Location
Nationwide
Units managed
50,000+
Situation
Expanding the Power of Paperless
Serving more than 50,000 apartment communities across the nation, Fairfield recognized the inefficiencies and liabilities
associated with accepting paper rent checks in the leasing office.
Portfolio
Owned & Managed Conventional, Student
and Affordable
“Going completely paperless was a no brainer,” said Andrew Rowley, director of operations, Fairfield. “It’s 2015. Our
residents expect it. Plus, with the 48 percent of our residents who are already paying online, we’ve seen a major
uptick in the time staff have for resident retention efforts.”
Product
ResidentPay®
Paperless Program
By the end of the
training, our site
staff were ready to
be ambassadors for
the program on the
front lines.
Andrew Rowley
Fairfield Residential
The Fairfield team, with the help of the Entrata ResidentPay paperless program, was ready to close the dropbox on all 180
of its properties for good and become 100 percent paperless across its portfolio nationwide.
Approach
Getting Everyone Onboard
Fairfield understood that the key to making their paperless program a success was the cooperation and understanding of
everyone from their executive team to those on the front lines.
“The easy part was getting the buy-in of our marketing and operations teams. They had the numbers in front
of them,” said Rowley. “It’s our onsite teams that drive adoption on the front lines. They have to understand the
benefits for the community and their residents.”
1
Entrata provided onsite training for key members of Fairfield’s site staff focused on the benefits of the program, handling
resident questions and concerns and guiding residents to opt in to the program. Entrata also customized marketing
These results are
what’s possible with
a very strict and
deliberate focus
on online adoption
throughout the
company. Now
our offices have a
lot more time to
focus on resident
satisfaction,
maintenance and
everything else that
comes through the
office on a regular
basis.
collateral to help guide discussions between site staff and their residents.
“By the end of the training, our site staff were ready to be ambassadors for the program on the front lines,” said
Rowley.
To further cement everyone’s ownership in the process, Fairfield implemented a three-month contest at the beginning of
2015 to boost motivations for going paperless at all of its properties coast-to-coast. The results were posted weekly and
staff were incentivized based on the success of the program at their community.
“It all comes down to everyone uniting and driving the importance of the program home,” said Rowley. “The
training was the first step, and the contest got everyone looking at the numbers and ultimately investing in the
process.”
Results
Increased Adoption Across the Nation
After the three month push, Fairfield saw a 21 percent increase in adoption rates for all of its properties. The most
successful properties saw improvements of more than 60 percent:
Andrew Rowley
Fairfield Residential
“These results are what’s possible with a very strict and deliberate focus on online adoption throughout the
company,” said Rowley. “Now our offices have a lot more time to focus on resident satisfaction, maintenance and
everything else that comes through the office on a regular basis.”
2