The holidays are quickly approaching, and with them comes a barrage of new packages arriving daily on our doorsteps.
 
Whether they’re coming from Amazon or Great-Aunt Hilda, most homeowners can handle the volume of new deliveries. But for apartment communities - where residents’ packages often end up in the hands of property management teams - the holidays can deliver a serious package pile-up problem.
 
When hundreds of residents are ordering packages that end up at the same spot, holidays can become a headache. Property management teams are faced with solving a large-scale package problem that presents a unique set of challenges.
 

Package Challenges

When a package is delivered to an apartment complex, but the resident is unavailable, it is often routed to the front office. The first challenge for management is how to store those packages.
 
Most communities have an entire room dedicated to package storage, while some use an expensive package locker system. And if the package is delivered to the resident’s door step, this can present obvious security issues.
 
The second challenge is determining how to notify residents of new packages. The most effective method occurs when, upon a package’s arrival, a property management team scans it in, which then sends out an immediate text message or email to the resident.
 
Some communities prefer to call residents directly, but this can be a more manual and time-consuming process.
 
Even when a community has an organized package storage system and effective notification process, there is still one final obstacle – getting the resident to pick up the package.
 
In today’s world, with residents constantly on the go, apartment communities are often stuck with dozens of unclaimed packages months after the holidays have passed.
 

Solving the Challenges

While most communities have rooms dedicated to package storage, many are using outdated, ineffective methods of notifying residents. Residents may go weeks without checking an email or voicemail.
 
To ensure your packages do not pile-up, it is imperative your community has a notification service that is as fast and automated as possible.
 
After years of observing communication and package delivery practices in apartment communities, our team at Epproach Communications developed an effective and streamlined method of notifying residents of new package arrivals.
 
Using our App – which can be branded as any company’s own – property management teams can send out a text message, email and App notification to a resident as soon as each new package is delivered. Better yet, property management teams can scan the package within seconds using our App, especially helpful for busy and mobile property staff.
 
But this still can leave communities with a long list of unclaimed packages. To solve this obstacle, we looked at the one defining trend for today’s apartment resident – convenience. Every new product or service – from Smart Apartments to mobile rent payments – is focused on providing the resident with a convenient living experience.
 
Our developers took this into account and added a new, unique layer onto our package delivery software – “Delivery on Demand” for residents. When a new package arrives and the resident is notified, our notification gives each resident the option to have the package delivered into his or her apartment unit for a small fee. This provides the resident with a quick and easy way to receive packages and property management teams with a way to generate significant amounts of ancillary revenue.
 
Whether your community is manually logging new packages or delivering the package directly to each resident, it’s important to solve the package pile-up problem… before the barrage of holiday deliveries begin.

Denver Hollingsworth currently serves as Epproach Communication’s Director of Marketing. After graduating from East Carolina University with a BS in Communication and a concentration in Journalism, Denver relocated to Wilmington, NC, to join the Epproach team. As Epproach has transitioned from a Managed WiFi vendor to a full-scale technology provider for the apartment industry, Denver has been responsible for all aspects of the company’s marketing, from nationwide ad campaigns and industry tradeshows to innovative social media engagement.