Rentler is a complimentary software designed for Landlords and Tenants, fostering improved collaboration between both parties. This platform enables landlords to list properties, review prospective tenants, and receive payments through one interface. Similarly, tenants can explore listings, apply, submit payments, and lodge maintenance issues all from one convenient website.
Background
After overhearing our support team take similar calls about already claimed property I investigated and found that one of our biggest deterrents of onboarding and retaining clients went unnoticed.
Approach
I worked closely with support and reached out to users to fully understand and vet the problem.
I calculated the costs to the business in potential loss of future client spend and support call time. I leveraged what we had available to us at the time to keep overhead and scope small.
Outcome
Re-purposed a system that had little use and provide significant value to both customers and support.
Allowed users to continue prepping their account and listings while giving support time to review and protect against fraud.
The Problem
The point of landlords coming to Rentler is so they can add their rental properties to their accounts, create listings, and ultimately rent out their property to trusted and reliable tenants. During discovery, I found a major roadblock for new customers coming onto the platform being blocked within 10 minutes of signing up.
Discovery
Listening in on Support calls
Being a small team we all worked within a small office space. One day I had been hearing a lot of calls from support regarding claimed properties. I noticed a pattern and began asking questions. I quickly learned that this is one of the biggest support call issues. Hours are lost every day in responding, verifying, and reassigning properties.
8,571 support tickets had been logged in our support system and each one needed to be vetted out on the call with one of our three support agents.
8571
Support Tickets
3 Total
Support Reps
“I tried to use Rentler but I couldn’t get past the first page. I contacted support but I didn’t hear back for a few days. In the meantime I found an alternative and had my property listed before ever hearing back from Rentler.
Aaron Adams
DIY Landlord
Interviews
During this phase of the project, I conducted in-person user interviews with various internal members and a few external landlords to build a case and inform the design.
* Number 1 reported customer call.
* We were losing business to our competitors.
* We had lost big management companies because of the ongoing problem.
Reviews
Unblock Landlords & Property Managers
Flagging potential issues while still allowing users to create listings will prevent users from knowing there is a problem and allow time for them and support to prepare the account.
Prevent Fraud & Protect Landlords and Tenants
Blocking an account from publicly publishing their listings and/or sharing content until it is verified will not only waste the time and effort of the scammers but prevent them from trying again.
Free up support & streamline their process
With many other issues with payments, advertising, and general setup questions, this solution should free up the customer support teams to better handle more urgent needs.
Why is it blocked in the first place?
Free listings
Users will duplicate accounts and properties to get more free listings from the two free listings allowance.
Scammers
Scammers will claim properties as their own to get through the system and utilize payments to conduct fraudulent activity.
Listing manipulation
Users will create multiple accounts and listing for the same properties to play “king of the hill” (Always appear at the top) within the listings platform.
Transferring the Account?
Nope
Could we simply transfer the account over to the new owner and keep everything in tact (listings, properties)?
Unfortunately NO, Transferring accounts would be a very difficult task for devs. Removing and storing sensitive data and the possibility of mixing account information.
Flagging in Admin
YES
Could we flag the user in the admin but allow them to proceed until blocked by an admin?
YES! When the user adds a property that has already been claimed they are currently flagged in the system but instead of blocking them up front, we could block them before publishing.
This would still allow access to the site but are not allowed to post listings or create payments until it has been resolved.
Changing Profile Info?
Nope
Could we simply change the name on the account from the old owner to the new one?
Again NO, Keeping the data integrity and sensitivity of the information intact prevents us from altering historical or present data. The system also wasn’t originally architected to handle the lift it would take to process the requests. This option would be pretty costly in time and resources.
Additional questions:
Should we still inform them upfront of the claim issue but allow them to move forward?
No, Better not to worry them with something that may be resolved before the intended action.
Should we inform them when they try to activate the listing or set up payments if the review is not resolved by the admin by then?
Yes. At this point, the effort has been made on the user's part and if the claim has not been resolved then a call into support would be needed to expedite the removal of the restriction.
The double-claimed property will be flagged in the admin system for further review and once the admin has cleared the account that user will be able to continue as normal.
Prototyping
Repurpose and Reuse
Current underutilized support admin system
Our current admin system was more for handling reports of abuse or potentially fraudulent payment activities. By using this as a base we can add additional features to enhance the support team's needs.
Not a Priority
With a backlog of priorities and roadmaps stretched I decided to utilize much of what we already had in place instead of redesigning or adding too much functionality.
Before
This page within the admin system was used to watch and alert to fraud
Sketch
I sketched out a proposed a new layout and flow for all watch items including claimed properties, fraud, payment issues and support claims that may come up.
Mock
Using existing UI elements I put together what it would look like and how it would function. Again, to save time we were using existing UI to rectify the situation quickly.
I took the design to a next level on my own time to clean up some of the elements and table layout. Whether it is an internal system or external I believe it should look and act professional and clean.
