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PropTech SaaS Analytics Sentiment Report 2022

April 22, 2022

Mieke Houbrechts

We reviewed the analytics in proptech tools with a top 50 rating on G2. What do users say about them? Read our findings in the article.

The most underestimated ‘asset’ in real estate is insight. With the right insights, real estate managers can make smarter business decisions. But are real estate managers satisfied with the reporting and insights that are available in your PropTech platform? Or are they longing for more?

To answer this, we researched PropTech product reviews on G2, a popular business software review site. We found that there are still plenty of opportunities for PropTech vendors to improve their analytics. Here’s what PropTech users are saying.

Methodology

For this study, we analyzed the user reviews of 50 PropTech platforms on G2. PropTech spans multiple software categories, so we selected vendors from all of the following G2 categories:

We only included vendors that have at least one review about analytics. The 50 selected vendors are balanced across all G2 quadrants, ranging from category leaders to niche software.

Project management software grid on G2
Example of the Property Management quadrant on G2. Market leaders cover the top half, while niche tools and new market disruptors fill the bottom half.

For this research, we found and documented over 700 reviews with keywords like ‘reports’, ‘dashboard’, and ‘analytics’. We classified all reviews as positive, negative, or neutral sentiment, and analyzed the content of 150 recent reviews in more detail to map the common concerns.

Besides user reviews, we also assessed how each vendor promotes and monetizes their analytical features by looking at:

  • Feature pages on their websites
  • Pricing pages mentioning analytics

What users are saying

1 in 10 product reviews talks about reporting and analytics. This number is lower than in other industries like Marketing SaaS, where 1 in 4 reviewers address analytics. Danielle Gutman, Product Manager at commercial real estate financing platform Lev, explained that the commercial real estate industry is still digitizing, and is heavily driven by relationships.

“The old-school broker process is a manual process, but it works,” Gutman said. “Therefore, most real estate investors don’t feel the need for analytics. It’s only when you show them visually that they could close a deal in 30 days instead of 90, that they start to realize the massive potential of analytics.”

Gutman believes there’s an opportunity for PropTech platforms to play an innovator role, educating their users to use data to make their processes more efficient.

With regards to sentiment, most PropTech software receives more positive than negative analytics reviews. But there is still room for improvement. A striking 4 out of 5 vendors have at least one negative review about their analytics.

Surprisingly, G2 leaders like Autodesk or Procore receive more negative analytics reviews than vendors in the niche quadrant. Up to 30% of their analytics reviews are negative. This trend is an opportunity for up-and-coming market disruptors to gain a competitive edge over industry giants.

Most common complaints

Most users share the same frustrations. For this section, we analyzed a sample of 150 recent reviews in detail, and we saw 3 recurring complaints:

  1. Too difficult to use
  2. Not tailored to their needs
  3. No option to edit reports

In the reviews sample, 1 in 3 users complain about the clunky experience. Their biggest frustration is losing too much time to find the information they need. Instead, users want less manual work and faster results.

PropTech user quote regarding clunky analytics

Besides bad user experience, 1 in 4 users don’t find the analytics useful. They don’t solve the problems and questions users have. For some, the reporting is too high-level, while for others it’s too granular. It lacks tailoring to what different user personas need.

Without tailored insights, it’s no surprise that 20% of users also complain about limited customization. They are frustrated they can’t edit the reports or pull their own reports in an easy way. They wish for tools that would let them easily tweak reports to their preferences.

PropTech user quote regarding lack of personalization in analytics

Some other concerns that came up in the sample of 150 reviews are:

  • The reports lack interactivity (9%)
  • The insights are disconnected from their workflows (7%)
  • It lacks a nice, modern look and feel (6%)
  • The data is unreliable (5%)
  • It’s difficult to share (3%)

There’s a lot to learn from the positive reviews as well. Top-rated tools get praise for their smooth analytics experience. Their customers love an easy-to-use interface, insights in one click, and the ability to edit reports to their needs.

PropTech user quote regarding lack of customization in analytics

Lesson Learned: Great analytics is the best go-to-market strategy

Successful SaaS companies employ analytics to attract new customers and upsell existing ones. So, we also researched the go-to-market strategies of all PropTech companies on our list.

88% of the researched software companies promote analytics features on their website. Leaders and Contenders strongly promote analytics with dedicated landing pages. Much more than their lesser-known competitors.

Looking at the SaaS pricing pages, 50% use analytics as a selling point. Although Leaders received more negative feedback, they are more likely to price higher for analytics than in the lower half of the quadrant.

Proptech pricing pages mentioning analytics

The lesson to learn is to make sure your analytics add value. Not even the best marketing can make up for a bad product experience. And any niche software can carve out share from industry leaders. As long as you do a better job in supporting your customer’s business.

The state of customer-facing analytics in PropTech

Even though most PropTech tools have reporting features, a lot of users struggle with analyzing their real estate data. Either the analytics are too difficult to use, or the insights aren’t useful.

If you are a product manager at a PropTech software company, this struggle presents a massive opportunity for you.

You now know exactly what your users are missing, and you have a chance to do something about it. When done well, you have the chance to stand out against competitors and gain market share.

Our team is ready to help you build an engaging customer analytics experience. Schedule a free consultation or product demo today.

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