As we visit many Real Estate offices something we regularly review, especially in the Property Management side of the business are hundreds of systems and processes. Businesses establish these to improve their service offering and improve efficiency by making the process crystal clear for their internal team. Everyone can see exactly where their part of the process is and what they need to do. They can also see what happens before/after their part of the process to understand why their part is important in achieving the clients outcome.
Team’s will establish processes for just about every part of the Property Management business from moving a tenant in, to moving a tenant out. One particular area I often find businesses don’t have a procedure for is when a client is at risk of leaving the business which could be avoided. We might find a process for once a client has issued their required notice they will be taking up someone else’s service, but not before.
Setting up a system for an escalation process can help the Property Management team understand what action will be taken by the business once a client is identified as at risk. This will likely start with a senior member of the team becoming aware of the issue and then putting an action plan in place. This can start with more communication to the client to let them know the business is aware of the issue and would like more information to better understand the issue so you can work towards adequately addressing the issues.
By helping the Property Management team know there is a process to follow once a client is at risk you have a better chance of first being made aware of the issue at an earlier stage. This will give the business a better opportunity to try to put more support around the client and reduce the amount of avoidably lost managements.
