Smart Lockers: The Answer to Operational Overload During COVID-19

Deluge of Holiday Packages Hitting Multifamily Residences

Operational efficiency overloads are just around the corner for multifamily properties. With U.S. e-commerce sales expected to rise a staggering 35% to about $190 billion¹ translating into a potential 486 packages delivered per week to multifamily properties², property management could be stretched to the breaking point. Couple those predictions with the fact that 42% of Americans are working from home, and everyday supplies that would have shipped to the office are being diverted to the home³. In short: Houston, we have a problem.

Smart Lockers as a Route to Operational Improvement

Looking for improvement opportunities to increase the efficiency of your property’s operational processes? Smart lockers are a great solution. Adopting smart lockers now prevents an operational meltdown later and places you firmly on the road to continuous business improvement. You further gain a competitive advantage by cementing resident loyalty, increasing customer satisfaction, and boosting safety protocols, while also saving your staff as much as a jaw-dropping 24 hours of labor each week! You reap the benefits of less physical and mental space devoted to parcel delivery.

Every automated component of Parcel Pending’s smart locker solution speeds up operational efficiency and provides necessary organizational structure for both package delivery and overall business operations. Whereas BC (Before COVID), your staff likely notified residents of a parcel delivery, today residents with lockers are automatically notified by email, text, or mobile app alert that a package has arrived. They are given a unique access code that they manually enter or a barcode they scan for contact-free access to their parcel. 

Streamlining Tasks with Smart Lockers

The current process, one where your employees track and sort packages, can also become a task of the past. Your team members are no longer charged with package security, signature validation, or multiple resident inquiries.

In addition, the manual task of having to constantly remind residents to pick up a package is eliminated, saving your team time and improving your business processes. These “stale” packages are automatically tracked with our intuitive suite of intelligence reporting and tracking.

Adding Value While Preventing Porch Pirates from Pinching the Parcels

Smart lockers add an extra layer of security for residents foiling potential porch pirates. Not only do lockers make residents feel safer, but they can also lift lease renewals by 40%. Hint: They also rank as the number one resident-requested amenity.

Harnessing the Power of Technology to Boost Parcel Visibility & Reduce Liability

With 1.7 million packages stolen or lost every single day in the United States, it’s critical to understand where your parcels are at all times⁴.

With our reporting system, you have access to analytics and dashboards that provide an instant summary of how your lockers are being utilized.  We seamlessly integrate with your property management software, providing even more transparency. Plus, the implementation of our system also takes you out of the liability loop and reduces the number of “disappearing” packages. This operational improvement can help significantly reduce inefficiency and increase the performance and productivity of employees.

Leveraging Smart Lockers to Maximize Customer Safety

Residents are shopping online in light of new behaviors caused by COVID, including heightened safety concerns. Reassure them that safety prevails even when picking up packages with smart lockers. With our carrier agnostic system, parcels are delivered directly into lockers without human interaction and are retrieved through contact-free pick up in as little as 10 seconds. Further, with 24/7 package retrieval options, social distancing becomes de facto for residents.

Mobile App for Continuous Improvement for Your Customers

The mobile app by Parcel Pending becomes your secret weapon for streamlining tasks and provides continuous improvement of the customer experience. Residents sign up for the smartphone app, designate their address, select if they need a locker within the disability accessibility height range, and complete the registration with their name, password, and PIN.

Residents automatically get notified that they have a parcel pending, can view their parcel history, and even set their vacation schedule so that packages are stored safely until their return and storage fees don’t accrue.

This entire suite of self-service tools allows residents to manage parcels within your facility without detracting from your employee’s primary tasks.

Customer Support that Supports Your Process Improvement

Residents in your community have 24/7/365 access to our US-based customer support team via email and phone. Since its inception in 2013, Parcel Pending has successfully delivered over 57 million packages in North America. Almost all of these deliveries required zero interaction with property management, leasing consultants, or administrative staff.

Customizable Sizes & Configurations to Meet Your Needs

It’s time to kick the image of drab, grey lockers to the curb. Parcel Pending’s smart lockers can be custom wrapped to include your logo or to perfectly match your décor ideas.

When it comes to configurations, we offer a complimentary assessment of your package workflow based on package volume and your resident count. Based on this data, we can recommend the optimum number of lockers and the best locker sizes and configuration to fit your needs.

Adding new amenities may not be at the top of most properties’ to-do list right now. But if package management has gotten out of hand, Parcel Pending is available to help. Contact a member of our sales team to find the right solution for your property.

Sources:

1. Herrera, Sebastian. The Wall Street Journal. Amazon’s Prime Day Accelerates Shift to Online Shopping. (2020, October 16). https://www.wsj.com/articles/amazons-prime-day-accelerates-shift-to-online-shopping-11602846014?mod=searchresults&page=1&pos=1.
2. Parcel Pending. Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Prime Day – Post-Pandemic Holiday Shopping Expected to Result in Record Package Volume. (2020, September 4). /en-us/blog/black-friday-cyber-monday-prime-day-post-pandemic-holiday-shopping-expected-to-result-in-record-package-volume/.
3. Wong, May. Stanford. Stanford research provides a snapshot of a new working-from-home-economy. (2020, June 29). https://news.stanford.edu/2020/06/29/snapshot-new-working-home-economy/#:~:text=We%20see%20an%20incredible%2042,working%20on%20their%20business%20premises.
4. Parcel Pending. Package Theft is a Major Issue: New York Times Reports That 90,000 Packages Disappear Daily in NYC. (2019, December 11). /en-us/blog/package-theft-is-a-major-issue-new-york-times-reports-that-90000-packages-disappear-daily-in-nyc/.