Chainels product round-up 2023: Enhancing communication, problem solving and event management

It's been an exciting year at Chainels. Since the announcement of our Series-A investment in January, our product team has been hard at work making the platform bigger and better than ever.

But we’re not the only ones who’ve been busy. Over 120,000 people have used our platform in 2023 to….

• Submit 90,000 request forms
• Register 52,000 turnover reports
• Share 43,000 posts of their newsfeeds
• Exchange 30,000 messages 
• Raise 35,000 tickets to property staff
• Organise 4,500 events
• Receive 23,000 bookings for amenities and services. 

Throughout the year, we also introduced a series of updates aimed at simplifying and enriching these user interactions across our platform.

From streamlined issue reporting to dynamic event organisation and secure communication channels, our focus has been on empowering our users.

In this blog post, we take a deep dive into some of the key product updates of 2023. 

Internal Comments for Issue Reporting

No matter the size of your organisation, work order management can be a major point of friction if not handled correctly.

If work orders for repairs and maintenance cannot be properly tracked and managed, tasks pile up and the tenant experience suffers.

That’s why Chainels developed a sophisticated Issue Reporting module in the first place: to make the entire process much smoother.

But there was still the issue of communication. To solve problems effectively, tenants, stakeholders and property managers need to talk in a productive manner. But all too often, such conversations are still had between scattered channels like email and Whatsapp.

So to improve the focus and dynamism of communication, we added Internal comments to our Issue Reporting module. 

• Enhanced Collaboration: With the introduction of internal comments, the Issue Reporting module has evolved into a hub for seamless communication among stakeholders. Community managers, maintenance workers, and service providers can now strategize and resolve issues efficiently without cluttering the conversation for the reporter.
  
  
• Improved Focus: The split-screen layout segregates internal communication from public discourse, ensuring clarity and a targeted approach towards issue resolution.
  
  
• Secure File Sharing: The capability to upload internal attachments further streamlines information flow while safeguarding sensitive documents.

Curious to know more about our Issue Reporting module? Click here 

Chat Module

In today's property management landscape, effective communication is non-negotiable.

Our recent tenant survey found that 57% of residential tenants value good communication and responsiveness from their landlord. Almost a third also stated that their current landlord wasn’t delivering on this.

That’s why we’ve developed Chat, a tool designed to streamline tenant-landlord interactions. Accessible on both desktop or mobile, Chat simplifies communication by making it safer, more targeted and more dynamic.

Forget about juggling multiple channels like email and WhatsApp – Chat offers a consolidated, tenant-focused approach to communication. 

• Consolidated Communication: Say goodbye to scattered communication channels like email and WhatsApp. Chainels Chat offers a unified space for tenants and managers, promoting convenience and a holistic tenant experience.
  
  
• Customised Interaction: Tenants can now choose whom they communicate with, fostering direct problem-solving between managers and end-users.
  
  
• Engagement and Information Sharing: Whether it's coordinating events, disseminating policy updates, or sharing discounts, Chat acts as a dynamic tool for engagement and information distribution within the community.
  
  
• Safety and Control: Unlike external messaging platforms, Chainels Chat ensures user privacy by eliminating the need for personal data like phone numbers. Users have control over content, can easily flag inappropriate material, and opt in or out of receiving messages.

Event Bundle 

We understand the importance of events for building community, igniting collaboration, tackling loneliness and isolation and reducing tenant churn.

But we also appreciate that event planning and management is a tricky beast. Our product team took the time to understand the problems users were having, and worked to develop solutions.

What we came up with is this bundle of updates to events features. The revamped Events feature simplifies event organisation, offering greater control and clarity to organisers.

• Capacity and Registration Management: Set attendee limits and registration deadlines for better planning and management of events with limited capacity.
  
  
• Customizable Attendee Lists: Tailor attendee lists by adding custom columns, enabling organisers to gather pertinent information efficiently.
  
  
• Expanded Time Frame Options: Flexible scheduling options now accommodate events spanning multiple days or lasting the entire day.
  
  

New Integration Partners  

Aside from feature updates, we also welcomed new software partners into our integration ecosystem.

• Footfall—We’ve enhanced our product for retail properties by integrating with leading footfall data providers Quantaflow and PFM.
  
  Data from footfall tracker now gets sent directly to Chainels to be tracked and analysed in an easy-to-read graph format. This not only gives landlords extra visibility over footfall data, but allows them to share that data with tenants so they can take a more informed approach to their sales and marketing. 

• Energy reporting—We’re also excited to announce our integrations with ESG software providers Rhino, Blue Module and iqbi. These providers share data with Chainels to bring actionable insights that both landlords and tenants can act upon. Through these partnerships, we aspire to help you…
  
  
  • Involve your tenants more closely in ESG and reach your targets quicker!
  • Help tenants spend less and save energy with direct insights into energy consumption.
    
    
• Emplate—Emplate’s custom-branded shopper loyalty app now integrates with Chainels. The app enables your tenants to build a database of loyal customers, and engage them with games, discounts and content.

These updates aim to empower users, streamline operations, and foster a more connected and engaged community within the Chainels ecosystem.

Our roadmap for 2024 contains more product releases to enables payments, energy reporting and AI-assisted project management—more steps in our mission to help you make your properties more sustainable, more connected and more profitable. Stay tuned!