Overview
This guide will walk through how accompanied (in-person) showings work in RentEngine, and how availability is determined using Smart Scheduling
Smart Scheduling
The Smart Scheduling algorithm calculates showing availability and assigns the best agent, based on 7 factors:
Agent's personal showing settings (connected Google/Outlook calendar and weekly showing windows)
Property-level weekly showing windows
Property-level Blocked Times
Company-level settings
Property-level settings
Drive time between showings (from Google Maps data)
Clustering: scheduling nearby showing at adjacent times to minimize drive time
You can think of this as a Venn Diagram. When all these factors overlap, then a showing slot is available.
Important: make sure that all showing agents have connected their Google/Outlook calendar and set their weekly showing windows
Calculating Availability
When a prospect clicks the link to schedule a showing, RentEngine uses Smart Scheduling to determine which days/times are available, and which agent(s) are available at those times.
For example, if on a given day at a give property:
the property has weekly showing windows of 9am-2pm
the property has a Blocked Time between 10am-12pm
the assigned agent has personal showing windows set for 8am-1pm
the assigned agent has another event on their connected Google Calendar between 9am-10am
the assigned agent has another showing at a different property at 10:30, which is 20 minutes away from this property
showings are 30 minutes long
Then, the available showing slots on that day would be:
12:00pm-12:30pm
12:30pm-1:00pm
Visualization of Smart Scheduling
Smart Assign
When multiple agents are assigned to a property as showing agents, make sure you have Smart Assign turned on.
Smart Assign determines the best agent for each available showing slot, based on:
Their personal showing settings (connected Google/Outlook calendar and weekly showing windows)
Other showings they have scheduled and the drive time between them
Nearby showings, so that one agent can cluster adjacent showings together
If both agents have equivalent availability based on the factors above, the system will randomly select the agent for that selected time slot.
Clustering
Smart Scheduling will automatically cluster nearby shows together to minimize an agent's drive time between properties.
For example, if an agent already has a scheduled showing at 10 a.m. at 123 Main Street, then a prospect who's interested in a showing at the nearby 456 Main Street will see preferred times of 9:30 a.m. and 10:30 a.m, in the scheduling link.
Note: We do not recommend using the weekly showings window to set individual weekly showing slots at each property (e.g. set one property to 11am-12pm; another to 3pm-4pm). Instead, let Smart Scheduling take into account the agent's actual availability and drive time between properties with clustering.
Before you start
Add all you showing agents as team members
Each showing agent needs to set their personal showing windows and connect their Google/Outlook Calendar
How to set up a property for accompanied showings
Navigate to the Properties tab
Click Take Action > Edit Property
Click Next to reach Step 2 (Showings)
Select Accompanied as the showing method
Optional: assign the property to a subteam
Choose the showing agents (and make sure Smart Assign is on)
Optional: If the property is tenant-occupied, enable showing notifications via text message by adding the tenant's phone number
Optional: Add Internal Notes, which only the agent will see to when they get to the property (like lockbox info)
Optional: Click "Show More" if you'd like to customize the Smart Scheduling settings for that property (like stacking, piggybacking, max visits)
Optional: set specific recurring weekly showing windows for the property by clicking the Weekly Showing Windows button at top right. Here you can select in blue the available weekly time slots for showings at that property. Then press Close
Based on all your settings, review the upcoming availability in the Showing Availability section
Green indicates that time slot is available for showings
Red indicates that time slot is not available for showings
The dots indicate the number of reasons why that time slot is not available. Hover over the time slot to see an explanation
Press "Next" to save and finish updating the property