A software integrators guide to concierge software

Software as a service (SaaS) companies have exploded in recent years. In our personal lives, companies such as Netflix and Spotify have transformed music and video consumption. In a professional setting, services such as Dropbox, Slack and Zoom have transformed productivity, while others such as Adobe Photoshop have risen to prominence because of their specialism.

These famous examples have driven an overall desire in all of us to be able to expect new innovations and the property sector is no different. The result has been the proliferation of new ideas and investment into the startup scene. There are now nearly 10,000 global proptech businesses, with approximately 2,000 based in the US, 1000 in the UK, 500 in Australia and 50 in New Zealand (see Unissu).

A need to move with the times

This market opportunity has naturally increased the competition within the proptech space, creating a form of “Digital Darwinism” as coined by Tom Goodwin. The majority of Proptechs are SaaS businesses that rely on scale and only those with the most adapted solutions thrive. Consequently, surprisingly few achieve the notoriety required to protect their long term survival.

You’re likely to be drawn to this article because of this. You may have already considered every way to build new features within your software and are now looking to add value by investigating how to integrate complementary protech solutions within your own software. 

You're also likely to be aware that evaluating thousands of startups is highly inefficient. Many will be offering a service that isn’t relevant to your users, while others will be in the process of establishing product/market fit. Furthermore, the scene is evolving all the time with daily new entrants and acquisitions.

The value of concierge software

One area that you’re probably less familiar with is concierge software. It’s perhaps not a surprise as very few proptech businesses operate in this space. As we’ll cover later on, this is because concierge software is not easy to create despite the value that it brings.

You may be familiar with the term concierge when you visit a hotel or if you live in a block of serviced flats. If you are, then the concierge may have helped you to settle in. This is essentially the role that concierge software plays if you were moving house. 

Having said that, the value that it brings is much greater than a typical concierge experience. This is because the software help people to connect their utilities, update their address and browse home services at once and for free. This saves them considerable time, gives them peace of mind and helps them to benefit from the best offers. 

Typically, the software is used directly by property professionals who use it to build closer relationships with their customers and gain commissions at the same time. In other instances, it’s easier for them to work through existing software tools that they use more prominently. By doing so, they can access the software all within one platform, without having to duplicate data entry from one system to another. 

This may make it particularly attractive for you as it enhances the ‘stickiness’ of your software. Your users gain additional value. You also develop an additional income stream. Every time a customer is serviced through the system to move, you’ll automatically receive a commission and so will the professionals that use your platform.

How concierge software works

As explained earlier, concierge software provides great value to people in the moving process but few proptech are focused on this area. This is because many things have to come together to provide a perfect experience for them. 

For a start, to be valuable, people moving need to receive an experience online or by phone that they value and trust. This requires excellent customer service and an exceptional digital experience. They then require access to major marketplace of home service providers, which take many years to create. And finally, they need to feel that everything is being taken care of behind the scenes. This requires a company reputation built on customer feedback over many years. 

For professionals, the same rules apply. They require an online platform that fits seamlessly with how they manage their customer relationships, a way to see the success of their campaigns, manage multiple users within their own business and also distribute automated payouts.

What makes Movinghub a market leader

Movinghub has been providing concierge software since 2010 and the Movinghub platform has a number of unique features that make it attractive to property professionals and the people the people we help to move. These features also make Movinghub an attractive option for proptech looking to integrate the software via our API.

• Customer service

  The people that we help to move are our absolute priority. They are the reason the service exists and they must exceed their expectations in every area to continue to be successful. We also continually take on board feedback and innovate our digital and phone experiences. This commitment is reflected in our reviews, which we take great pride in.

• Automated commissions

  We bring together movers with service providers. By doing so, service providers dramatically reduce their marketing costs and instead offer movers the most competitive deals. They also pay us a commission, which we like to share with the property professionals and integrators involved (see how we make money).

• Using your own brand

Integrators and property professionals are able to offer Movinghub under their own brand. This means they can change the logo, colours, copy and even create their own microsites to offer the service as their own.

• Realtime reporting

The transparency with which we show everything that happens through the platform is especially attractive to property professionals. Our dashboards show the amount of people being contacted, conversion rates and more. These can then be easily filtered based on a number of factors.

• Independence

Our independence means that we offer service providers objectively to people using the service. This means that our only focus is to provide the best service that we possibly can.

Anything we’ve missed? 

We hope this has provided you with sufficient information into concierge software and how you can benefit by integrating it for your users. If you’d like to learn anything more, then please feel free to get in touch or schedule a demo. Alternatively, you may want to start now. You may also consider subscribing to our email updates to keep on top of the latest proptech comings and goings.