White fence vs Allconnect vs Unknown

Is anyone familiar with the above utility comparison services?

We are about to contract with Allconnect, and was wondering if anyone has any feedback on this service?

FYI. Either company pays a small fee to management company if we refer them. They provide utility referals, with best price guarantee to the residents.

WhiteFence is better if you have communities in Texas as they work electric companies in this state where as Allconnect does not

Actually Allconnect does connect Electricity in Texas and in Georgia.

Whitefence has an advanced online portal and offers choice and conveniene. Whitefence will create a unique landing page for your community and the property manager can also check enrollments and get detailed reports.

However I would also recommend the property manager to contact select companies i.e AT&T, Dish, Time Warner, etc to see if they are willing to sign an exclusive markeing agreement to get an idea of the incentive difference. The Property manager may make a lot more money through a marketing agreement directly with a utility than with a third party. However choice and ease of sign up will be missing.

Electricity is deregulated in Texas and other states and depending on the type of property you manage you could get around $25 or more per referral.

Dawood,

Thanks for the heads up on the referral fees. I'll be sure to check that out when getting my tenants set up in their new digs.

I was a property manager/regional manager for many years. I'd never heard of White Fence, however, in 2003, I went to work for AT&T whereas I dealt directly with apartment communinities in OK, AR, KS and W. Texas. A previous comment was made about increasing NOI and property incomes by dealing with service providers, which is exactly what I did with AT&T.

Most telecom/data/cable providers offer a "revenue share" with apartment communities whereas they share a portion of the total billed out revenue they receive from your residents, with the property. You get a monthly check for your residents using that providers services. You agree to recommend their services to your residents. They train your leasing staffs on "how to" recommend. Most properties give out a welcome letter with a phone number to call to set up their services.

This is where my experience came in with White Fence. At AT&T, we used White Fence in our ordering processes with our apartment communities. We could easily track the results to know who was referring the most business to us. Residents could go online and transfer utilities, order phone, internet and cable services and White Fence tracked it all. I could easliy pull reports to quickly see results.

I would also have "special events" whereas I needed special fields added in the online ordering processes and White Fence was amazingly easy to contact and work with me to provide what I needed.

In today's world of trying to talk to a real person, which we all know if virtually impossible, I was delighted every time I called White Fence with a request...they actually answered the phone and immediately remedied my issues.

I dealt with White Fence on a regular basis for the 5 years I was with AT&T and from my personal experience, let me tell you....they are a great bunch of people to deal with and wouldn't hesitate recommending them over any other provider. Hope this information is helpful!

Great Discussion! I have been meaning to ask for feedback from companies that are using a utility management company. Do your customers really prefer it? Has anyone had substantial benefits in using one?

We have been with Whitefence for about a year and I am concerned that it may be compromising our dedication to customer service. Here's why: Where we have an exclusive marketing contract in place, Whitefence will only list that provider for that specific service. What we have found is that when our customers go to the portal and a vendor that they prefer to use is not available to them, they are extremely frustrated that we pushed them to use this amazing utility management portal. Our managers feel that it's one thing for us to agree to market exclusively for a provider. It's another for it to not be available at all at the point of signing up. That's like Car Max (are they still in business?) having an exclusive contract with Honda. They are to push Honda to all customers. Honda Honda Honda. Then I say, "You know, I see what you're saying about the Honda and I think you have some valid points. But, I'm gonna go with the Lexus because it's quieter and has a better sound system. And they say "I'm sorry, we will only sell a Honda"! I would even be ok if they suggested our exclusive providers first, but forced the prospect to another screen if they wanted a different provider. But to not have them available at all is compromising one of the resident's first experiences with us.

Am I wrong?
Thoughts? :unsure:

Stephanie....I hear what you're saying and I've heard the same feedback from other properties. It's my understanding that White Fence and other online ordering sites have to negotiate contracts with service providers, moving and utility companies to offer their services. I believe the service providers have to pay to advertise their services on White Fence, that is why you see larger ads for some providers.

It also depends on the agreement your management company has with White Fence as to what providers they want listed for your residents to order. When your owner/management company has an exclusive provider agreement with AT&T, for example, White Fence has to comply with what your management company allows them to advertise. The upside to this is the revenue share the property or owner receives when residents order service from that exclusive provider....thus increasing the properties NOI.

If I were you, I'd call White Fence and ask them if they have agreements in place with the other providers and if they're able to list the information on their site for your residents.

You notice that when you go online to White Fence and enter an address from your property, it takes a minute to search? It's pulling information directly related to your property.

Hope this helps.

Deeann Field

We tried contacting Whitefence 4 different times with 0 response via their website.

Allconnect got back to us on the second try.

So we signed up with Allconnect.

I will update this discussion as our relationship develops.

thanks

I had the same experience with the above poster about White Fence. I had AWFUL customer service with them. Numerous phone calls and emails went unanswered, so I ended up going with another company.

We've had the same experience as Stephanie's group above. My company has been with White Fence for almost a year now and I have some communities where none of their providers are available due to our marketing exclusives that we have in place that White Fence does not do business with. New residents log in and all they get is the option to sign up for the local newspaper So much for marketing all of our fancy online conveniences.

We've also had problems with new lease-up developments not being found in the system because the roads are new and the only way to start an account from the portal landing page is to enter your apartment's address.

I would say if you don't have any exclusives, the idea is great, the portal is very professional looking and they are pretty easy to work with.

Are there real benefits you think by using this type of service? Can this be a legitimate revenue stream for a property? Why (in your opinion) should we set something like this up?