Mobile Barcode Technology Aids in Leasing Apartments
New Orleans--365 Connect, a New Orleans-based tech company that specializes in the multifamily housing industry, has released 365 Mobile Barcode Technology, which it says will become a useful new tool for both owners and tenants.
Dees Stribling, Contributing Editor
New Orleans–365 Connect, a New Orleans-based tech company that specializes in the multifamily housing industry, has released 365 Mobile Barcode Technology, which it says will become a useful new tool for both owners and tenants. Since the vast majority of Americans carry some kind of mobile device, the idea behind 365 Mobile Barcode Technology is to allow multifamily owners and operators market their communities on an interactive mobile platform.
Mobile barcode technology, also known as QR or Quick Response Codes, is the technological descendant of linear barcodes, the kind introduced to retail products more than 20 years ago. Since then, later generations of barcodes allow much more information to be stored within black-and-white squares on a grid (“bar”code is actually a misnomer, these days). The new barcode technology is distinctively appropriate for our times, in that it allows the camera in a mobile phone to act as a barcode reader–all the phone needs is the right app to function that way.
More specifically, QR Codes are a special kind of barcode known as a two-dimensional or matrix barcode. Initially created by Toyota Motor Corp. to track vehicle parts and now quite popular in Japan, the codes are also gaining traction in the United States, with the likes of Facebook, Google making use of them. Since the emergence of QR Codes, over one billion tags have been created for businesses worldwide.
365 Mobile Barcode Technology offers access to information about a multifamily property, according to the company. “With a 24-7 mobile society now emerging as the ‘Renter Generation,’ QR Codes can be placed in a variety of locations and on every piece of marketing generated by a rental community,” 365 Connect notes in a statement. “As today’s renters rely more heavily on mobile technology to access information, 365 Connect finds that it is critical to position its clients’ apartment communities to take advantage of this emerging technology.”
Most SmartPhone Networks have QR Code applications, which makes 365 Mobile Barcode Technology ready to use. A URL is embedded in a landlord’s or property manager’s QR Codes which, when scanned, takes prospective residents to the community’s 365 Mobile Leasing Center. There they can see photos, amenities, floor plans and other basic community information.
Through its interaction with the SmartPhone’s GPS capability, users can even pull door-to-door directions to the property. This interactive facility also offers the opportunity to reserve a floor plan, request specific information, schedule a visit to view the community and check apartment availability and pricing through the community’s 365 Online Leasing Center.
