Feeling the property management pinch? You’re not alone!
You’d be forgiven for being a bit shaken up over the last few years. We’ve had a decade of dramatic events - from Grenfell to Awaab Ishak to the national disrepair scandals, student housing crisis… and the list goes on. Now, we’re seeing regulatory reform come into play that incurs compliance cost, both with regards to time and money.
So: how do we evaluate the options available and implement efficiencies quickly, without creating regulatory exposure? That’s easier said than done, but we’ve been lucky enough to work with some clients who are taking action to protect revenue while mitigating risk.
Perri Moore of Spectrum Electrical & Mechanical Engineers says their priority was finding an out-of-hours service that understood context, not just scripts. “With our previous provider, almost everything was treated as an emergency,” she says. “Engineers were being sent out unnecessarily, then we’d get multiple follow-up calls questioning decisions we’d already made. It was disruptive, expensive, and completely missed the point of having clear emergency definitions in the first place … but beyond the numbers, our directors are no longer fielding emergency calls, our team has their evenings back, and people can actually switch off. That has a real impact on performance, wellbeing, and outcomes for the people we ultimately serve.”
We also spoke to clients in public housing, to see if there were other approaches to consider. Bhavesh Patel from Bumblebee Property, says that putting their tenants - often vulnerable people - at the heart of their property management workflow, has been transformative. “Certain organisations seem to think that with the right scripts and processes, any call centre should be able to handle tenant issues efficiently. That’s simply not the case - if you’re not a property manager and you don’t understand the nuances of the job, you’re going to call out an engineer at great expense twice as often as is needed - plus that leaves the tenant waiting for hours or even days, instead of the few minutes in which a professional can solve the problem.”
We are excited to see how fundamental changes in policy and execution across property management can inspire re-engineered processes: starting from the occupier, centring their needs, and providing them with human interaction, trust, and a level of service that drastically reduces operational cost and regulatory risk further down the line.
Looking forward, we are excited to be working with our clients to identify best practices that can be applied industry-wide, so that other property management companies can improve their operational efficiency, brand value, compliance, and profitability.
We want to hear from you. What changes have you implemented that have impacted your bottom line?