Within Pilera, residents can make online payments to the bank of your choice or through our integrated partner Paylease. Residents can also view their balance and ledger to understand their financial history with the community.   

Online resident payments

4) Work Order Request

Giving residents the ability to submit work order requests through a resident portal will help to reduce inbound calls to your office.  Through Pilera, residents can submit work order requests for their unit as well as the common area.  In addition to adding details to the work order, residents can also attach images of the issue.  As managers work on the request, they can post updates and choose to notify the resident by email.  Pilera also provides advanced occupant permissions so you can choose how residents interact with you on their work order requests.  You can allow residents to simply view the work order ticket or allow them to post comments.  

Work order request

5) Architectural Change Request

When residents want to make structural improvements to their homes, they can submit an architectural request change ticket to get board and manager approval.  Along with details of the change, residents can also add attachments and photos.  Board members can comment on the ticket about whether they approve or reject the request, and can opt to send an email notification to residents.

Architectural change form

6) Community Directory

A way for residents to stay connected to their neighbors is through the community directory.  Residents can opt-in to share their address, email address, or phone number with the rest of the community.  Additionally, they can view other residents who have opted in to share their contact information.

Resident Directory

7) Community Document Library

Adding documents is a great way to keep your residents logging into the portal. A document library is a place for residents to securely obtain important files that their management has shared with them.  The document library is the page that residents visit the most within their community portal in Pilera. Add documents such as rules and regulations, emergency procedures, board meeting minutes, financials, additional forms, and copies of the previous month’s newsletters. Make sure to keep the document library relevant and fresh with the latest files so your residents will continually log in.   

Document Library

8) Knowledge base

The knowledge base is a searchable FAQ section where residents can find the answers they need quickly.  It\’s important to note that the knowledge base is as good as the content that you put in.  Consider adding content that answers questions your residents most frequently ask.  Also, don\’t forget to tag your articles so residents can find answers quickly.

Knowledge Base

9) Event calendar

A great way to foster engagement in your communities is through hosting events and inviting your residents to take part in them.  We hear from our clients that they also post routine information in the calendar, such as maintenance alerts or trash pickup. The event calendar in Pilera helps you to handle the event details and notifications in a single place instead of in an external calendar provider.  Residents can log in and filter specific categories of events they\’re interested in. You can also send residents an email notification about an upcoming event so they will not miss it.

Event calendar

10) Forms

Forms are a great way to collect feedback and other pertinent information from your residents. Consider adding a resident satisfaction survey or a community improvement form so you can deliver better resident experiences. Examples of forms that you can post in the portal include condominium sales requests, election/voting, clubhouse rental, pool packets, and more.  

Forms

11) Submit support requests within the resident portal

It’s important to encourage two-way communication with your residents.  Making it easy for your residents to contact the management company when they have a question or concern is the best way to do that.  Within Pilera’s resident portal, residents can submit a support request and get updates without calling the office.  Managers can assign support requests to other staff, set a due date, and prioritize the task. Furthermore, to increase communication, managers and residents can add comments to the request and receive email updates.

Note: The Resident Support Ticket feature is included in the Help Desk product. When integrated with Pilera\’s Resident Portal, residents can submit and track their support requests.

Support ticket feature in resident portal

12) Community Communications

Good communication is at the heart of all successful communities. Studies have shown that resident satisfaction increases when their community keeps in touch with them through frequent community updates. Pilera makes it easy to communicate in your resident\’s preferred method of communication and language. Residents can choose from phone, email, text, or postal mail to receive communications. They can also choose from 100+ languages for email and text as well as English and Spanish for phone calls. Within the portal itself, residents can view a history of all communications you have sent to them. Additionally, filtering capabilities enable by message type and year enable residents to quickly find the message they\’re looking for.

Conclusion

Through these 12 self-service resident tools within the portal in Pilera, management companies are better positioned to improve their customer service operations so they can deliver constant value to their communities.  Keeping the portal up-to-date will ensure that your residents always stay happy and informed and that communities will continue to renew your services for years to come.  


About Pilera

Pilera Software is the premier community and property management suite that has helped thousands of community managers and back-office personnel enhance communications, improve customer service, and increase operational efficiency.  May we help your community achieve these success stories?  Try Pilera today!

An image of a homeowners association.

At Pilera Software, our goal is to give our clients a seamless experience managing their daily community tasks every day.  As we reflect on the year gone by, it’s been a great one in terms of providing new experiences and functionalities. Additionally, our customers achieved many exciting milestones in the app.  We’ve seen impressive growth in many features that were highly requested by our customers in the past few years. Feedback from our customers and understanding of the industry helps us to continually develop new functionality to bring our customers closer to their community management goals.  In this article, we present a count-down of the features that made it to the top 5 list.

5. Less Stress with Communication+

With many diverse communities that our clients manage, we understand that our clients need versatile ways to connect with their residents.  Through Pilera’s new Communication+ product, managers can now meet those unique needs with more ways to convey at a more affordable price.

4. More Engaging Resident Portal

Resident engagement is critical to a community’s success.  To help our management company clients offer their clients unique services and increase satisfaction, Pilera released new functionality such as unit-level document management and a built-in event calendar.  We also released many enhancements in the resident portal to improve resident’s experience with the login, community directory, and new document library.

3. Web Portal on Your Phone

One of the biggest visual and user experience changes in Pilera occurred in the middle of 2019 with the release of a brand new portal experience for mobile devices.  This new experience provides managers and residents with an easier way to take their tasks and community information on the go.

2. Data-Driven Reports

Management companies rely on performance data to make well-informed decisions for the short and long-term.  Keeping the need for more powerful insights in mind, Pilera set to build brand new reporting options to help managers make important decisions on client profitability, acquisition, staffing, budgeting, and more.   

The number one feature from 2019 is one that came highly requested from our customers and we’re thrilled to share what it is.  To read more about the #1 feature, download our 2019 Annual Pilera Ebook!  

Download the 2019 Annual Report!

To start the new year, we’ve released some new exciting updates in the resident and board member portal.  These updates to the portal include a new home page when logging in and easier-to-use navigation. The new resident and board member portal aims to enhance the resident experience in the portal with visibility to important information and quick links to direct them to what they need.

What are these new updates all about?

Visibility into the community and unit information

When residents and board members log into the portal, they will be greeted by the dashboard that provides a high-level summary of what is occurring in the community and within their own unit. Residents can view open work orders, architecture change requests, packages that are awaiting pick-up, new messages in the past month, and open office hours for the day. Beneath each metric is a direct link to access that page for more details.

Update communication preference easily

Maintaining up-to-date contact information is critical so that residents and board members can be informed of important events happening in the community.  In the dashboard, the resident will see the phone number, email address, and text number they have on file with their community. The dashboard also provides quick links to update contact information and communication preference.  The preferred method of communication is denoted by a blue color in comparison to other contact methods, which are displayed in gray color. If the email address or text number is invalid, the dashboard will display an error message and the resident or board member can correct it.    

Make payments online and view the balance

The new dashboard provides residents and board members with access to their outstanding balance so that they can make a payment. The “Make a Payment” link right beneath the balance will direct them to the payment service to pay the dues.

Additional visibility for board members

In addition to the above metrics, board members will also gain a high-level view of the tasks and architecture change requests that are currently open in the community.

A more intuitive navigation

We’ve also improved the navigation structure to enhance the portal experience and make it easier to find information.  The new navigation items are Dashboard, Your Info, Unit, Community, Website, and Contact. Residents can manage their profile information through the Your Info tab.  They can also view and manage information pertaining to their home through the Unit tab, and view important information such as documents and events in the Community tab.  The website tab directs them to their community website. Through the Contact tab, residents and board members can send management a message.


About Pilera

Pilera Software is the premier community and property management suite that has helped thousands of community managers and back-office personnel enhance communications, improve customer service, and manage compliance and operations.  May we help your community achieve these success stories?  Book a demo to see how Pilera’s community management suite can help your company. 

Increasing resident engagement is one of the most important functions in community management, yet one of the most challenging.  To empower our clients in bringing more engagement to their community and building relationships with new potential communities, we’ve released a new feature called the resident and board member dashboard.

What is the new resident and board member dashboard?

The dashboard provides residents and board members with a live snapshot of imporant things occurring in the community and within their unit.  Residents can get access to metrics such as their outstanding financial balance, the number of messages in the past month, open work orders, waiting packages, and more.  Board members gain additional information such as the number of tasks and architecture change requests. Learn more about the resident and board member dashboard in our January release.

Benefits of the resident and board member dashboard to community management:

Provide a more intuitive self-service area for residents

The resident and board member dashboard serves as a new home page when logging into the web portal.  With the resident dashboard, you can empower residents with important community and unit information they need, on the go.  The dashboard packs current information in one place, from open work orders to messages they received this month.

Maintain current resident contact information

Having the most current resident contact information helps managers ensure they can successfully reach out to residents and send them important information when needed.  The dashboard provides residents with instant access to their contact information and preferred communication method. If a resident’s text number or email address is invalid, they will be informed of that in the dashboard and they can correct it.

Access balance information quicker

With the new dashboard, residents can access their outstanding balance much quicker and in fewer clicks than before.  This makes it easier for them to submit their online payments on time and management can collect dues faster.

Keep board members informed

In addition to having instant access to their unit information, board members will also gain a high-level overview of the tasks and architecture change requests that are open for their community.  

Board Member Dashboard

Gain new association clients

When an association looks to employ a new management company, the distinction between the winning management company and alternatives is transparent operations and high visibility into community information.  The resident dashboard as a part of your community management portal can be an essential selling factor when pitching to new association clients. Board members and residents alike will be kept informed of live information pertaining to their community and home with payment balances, open work orders, and the latest communications all in one place.

With a live snapshot of their community and unit in one place, residents will be more informed and satisfied.  Managers can start to see more resident engagement and reduced calls to the office as residents have a more intuitive self-service area. 


About Pilera

Pilera Software is the premier community and property management suite that has helped thousands of community managers and back-office personnel enhance communications, improve customer service, and manage compliance and operations.  May we help your community achieve these success stories?  Book a demo to see how Pilera’s community management suite can help your company. 

Greetings,

We have two new exciting updates as we\’ve entered in the new year and decade.  These two new features are designed to enhance the resident experience in their community portal.  Read on to learn more about these updates and some enhancements and fixes to Pilera\’s community management platform this month.

New Features

Resident Dashboard

The resident dashboard provides residents and board members with a current snapshot of what is occurring in the community as well as with their unit in one place.  Each time the resident or board member logs into the portal, they will be greeted by the resident dashboard.

Information residents will see include:

  • Contact information such as phone number for calls and text messages, and their email address. If their contact information is not listed in the portal, they can choose to add it easily. This section shows an indicator of which contact method is preferred versus which is not. Residents will also be alerted in the app if their email or text number is invalid.
  • A quick link to the resident’s profile.
  • The current open balance, a link to make a payment, and a link to view the balance and ledger.
  • The number of open work orders.
  • The number of common area work orders.
  • The number of new messages in the past month.
  • The number of packages waiting to be picked up.
  • The number of open architecture change requests in the past month.
  • Office Hours – View today’s office hours, a link to view all office hours, and a link to contact management.Resident dashboard

Board members also gain access to additional information in their dashboard:

  • The number of open tasks in the community.
  • The number of open architecture change requests in the community.Board Member Dashboard

Event Calendar in Easysites Community Website

Managers can add the new event calendar directly into the Easysite, Pilera’s community website platform.  Furthermore, they can manage all event details such as editing the event or sending notifications from the website and it will be synced back to the portal.  Residents visiting the community website can log in and view the events.   

Enhancements

  1. In the December 2019 update, we released the Ticket Analytics Report.  In this month’s release, we have made some improvements to the speed. Reports that previously took a few hours to be built are now done in a few seconds.
  2. Managers can now enter in one or many custom email addresses to the Master Report and Ticket Analytics Report to send the report to individuals as opposed
    to just the predetermined group of users.

    Custom emails for master report and ticket analytics report.

  3. We’ve improved the speed of receiving emails when creating or updating tickets.
  4. Previously, managers needed to add a comment when reassigning a ticket to another manager.  Now, they can reassign the ticket without adding a comment. Additionally, the new assignee will receive an email notification on their new ticket and the previous assignee will receive an email notification informing them they are no longer assigned to the ticket.
  5. The start and end date now include not just tickets created in that date range, but also those last modified in the date range, closed in the date range, or scheduled (targeted) t to be completed on that date range.
  6. The knowledgebase articles have now been set to alphabetize before the user conducts a search.

About Pilera

Pilera Software is the premier community and property management suite that has helped thousands of community managers and back-office personnel enhance communications, improve customer service, and manage compliance and operations.  May we help your community achieve these success stories?  Book a demo to see how Pilera’s community management suite can help your company. 

Turning prospective HOA and condo associations into clients can be overwhelming and pose a challenge for management companies.  With the property management market becoming more consolidated and saturated with many players, small and mid-sized management companies are finding it difficult to compete.  Many management companies who have lost out on associations learned that upon asking their communities about their decision-making process, the associations loved what they did, but another company had resident-facing software that they needed.  A resident-facing software can prove to a powerful selling factor and give companies an edge over the competition.  Pilera Software is one such management platform that empowers HOA and condo companies to gain more prospective clients by providing them with management and resident tools to more efficiently operate the community. 

Self-service resident portal

In the age of digital information, residents expect to receive up-to-the-minute news and perform various tasks quickly.  Residents will appreciate having a self-service resident portal that allows them to manage updates and occupants in their unit, pay their dues on time, submit service requests, get instant answers from a knowledge base.  This central portal also helps them to stay connected to the community through upcoming events, communication, and the resident directory.

Customer service

Customer support operations are at the heart of any community operation.  Quality customer service results in happy residents and board members that will want to retain your services in the long-run.  Pilera’s help desk product helps managers to stay on top of customer support through ticket creation, assignment, and follow-up dates to ensure nothing falls through the cracks.  The ability to collaborate on a ticket ensures that correct information and direction are being given whereas comprehensive audit tracking keeps everyone knowledgeable on a support ticket.

Property and common area maintenance

One of the most important functions of a community manager is to maintain or increase property values through the specific units (association-responsible) and common area maintenance.  The tracking of work orders from creation to completion allows managers to stay organized and accountable for their work while keeping their co-workers and residents in the loop.  Email notifications to residents reduce calls to the office and allow managers to work on more important projects for the community they’re managing. 

Do you have the tools right for you?

Many of our clients have shared their experience using Pilera’s suite of community management tools and say that the tools have made it easier for them to have a conversation with prospective associations and eventually land their business.  Having the right set of tools that is available 24×7, customizable, and reliable is vital for enhancing your customer support operations and meeting resident expectations. To learn more about how Pilera can benefit your communities today, connect with us at [email protected] or read more about our client’s success stories.

With information being readily available on the web, residents expect to obtain answers to their questions quickly.  According to Hubspot, at least 5.8 billion searches are conducted per day and each person performs 3-4 searches every day.  With more individuals relying on digital platforms to get instant answers, it’s become crucial to develop a knowledge base that serves as the community’s own search.  For this month’s Manager Toolkit, we provide five helpful tips to make your knowledge base a powerful one-stop-shop for all community Q&A’s.

What is a knowledge base and how is it useful for community/property management?

Pilera’s knowledge base is a searchable, online help center/FAQ section.  A well-built knowledge base’s purpose can be two-fold: 

  1. Provide residents with the answers they need, increasing their satisfaction with management and their community.  Also, empowering residents to obtain answers themselves reduces the volume of calls and emails queued at the management office.
  2. Serve as an internal FAQ for community managers and board members to assist them with customer support operations.  The knowledge base can also be a powerful training tool for incoming managers and board members.

Tips to create a powerful Knowledge Base:  

1) Phrase the question the way residents/staff would search for it

Before you start writing your knowledge base article, put yourself in the shoes of the resident or staff member searching for information.  How do they ask you questions over the phone? How residents phrase their questions is key to providing an excellent search experience. Adding “What is the guest policy” or “Guest policy” within the title or content will improve the likelihood of residents finding that article in the search results.

2) Add a table to display information

Tables can be added within Pilera’s content editor to convey complex information to residents or staff. Examples include equipment warranty, maintenance responsibility chart/matrix, maintenance contacts for residents, a list of all emergency community contact information, and more. You can format the table to create a professional look with borders, text alignment, cell alignment, text colors, background colors, and more.

3) Categorize with tags

In each knowledge base article you create, you can add tags that will be visible on the right-hand side of the search. Residents/staff can simply select a tag and then all articles with the tag will display. Your residents and staff will appreciate just how easy it is to find the answers they are looking for. Try to keep tags generic such as “Guest Policy”, rather than “# of Guests allowed on the property”. This allows you to maintain a clean look in the knowledge base, provide a good search experience, as well as allow for multiple articles to display for one tag.

4) Set permissions for articles

In Pilera, managers can set permissions for articles to restrict content by the type of user. Permissions help ensure that your knowledge base content is relevant to the resident searching answers. For example, you can restrict lease-related content to only tenants. There are three main permissions for knowledge base articles in Pilera: Anonymous, Owners, and Tenants. If you wish to maintain certain articles for internal purposes only, you can do so by not selecting a resident type and only managers will see the article.

5) Keep adding relevant content, get residents coming back for more!

Once you’ve built the knowledge base, don’t just stop there. Continue to build a list of questions that you receive from residents and create articles to address them. If one resident is asking a particular question, chances are high that other residents will have that question too. Furthermore, keeping your knowledge base content fresh improves resident satisfaction and engagement – they’ll keep coming back to the portal for more!

Implement a knowledge base today!

The knowledge base is a great tool to educate homeowners, tenants, board members, and managers about the community and its policies.  A knowledge base that is built well will keep your residents happy, informed, and they’ll come back to the portal for more information.  Your managers will also appreciate the decline in calls, which will give them more time to allocate to more important community projects.    

Video: Deliver better customer service today with Pilera Help Desk


About Pilera

Pilera Software is the premier community and property management suite that has helped thousands of community managers and back-office personnel enhance communications, improve customer service, and manage compliance and operations.  May we help your community achieve these success stories?  Book a demo to see how Pilera’s community management suite can help your company. 

Resident using mobile & tablet for work orders and transaction history

After upgrading our community and company websites to a mobile-friendly version, we’re happy to announce that we’ve just released a new mobile version of our web portals for managers and residents!  The high level of usage of our portals on a mobile device and requests from clients and residents alike prompted us to transform our portals into a mobile experience. The mobile responsive web portal offers a more intuitive layout which is easy to use and navigate.  Although Pilera’s portal software has a new look and feel to it, all functions remain in the same place! In this post, we share what makes our mobile responsive web portals special.

“Not another app!”

Do you often find yourself asking “Why do I have to download another app?”  Chances are, you’ve already downloaded countless apps on your phone like messaging, social media, email, retail, travel, and other apps.  Not to mention the amount of storage space it takes on your phone each time you download another app. One of our favorite aspects of the new mobile responsive web portals is that it’s “not another app” you have to download.  You can access Pilera’s web portals through any browser of your choice and even access it from your phone screens with this pro tip.  

Many modern smartphones now give users the capability to save a website that they frequently visit on their home screen.  The directions may vary based on your browser:

  • Chrome: Open the browser and tap on the three vertical dot icon.  Select the “Add to Home screen” option.  You will be prompted to add a title so that you can easily locate the site later.  Once that\’s done, click “Add”.
  • Firefox: Open the browser and tap on the three vertical dot icon.  Tap the “Page” option and then select “Add Page Shortcut”.  It\’ll also show you a preview of what the site\’s icon would look like.  Then, tap on “Add”.
  • Safari: Open up the browser and then tap on the share button at the bottom of your screen.  Tap on “Add to Home screen” and give it a title of your choice.

Then, navigate to your home screen, tap the icon you just added, and you\’re all set to go!  Take a look at what the icon looks like on an Android phone:

Adding Pilera to your home screen

A faster way for residents to get connected to the community

Residents are constantly on their toes balancing work, family time, their home, and their involvement in the community.  Thus, it’s essential for them to have easy access to community information so they can fully enjoy being a part of the community.  We found that many residents were previously using Pilera’s web portal on their smartphones or tablets and some found it difficult to navigate.  With the new mobile experience, residents can now log into the portal on any device to see messages, work orders, financials, events, make payments, and more.

Resident mobile experience

Managers can take all of their tasks on the go

In a fast-paced work environment, community and property managers need to be able to perform their tasks with agility.  Whether managers are on the field, at a conference, a client meeting, or on a vacation, they’ll always be able to perform their tasks smoothly.  Managers can do everything they currently do from managing operations to delivering great customer support, just through a much easier interface and on any device.  

New beautiful look

The web portal has a new upgraded design and we’re confident you’ll find it to be intuitive and easier to navigate.  Our mobile-responsive website has all of the same functionality that management staff and residents are familiar with, located in the same place.  

The mobile responsive portals is a significant project our team has been working on for the past few months and we’re excited to be finally bringing this to you!  We’re confident that you’ll love the new look and that it’ll take your experience to another level. If you have any questions or want to share your thoughts on the new look of Pilera and the mobile experience, please let us know at [email protected].