The world is changing quickly with new technologies and consumer habits shaped by the coronavirus pandemic. This has put innumerable pressures on individuals and businesses alike. We are all learning how to adapt and adjust at ever-intensifying speeds.
In the midst of all this change and disruption, chances are that your residents are using a courier service of some sort at increasing levels. Perhaps you’re wondering why that is, and what it means for you as you make smart choices for your properties. Why are your residents using an apt courier service?
What Is An Apt Courier Service?
First of all, let’s review what a courier service even does:
Courier services are a business model based on quick, door-to-door deliveries. Some form of this work has been around for time immemorial for individuals intent on securing the safe delivery of valuable items.
Obviously, your residents are not necessarily land-owning kings sending a dowry across rough terrain. But for a person depending on the delivery of their prescription medication, or someone sick with COVID who needs to eat, the importance of these deliveries can take on epic-Arthurian importance. Our societies have morphed through the centuries – but our basic needs and desires have not.
Today, depending on the type of courier service, these delivery professionals will use various forms of transportation – bus, car, or bike usually – to personally deliver items to a client’s front door.
So Why Do People Use It?
Courier services add a level of accountability that consumers often desire, or need. But people also use courier services because it gives them more control over the delivery process. When using a courier, delivery times are often quicker and might include on-demand pick up or time-definite delivery. This can make a huge difference for people – whether they are parents juggling a hectic schedule, young professionals working intense hours, or students navigating finals week.
The stats around online shopping and home delivery have been sky-rocketing for years. By mid-2021, e-commerce alone amounted to over 200 Billion dollars in the United States, according to the government census data. That’s a lot of deliveries – and doesn’t even account for orders people made over the phone with local businesses. These numbers will continue to increase, especially now that people have become even more familiar with items arriving at their front step. Additionally, companies have adapted to make the process increasingly convenient in response to social distancing practices and other disease-mitigation tactics.
Porch Pirates
With these increases in consumer demand, however, comes some shadowy increases of package theft and porch pirates as well. Almost half of all Americans have reportedly experienced package theft at one time or another.
For residents living in apartments, multi-family units, and other larger housing buildings, these concerns are even more paramount. According to one online poll, 60% of people living in condominiums experienced package theft, with apartment dwellers not far behind. Both were at higher risk than single-family homes according to this poll.
With a “shared” front door and often more limited delivery options for regular shipping and post, people living in residential buildings can work with a courier service as a way to guarantee that they are home when deliveries arrive and that the items they are paying for (and often depending on) are not stolen from the front steps of their building.
So apart from the scheduling conveniences, it’s not hard to understand why these features of a courier service will appeal to residents with well-founded safety and security concerns.
What Does That Mean For Multiliving Residential Buildings?
People are depending more and more upon delivery services to complete necessary tasks like grocery shopping, prescription fulfillment, and home goods. This means that your multi-living residential buildings need to adapt to accommodate these shifting consumer habits. Doing so promotes both the satisfaction and well-being of ideal, long-term residents while also increasing safety and lowering theft around your building. It’s a win-win.
The use of smart lockers is taking off in public places such as grocery stores, libraries, and even college campuses. And the same is true for forward-thinking management regarding residential buildings as well. Smart lockers can essentially eliminate package theft and security concerns for residents while incorporating the increasing use of courier services. Smart lockers are also an efficient organization system in a place where multiple people share public space.
Conclusion
Making smart, efficient, secure decisions is a critical step in owning and managing residential buildings in a sustainable way. Utilizing user-friendly technology is a simple and effective way to do just that. Your residents are using an apartment courier service because it meets their needs. Understanding these needs and reacting to them in a proactive way will increase the value of your property and the functionality of the space for those who inhabit it.
