EliseAI is introducing new leasing workflows for clients using Knock CRM. Reach out to your CSM or Contact Support to learn about the status of new Knock workflows as they apply to your organization.
Navigate to each section of this article with the links below.
Setup
If you have not already done so, follow the setup instructions listed in these articles:
Prospect Owner
EliseAI's new Prospect Owner feature allows leasing agents to take over and manage prospect conversations without disabling your AI Assistant.
We strongly recommend using this feature because it helps you to make the most of your AI Assistant's ability to converse and follow up with prospects. See the Prospect Owner and Agent Takeover article for full details.
Knock clients can opt in to Prospect Owner; this feature is not automatically enabled. Contact your CSM for more information.
Some Knock workflows vary depending on whether or not you have enabled prospect owner. This article notes any differences in workflows with prospect owner enabled and without prospect owner enabled.
Workflows
The sections below outline each Knock leasing workflow.
AI Assistant
Your AI Assistant is set up with its own leasing agent profile in Knock, with the name MeetElise.
The AI Assistant automatically manages most of the leasing journey. When a lead enters your system, the AI Assistant creates a guest and gets assigned to the lead for follow-up.
You can view leads managed by your AI Assistant in the AI Agent Inbox. You do not need to take any action on these leads.
Without Prospect Owner Enabled:
You can assign a live agent to a lead when it comes in, or at any point before a tour. Assigning a lead to a live agent COMPLETELY DISABLES AI Assistant outreach to the prospect.
With Prospect Owner Enabled:
You can assign a live agent to a lead when it comes in, or at any point before a tour. If you do this, the lead appears in the assigned agent's inbox instead of the AI Agent inbox. Your AI Assistant continues outreach to prospects assigned to live agents.
Handoffs
When your AI Assistant needs help responding to a prospect, it hands off the conversation to your team. Respond to handoffs quickly so prospects receive the information they need to continue their leasing journey.
- If the AI Assistant hands off a guest card that has NOT been assigned to an agent, the guest card is sent to the Property Inbox marked Unread.
- This inbox is likely called "[Your Property Name] Inbox."
- If the AI Assistant hands off a guest card that HAS been assigned to an agent, the guest card is sent to the agent's inbox.
Open a handed off guest card and find the orange banner with the conversation link. Click the link to open the conversation viewer, which shows the conversation between your AI Assistant and the prospect. The conversation includes the question that needs a response. You can respond directly in the chat, or dismiss the task if your team handled it offline.
You can also view all handoffs in your Daily Report emails. Click on a prospect's name in the report to open the conversation viewer. Then, you can respond directly or dismiss the task.
Once you respond to a handoff, the system removes it from your inbox and from future daily reports.
Knock To-Do List
Any handoffs that your team has not addressed within 48 hours are sent to your Knock To-Do list.
- NOTE: The actual time may vary based on factors like when the handoff was received—it may be less than 24 hours.
These handoffs are marked as Unread so you can easily see which conversations need a response.
You can respond through a handoff's conversation link to remove the handoff from your To-Do list.
Responding In Knock
Avoid responding to prospects directly in Knock. Your AI Assistant cannot see responses sent in Knock, which means it cannot pick up new information and reduce handoffs over time.
If you happen to respond to a prospect directly in Knock:
Without Prospect Owner Enabled:
- You must assign the guest card to yourself to clear the handoff.
- Your AI Assistant can no longer communicate with the prospect.
- You must respond to all messages from the prospect moving forward.
With Prospect Owner Enabled:
- Disable AI Outreach so that your AI Assistant can no longer communicate with the prospect.
- You must respond to all messages from the prospect moving forward.
Tour Appointments
Your AI Assistant books and confirms tours for prospects based on availability in your Knock Calendar. To avoid scheduling errors, make sure your Knock Calendar is up to date and black out any times your team is unavailable to give tours.
Your Knock Calendar lists all tour appointments made by your AI Assistant. Booked tours also appear in your Daily Reports.
Tour Outcomes
After a prospect tours a community, return to the tour appointment entry in Knock. Assign the guest card to the agent who handled the tour. Update the tour outcome to Visited if the prospect attended the tour, or to No Show if the prospect did not attend.
Prospects marked as Visited receive an application link encouraging them to apply. Prospects marked as No Show receive messages from your AI Assistant to see if they are still interested.
After a tour, all handoffs go to the assigned agent's inbox. Once a prospect starts an application, your onsite team can step in and manage the application process as usual. All application-related questions will be handed off to your onsite team.
Disable AI Assistant Outreach
Without Prospect Owner Enabled:
Assigning a guest card to an agent prior to a tour COMPLETELY DISABLES AI Assistant Outreach. This means you are responsible for ALL communication with the prospect, including:
- Tour Scheduling
- Tour Confirmations and Reminders
- Responding to all questions
With Prospect Owner Enabled:
If you need to stop your AI Assistant from reaching out to a prospect:
- Assign a leasing agent to the prospect's guest card.
- Open the conversation viewer in the AI Portal using conversation link in the guest card.
- Toggle AI Assistant to Off.
Once you disable the AI Assistant, you are responsible for ALL communication with the prospect, including:
- Tour Scheduling
- Tour Confirmations and Reminders
- Responding to all questions
Unresponsive and Lost Leads
If a lead has been unresponsive for 30 days, your AI Assistant creates a Last Chance task encouraging you to call the lead.
Lead assignment determines where you see these tasks:
- If an agent is assigned to a lead, either as prospect owner or because the lead has attended a tour, the task appears in the assigned agent's Knock inbox.
- If your AI Assistant is still assigned to a lead, the task appears in the property inbox.
- If your team does not dismiss the Last Chance task by the end of the day, it gets sent to your Knock To-Do list.
Agents can call the prospect, attempt to re-engage them, and dismiss the task when done. The task expires and gets removed if you team does not dismiss it within 56 hours.
When the task expires:
- If an agent is assigned to the lead, the agent is responsible for marking the lead as lost.
- If your AI Assistant or House Agent is assigned to the lead, the system automatically marks the lead as lost.
Frequently Asked Questions
If I create a guest card for a new lead, will my AI assistant still be assigned and handle the next steps?
Yes, your AI Assistant automatically handles follow-up for all new leads, including leads for whom you manually created guest cards.
Why is my AI Assistant handing off leads?
There are several reasons why your AI Assistant may hand off a lead to your onsite team:
- The AI Assistant does not know the answer to a prospect's question. Keep your Knowledge Base updated to reduce these types of handoffs.
- A prospect asks to speak with a live agent
- A prospect becomes unresponsive to the AI Assistant
- A prospect contacts your leasing office but does not opt in to SMS communication. In this case, the AI Assistant cannot engage with the prospect due to legal restrictions.
Why can't I find a lead that my AI Assistant handed off?
If you cannot find a specific lead, make sure you are looking in the right place:
- If the AI Assistant hands off a guest card that has NOT been assigned to an agent, the guest card is sent to the Property Inbox marked Unread.
- This inbox is likely called "[Your Property Name] Inbox."
- If the AI Assistant hands off a guest card that HAS been assigned to an agent, the guest card is sent to the agent's inbox.
- Any handoffs that your team has not addressed within 48 hours (actual time may vary) are sent to your Knock To-Do list. These handoffs are marked as Unread so you can easily see which conversations need a response.
You can also view all handoffs in your Daily Report emails. Click on a prospect's name in the report to open the conversation viewer. Then, you can respond directly or dismiss the task.
When exactly does the AI Assistant create guest cards for new leads?
The AI Assistant creates a guest card for a new lead shortly after its first interaction with the lead.
How do I assign a lead to an agent to right away?
You can assign a lead to a live agent directly on a prospect's guest card. You can do this immediately after the lead enters your system, or at any point before a prospect tours a community.
Can I respond to leasing handoffs in the EliseAI Portal?
No, you cannot respond to leasing handoffs directly in the Elise AI Portal. You can respond to leasing handoffs by:
- Clicking a conversation link in Knock.
- Clicking a conversation link in your Daily Leasing Report.
Can I respond to leasing handoffs in Elise Sidekick?
No, you cannot respond to leasing handoffs in Elise Sidekick. However, you can use Sidekick to create and send an open escalations report.
You can respond to leasing handoffs by:
- Clicking a conversation link in Knock.
- Clicking a conversation link in your Daily Leasing Report.
Does assigning an agent to a lead disable AI Assistant outreach?
This depends on whether or not you have enabled prospect owner.
-
Without prospect owner enabled:
- Assigning an agent to a lead COMPLETELY DISABLES AI Assistant outreach.
-
With prospect owner enabled:
- Assigning an live agent to a lead DOES NOT disable AI Assistant outreach. Your AI Assistant continues to engage with the prospect, unless:
- You respond to a lead directly in Knock.
- You manually disable AI Assistant Outreach.
- The prospect starts an application.
- Assigning an live agent to a lead DOES NOT disable AI Assistant outreach. Your AI Assistant continues to engage with the prospect, unless:
Will my AI Assistant engage with prospects who start an application?
By default, your AI Assistant stops engaging with prospects who start the application process, whether or not you have enabled prospect owner. However, you can change this setting. See AI Engagement With Applicants for instructions.
Can I re-enable AI Assistant outreach after disabling it for a prospect?
Yes. You can re-enable AI Assistant outreach any time after disabling it.
What happens if I respond to a lead directly in Knock?
This depends on whether or not you have enabled prospect owner.
Without Prospect Owner Enabled:
- You must assign the guest card to yourself to clear the handoff.
- Your AI Assistant can no longer communicate with the prospect.
- You must respond to all messages from the prospect moving forward.
With Prospect Owner Enabled:
- Disable AI Outreach so that your AI Assistant can no longer communicate with the prospect.
- You must respond to all messages from the prospect moving forward.
Can I view a prospect's full conversation history in Knock?
Yes, you can view full conversation histories in tasks handed off by your AI Assistant. However, please do your best to respond in the conversation viewer and not directly in Knock.
Where can I view new tour bookings?
You can view new tour bookings in your Knock Calendar and Daily Leasing Report.
Where can I view my Daily Leasing Report?
Daily Leasing Reports are sent to your email. Contact your organization admin if you have not received Daily Leasing Reports. See the Notifications Settings article for detailed instructions.
If I update a tour in the AI Portal, does this update sync to the Knock calendar?
It depends on the update:
- Tour event updates in the AI Portal sync to your Knock calendar. These updates include rescheduling or cancelling the tour.
-
Tour handled by updates (see screenshot) DO NOT sync to your Knock calendar. If you select a leasing agent in the AI Portal's Tour Handled By field, the tour in the Knock calendar will display as completed by AI leasing agent.
To avoid this issue, we recommend managing all tour scheduling and updates on a single calendar. You can use the AI Portal calendar or the Knock calendar.
Does the AI Assistant send tour reminders to prospects?
Yes. After a prospect books a tour, your AI Assistant sends them tour confirmation and reminder messages unless you have completely disabled AI Assistant outreach to that prospect.
Will the AI Assistant automatically follow up with prospects that do not show up for a tour?
Yes. Prospects marked as No Show receive messages from your AI Assistant to see if they are still interested.