Before MyTown’s first coliving building came online nearly a decade ago, our management team reached out to a number of third-party vendors to purchase a turn-key property management system for its coliving operations. But since coliving was still at its infancy in 2012, and its operations are neither like that of a hotel nor quite a condominium corporation, there were no systems on the market that provided a good fit or the necessary focus on coliving’s key selling points – flexibility and community.

Absent an off-the-shelf solution, MyTown hired a full- stack team of developers and coders and set out to build one of the first coliving management systems around. Its teams created the system architecture by undertaking a detailed review of a tenant’s journey in MyTown, identifying tenants’ touch-points with the business and automatable back-office processes that enable a lean administrative team. The outcome is a proprietary IT system, tailor-made for coliving, that makes use of modern-day internet solutions, lets tenants connect to MyTown directly and conveniently and really brings the MyTown community together.

Moreover, to the teams running MyTown, the system provides critical business insights and transparency which to this day help maintain a high service level, ensure quick tenant response times and provide critical insights into tenants’ behaviour and needs that enable MyTown to innovate continuously.

‍

Support throughout the tenant journey

The virtual ‘guardian’ that guides a tenant’s life at MyTown is the MyTown Mobile smartphone application. Available on iOS and Android, all new tenants download and receive access to the MyTown Mobile app upon contract signing.

The MyTown Mobile app, which got a new look last November, is a tenant’s one-stop-shop for all community and support-related help, no matter if you are on-the-go or in the comfort of your MyTown room. On the app, a Townee can revisit their contract terms and extend their stay, review and pay their dues - either through an online portal or by uploading proof of offline payment - book requests such as housekeeping or maintenance, sign up to tenant events, book a seat in a MyTown movie theatre or a slot in its karaoke rooms, answer surveys and re-read any of MyTown’s push notifications.

These push notifications also serve as simple reminders around contract renewals, upcoming events and payment status, but also include links to regular tenant surveys, warnings about incoming inclement weather, or tips and other coliving hacks.

Recently, MyTown Mobile proved invaluable in ensuring MyTown’s education, mitigation, preparation and communication plan around COVID-19 was circulated and understood by all tenants. It was used as MyTown’s main source of information around all coronavirus related communications, together with a dedicated website and posters throughout its buildings. As a result, MyTown has had zero in- borne coronavirus infections within its premises, and was able to keep its buildings open throughout the Philippines’ year-long quarantine.

The back-end of the MyTown Mobile app also includes an on-site staff version of the app, as well as a cloud- based desktop version for back-office staff that together automate many tedious back-office functions. These include invoice calculation and sending, reading of unit utility meters, management of tenant reminders, staff resource allocation and other functions that enable MyTown to have a lean back-office.

‍

‍

Live dashboard unlocks ownership and business acumen

With 18 buildings and 4,800 beds under management, it is crucial for MyTown to have a virtual dashboard that provides a simple overview of its operations. Live data from the MyTown Mobile app, as well as MyTown’s back-office system, is integrated and converted into an easy-to-digest, live company snapshot.

On MyTown’s dashboards, the company can see a variety of key business metrics, such as:

• Leasing and sales: Current and trending occupancy per building, contract renewal
  rates and a forecast of transfers, arrivals and departures. These help the leasing department to project occupancy and thereby forecast its leasing efforts. Renewal rate trends help anticipate any seasonality, as well as highlight possible issues.
• Cash flows and utilities: Revenues per building, status of payments and trends in utility consumption help project profit and cash flows, and support budgeting efforts. Moreover, they provide insights that MyTown uses to educate tenants, such as ways to reduce electricity consumption during the Philippines’ hot summer months, or reminders around bill payments.
• Tenant demographics and profiling: Demographics help the business create a wide range of profiles on the types of people who choose to become part of the MyTown community, which helps MyTown’s marketing efforts. Average revenue per customer helps leasing and marketing compare the cost of acquisition and retention, aside from a tenant’s valuable participation in the coliving community.
• Requests and performance: An overview of live tenant requests and the average time it takes each department to handle those requests, automatically categorised per department, provide insights into recurring requests, for which management finds structural solutions to avoid these repeating. The speed with which tenants’ requests are dealt with, and the rating tenants give the handling officer, are helpful feedback to departments and their teams and form a basis for performance reviews and personal development plans.

‍

‍

Other trackers include productivity rates of housekeeping and repair and maintenance teams, and live connectivity of internet lines and individual access points throughout our buildings. The dashboard is prominently displayed on TVs in each of MyTown’s offices to give each employee business transparency, a sense of ownership and an understanding around how their work contributes to the business.

Over the years, the insights from this dashboard have resulted in numerous process and product improvements that have been recommended by colleagues from all layers in the organisation. It also creates a sense of pride and responsibility to - and belonging with - the business and its performance.

At its core, MyTown remains an “offline” community, where interaction and engagement are fostered through in-person interaction in real common spaces and amenities. This is important, as urban loneliness is at an all-time high during the pandemic, and coliving has shown to help alleviate loneliness.

By embracing the advantages that digital innovations and fintech platforms can bring, MyTown has created both savings in its administrative expenditure, as well as a low hurdle for its community to engage with each other online and offline. Recent MyTown events that are now held online due to the coronavirus show thousands of tenants and non-tenant viewers wanting to share Christmas and New Year’s together. Especially in a time of social distancing, having an online platform to share experiences is more important than ever.

‍