Bixby | App for streamlining maintenance requests

Building repairs and maintenance can often be a point of tension between building managers and tenants. Mark Smukler, founder and CEO of Bixby believes is customisable app is the solution.

Name of product | Bixby

Price | $1/unit/month

Target | Building managers and owners

Challenge | Bixby began in 2016, when my business partner Alex Ohebshalom took over management operations at his family’s NYC real estate company. Alex quickly saw that processes were outdated, often relying on paper, phone, and fax for both internal communications as well as tenants. This created strenuous tenant-manager relationships, which led to above-average turnover, vacancy, and difficulty filling units.

Alex needed a way to offer transparency into building-related issues, efficiently communicate with tenants about building announcements and repair status, and offer online payment solutions. Alex contacted me as I have experience building software products for the real estate industry. When we couldn’t find a sufficient solution available in the market, we decided to create the solution ourselves.

Solution | Bixby helps property owners and managers save time, money, and the headaches associated with overseeing a growing portfolio of tenants by streamlining communications, payments, and other tenant-related activities in a single web and mobile app.

What we offer is a building amenity platform that makes it easy for property owners and managers to provide top-quality service to their tenants and residents. Our software enables managers to automate and organise their operations, resulting in less time and money spent on overseeing repairs, communicating with tenants, and collecting payments.

At the same time, tenants and residents benefit from a better building experience through access to on-demand services, weekly discounts and promotions, and a single platform to interface with smart-home devices. Bixby is a fully customisable virtual amenity, allowing owners and managers to tailor the experience to their property’s needs, resulting in higher retention and less turnover.

Results | Buildings that run on Bixby benefit from higher response rates and shorter response times, leading to happier tenants, higher retention, and a smaller turnover while reducing maintenance time and cost.

Simultaneously, Bixby helps third-party building managers distinguish themselves from the competition, increasing their chances of winning engagements with developers and building owners, allowing them to scale their business and take advantage of operational efficiencies brought on by our platform.

According to our clients, managers have reduced phone calls associated with maintenance, repairs, and other building-related activities by up to 80%, enabling them to oversee 2 to 3 times more units when running on Bixby. Managers who adopt our online payment portal also see an 80% reduction in the number of checks they process each month. Lastly, by keeping tenants happier, managers can save over $3k in turnover-related costs per tenant, per year.

Clients | We currently serve over 30 management companies with over 2,000 buildings, 10,000 apartments, and 15,000 tenants/residents. Some of our clients include Empire Management, MD Squared Property Group, Friedland Properties, Sandberg Management, Amac Holdings, and Pinnacle City Living.

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