Updater

By Sara Sugar

Published Jul 12, 2018

Updated Dec 21, 2023

Sara is the former Content Marketing Manager at Updater. When not creating, editing, or tracking content, you’ll find her making chocolate, eating tacos, or planning her next excursion. She’s moved so many times in New York City that she’s lost count, seriously.

Founded by the Robbins brothers in 2009, Robbins Property Associates (RPA) is dedicated to innovative amenities and a superior resident experience. With over 49 properties and over 12,000 units, maintaining their exceptionally high standards is a challenge that RPA rises to on a daily basis. We caught up with Greer McCampbell-Hill, Marketing Director at RPA, to learn more about their dedication to their residents and how Updater helps them ease the move-in process for their residents.

What do you see as the biggest challenge for residents when moving into either a new apartment or a new community?

Frankly speaking, the moving process is not for the faint of heart. Preparing to move is one of the most stressful periods a resident will ever face, and it has an immense impact on their satisfaction when they arrive at our property. Finding reputable movers, forwarding mail, changing account information, setting up utilities, and connecting TV and internet takes days to accomplish. Updater provides residents with an easy-to-read and property-specific dashboard that helps our residents accomplish all of these tasks.

What value does Updater bring to your residents?

We know that the time between when a resident is approved and when they move-in is extremely stressful. Updater saves time and reduces stress for our residents by helping us address all of their moving needs, prior to moving day. Overall, we’ve noticed that when we help make moving easier, it results in increased resident satisfaction. Updater has been great for both us and our residents. It’s a cost-effective, user-friendly tool that immediately improves the resident’s experience at our properties.  

Property management teams are busy. What was the implementation process of Updater like for your team?

The implementation process was completely painless. I quickly completed the spreadsheet provided by Updater and had several short implementation calls to go over our setup details. Before I knew it, Updater’s impressive team finished the rest! Connecting Updater to our property management software took me less than two minutes. Our onsite teams participated in a short training call. I speak for our entire team when I say that we were extremely pleased by the ease of implementation.

How have your teams benefited from using Updater?

The most noticeable benefit is that Updater saves us time. Updater ensures our residents a well-organized move. Our teams no longer have to answer questions that always came up during the move-in process because our residents are now provided with the answers within their Updater dashboard. This more organized process frees up time for our leasing teams to focus on leasing tasks and community engagement efforts.

Taking into consideration integrations your teams have tackled over the years, in terms of the ease of onboarding, where does Updater fall?

I want to be completely honest about this question; I am 100% positive that this has been the easiest integration process that Robbins Properties Associates has ever had. There wasn’t a single point in the onboarding process where I wanted to pull my hair out. The Updater team made sure that I was knowledgeable in the product itself and the integration process. Overall, it was an impressive onboarding experience.

What would you say to property management teams that are interested in implementing Updater but are concerned that the implementation process might burden their IT team or staff as a whole?

Over the years, I think that we have all gotten burned when implementing new software. We bite off more than we can chew and instantly regret taking the leap. I am a marketing director, not a tech whiz. With the help of the Updater team, we were able to implement the system quickly and with absolutely no problems at all.

How have your residents responded to Updater?

Our residents are loving Updater. Many say that Updater is a service that they desperately needed but didn’t know existed. Recently, our reviews on property rating sites have improved and reflect a shift in our residents’ perception of our office staff’s knowledge and helpfulness. I firmly believe that Updater has been beneficial in improving resident satisfaction, even before they move in.

What excites you about the future of the industry? Are there any industry trends that you are keeping your eye on?

The multi-family housing industry is always evolving. That means that there is always an abundance of things to be excited about! I am most excited about the future technology aspect of multi-family housing. Engineers creating things like “super wood” that is 12 times stronger than natural wood and comparable to steel will eventually shift the way we construct our communities. I also believe that advances in the smart-home space will cause technology to become part of the core infrastructure and a critical competitive differentiator in apartment communities.

Sara Sugar

Sara is the former Content Marketing Manager at Updater. When not creating, editing, or tracking content, you’ll find her making chocolate, eating tacos, or planning her next excursion. She’s moved so many times in New York City that she’s lost count, seriously.