Hey guys, thought we might start an ongoing topic of great customer experiences (CX) that we could learn from to help shape something in PM.
Great customer service experiences that could shape PM
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This is a great topic and think it is also a great extension from the Landlord Communication topic. My tag on this is that customer service stems from communication to clients, both landlords and tenants, which should be built into your systems and procedures. This stems from areas that are often missed at the moment such as during and after maintenance. Often we seek approval from a landlord for maintenance and then they never hear from us again until they see the invoice on their EOM statement. We should be proactively communicating regularly through the process and again once the work has been completed. Third party maintenance apps have started this but rely on trigger to send communication. The big miss is that if the repair is delayed, there is no trigger, hence no communication. The flip also applies to the tenant.
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Hey Adam, good points.
I don’t think I named this well but was thinking about great/negative experiences that could help us think about something differently.
For eg, I love the way that with tech onboarding, that you get timely information over a series of emails. I think about our tenants and I think we bombard them with information during the signup process and then wonder why they can’t remember how to report maintenance. I wonder if we could send an email 3 days in from the house saying, hey, you’ve probably noticed I need some help? Something fun. I see stuff all the time that makes me want to change our processes/marketing/comms/tech etc.
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@phil I would love you to share your thoughts here around the “Tenants Experience” particularly around the letting piece.
In context, Phil has been working on processes, and software which is tenant down, not owner down, putting the customer experience in the centre of the discussion.
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Thanks @ashley.giles Hi Team, I reflect on the Maori Proverb ** He aha te mea nui o te ao He tangata, he tangata, he tangata. What is the most important thing in the world? Its the people, its the people, its the people. (Direct quote from the home page of tenants protection association in Christchurch as it happens)
At One Place we chased process semi - automation and streamlining to the point where our tenant and landlords experience suffered, owner and tenants portals replaced monthly statements and touchpoints, electronic applications, virtual viewings and signable pdfs replaced open homes. Connections were no longer formed with a handshake but with a confirmation of a bank transfer. We now had the ability to be efficient with our time, cut out the time wasters with ease and make decisions on a set of numbers and a algorithm. It was not a case of if we could? It was a case of if we should?
As it transpired we shouldn’t! I guess for us it was a mistaken growth objective, that we could no longer be personal so if we cant be personal lets process our way out of the relationship. Wrong! The result was no relationship no advocates no referrals and so on.
What had to change to solve the process centric function, We had to bring back the people centric focus, Our communications initially changed to a sign off “tenant experience creator” easy to say, tough to achieve, just this small change required extra thought on all communications, We now personalise a bespoke service with a relationship manager not a property manager after the initial qualifying and we allow the tenants to control their personal data via a secure profile. Its their info not ours. We push for a face to face sooner rather than later and try and form a bond based on a rapport before process.
As with everything it is a work in process, we have found it easy to manage the property, it is often more difficult managing the people !
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This is a great experience to share with us @phil. really appreciate it. I think you hit the nail on the head with process-centric. If you could find a customer-centric lean on your process driven automation, you will hot the nail on the head. In the past, all my process have had key points of customer communication in them to ensure it stays customer-centric.
Thanks @phil I think you have put it so simply. As business owners were often focused on the process, not the people. I know even myself when running Wendells, I became more and more removed from the people and that is a dangerous position to be in.
It is time to “Re-invent Property Management” and its exciting to see the pioneers at the for-front of change! Thanks for sharing.
with the team at Wendells, were looking outside out industry to the leaders of service lead business and starting there!
The above article is a great read if anyone needs some convincing of the change needed in our business.
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