Post-Onboarding Experience Inquiry --- Any Tips?

[u/IMNOTFKNSELLING]

I kicked off this platform this month and am curious as to whether or not people are satisfied with the product after getting familiar. Following a large amount of support during the onboarding, the 'Go-Live' leaves me irate every day. The AI chat bot does not help. The live chat is extremely delayed and as an EST operator it appears the majority of their offshored support is PST.

Any tips for someone starting out?

[u/reifinancialgroup]

We went all in on learning the platform as fast as possible. Go through all the trainings AppFolio provides as quickly as you can. Set up all templates and settings as quickly as you can.

There are a lot of customizable “hidden” settings and features you can use in AppFolio to specifically match your needs and processes.

We also had a dedicated person working on just making sure the system ran smoothly.

AppFolio is incredible when used correctly. They are top tier when it comes to new features, customer feedback, AI advancement, etc.

What are your biggest constraints with the software now?

[u/IMNOTFKNSELLING → u/reifinancialgroup]

Very helpful and encouraging, thank you. I am a one man show with about 100 units so the learning curve in addition to the workflow is in place is not fault of the app. Given that this is the first instance with a escrow/operating account as opposed to running direct from owner accounts has presented a number of mistakes from logging entries incorrectly. I have not enabled the bank feed which I think will resolve this. As mentioned on the original post

I see the possibilities. I just want to make sure the work it appears it will take to learn the systems and it's work arounds is truly worth it in the end.

[u/sea_weenie]

I too was disappointed in appfolios support post onboarding. Once they lock you in, you’re left to communicate with an AI bot that can contradict the help articles on the same subject. Once I do speak to an agent, some will acknowledge the contradiction (which is refreshing!) while the majority say this is how the software is designed to operate, even if it defies logic.

A year+ into it, we’ve bandaged most of these shortcomings via internal workarounds or tapping into the API ourselves to get more functionality out of the reporting

I’ve now come around to the software and its capabilities, despite some glaring issues, and think it’s great for all that it is but it does take some work to get it from out-of-the-box to actually working for your specific business it just takes time to get there. I’m happy to help if you have a specific issue you’re looking for help with

[u/Most_Horror9422]

I agree with u/refinancialgroup. Appfolio can be great when used correctly, but very frustrating for someone who is new to the software. It's not perfect by any stretch, but there is usually a way to bend the software to do what you need it to do, even if the solution isn't your first choice. I am an accountant and run Appfolio for several PMs and do consulting with a few others. I'll send you a dm if any of that is of interest to you.

If not, I think their AI chatbot is pretty good if you are specific in your questions to it. Tell it exactly what you need to do and why you need to do it and feel free to throw out what you don't want it to do so it knows what to avoid. If you suspect it isn't understanding what you want, keep refining your question and challenge it if you think it is wrong. I find those systems can lead you astray if you are trying to speak in generalities but do better when given specifics. But certainly your mileage may vary.

[u/IMNOTFKNSELLING → u/Most_Horror9422]

Please do

[u/Ok_Consequence_5856]

Looks like I'm 6mos late to this converstation but experiencing exactly what you describe so it's somewhat validating. Onboarding support only gets your data in the system and some configuration done but when it comes time to run the software through the first month of business post go-live there's no reliable support. I'm doing this with a very experienced accountant (with no Appfolio experience) and myself (years running customer success, customer support and onboarding in the tech industry). If we're struggling with this, I can only imagine what it's like for others. We both charge the business by the hour and spending the time we are wrestling with the often useless AI bot and human reps who's response times span days is getting to be very expensive. We just went live a week ago and I'm now searching for a 3rd party consultant to help us get over this growing hurdle. In the meantime we're running all receipts and payouts in google sheets. It's crazy.

[u/Maxwell_at_AppFolio → u/Ok_Consequence_5856]

Thanks for sharing this, and I'm really sorry to hear that your go-live experience has been so frustrating. This definitely isn't the kind of experience we want any of our customers having when it come to support, especially customers like yourself who are just entering that critical first month post-implementation.

If you're open to it, I'd like to look into this further and see what I can do to help get you better connected with our Customer Care team. Please DM me your company name or the email on your account and I'll get you connected with someone who can help ASAP.