Mobile-first Experiences

Partnership leads residents into meaningful connection

• By Jennifer Reidy
• Mar 01, 2017

Lifestyle Communities | LC is a niche, residential real estate development and asset management company focused on serving the specific needs of its residents through the thoughtful integration of living, entertainment and socially-focused ventures. With a portfolio of brands to serve the needs of its residents, neighbors, and communities in the Columbus, Ohio, Lexington and Louisville, Ky., and Nashville, Tenn., markets, LC is focused on delivering exceptional resident experience by inspiring meaningful connections, and providing smart living experiences. LC has partnered with Brivo Mobile Pass to deliver a mobile-first solution to support residents’ desire for mobile access to its communities.

Ability to Manage

Prior to installing Brivo OnAir, LC primarily offered physical access cards to residents with limited ability to manage, issue and revoke access control as needed. With a growing portfolio of communities across the country, it was imperative for LC to have a secure access control solution to support residents’ desire for mobile access to their communities.

Brivo was able to support the residence experience at LC by providing a soughtafter mobile application with a cloud-based security platform.

Innovative Residence

As an innovative, resident-focused company, LC sought out a mobile access control solution to meet the growing needs of its resident population. As with any residential community, people who lived in this high-rise luxury residence mainly relied on a smartphone for many innovative advantages, including access control.

“LC designs and manages its communities with a commitment to deliver a distinctive customer experience. We recognized mobile as a preferred solution for our residents, who increasingly use their smartphones for daily interactions,” chief marketing officer at LC, Chad Thompson said.

“This recognition of resident preferences informed LC’s decision to offer the new mobile feature, which creates a fast and easy way for residents to access community amenities via a certified smartphones. All Secured Security introduced the mobile pass to LC in April 2016.

“ “We purchased 1,600 passes (or credentials), and had issued 1,400 passes within the first three months,” IT support specialist at LC, Tyler Woodburn said. “Our residents appreciate the mobile-first solution, and our employees find that the self-service solution allows them to spend more time focusing on delivering great resident experiences.”

“The mobile pass is interchangeable with residents’ access cards—in that it can access all LC’s secured community locations, including its fitness studios, resort-style pools and other on-site amenities. However, there are many associated benefits. For example, Mike Corley, a resident of the LC Idlewild community in Louisville, would carry his smartphone and resident card to enter the pool and fitness studio, but now with the mobile pass he just carries his phone to access both locations.

“ “In the past, I constantly lost my resident card because it was an extra card to carry around or misplace, but now with the mobile pass, I rarely run into a situation where I don’t have my phone with me—as long as I have my phone I can get where I want to go,” Corley said.

With minimum promotion, LC has seen steady adoption of the access control solution across its resident population since it was launched in early April—after three months nearly 20 percent of the total residents across all locations use Brivo Mobile Pass on a daily basis.

“ “We’re excited to see the steady adoption of Brivo Mobile Pass across LC’s resident population, and we look forward to enhancing the mobile-first experience as we work together to service both new and existing residents,” said Steve Van Till, president and CEO of Brivo.

“All new residents are now issued one physical access card and two mobile credentials per unit.

“LC currently issues mobile credentials to all employees and new residents, and allows existing residents to request the pass at its primary leasing office.

“LC has been able to reduce its cost of issuing resident cards by nearly 60 percent. The solution is a complementary feature to access control cards for LC’s residents and employees, as it can be used to access secured entry points. Among the key benefits of the mobile pass, Lifestyle Communities pays a nominal fee to distribute mobile credentials to residents, but saves more than 60 percent per year from distributing roughly 2,500 fewer physical access cards.

“The solution also offers remote monitoring and management of resident access to specific entry points at each location from anywhere with an Internet connection, and it has improved resident experience and satisfaction by offering preferred, mobile- first access to LC’s facilities.

This article originally appeared in the March 2017 issue of Security Today.