Tour Sequence Analysis
Does the order of a prospect's tours predict whether they'll rent? Prospects who came back for a guided tour after an unguided one were far more likely to rent than those who toured unguided both times.
The question
This use case is about doing complicated data transformations to answer questions our sales team had about multifamily touring.
Tours happen at a property almost daily, and some prospects come back for a second look. There are two kinds of in-person tours:
- Guided: with an on-site leasing agent.
- Unguided: a self-guided tour using an app with instructions.
For people who return for a second tour, does the sequence of tours tell us anything? There are four possibilities: guided → guided, guided → unguided, unguided → guided, and unguided → unguided.
What we found
Coming back at all signals stronger interest in renting, so every returning prospect starts with a bias toward converting. Even so, the sequence made a clear difference:
Prospects who went unguided → guided converted at several times the rate of those who went unguided → unguided.
Both groups were interested enough to come back. The biggest difference was whether they talked with a person on the second visit.
What it means
This doesn’t tell the full story of why someone rents, but it gives on-site teams more to work with. Maybe it motivates them to encourage a return visit as a guided tour. Maybe talking with a real person during a tour makes the difference.
Those are questions we can answer by putting new strategies in place and measuring the results afterward.