09 May 2019
By Mick Lohan, Director of Client Relationships & Mobilisation
They say moving home is one of life’s most stressful challenges. When customers decide to relocate from one place to another, they are putting their trust in the place they are moving to. For many, that also means putting their trust in a property management company.
These companies should respect that trust by engaging directly with the customers living in their properties, and as early as possible. After all, it should be clear to anyone in the industry that the hands-off approach to property management isn’t working.
Customers expect more from their property manager – and it is right that they should. The reason is obvious. No one wants to deal with a faceless block manager; they want to deal with a person who cares about their community. A good previous experience or a recommendation makes a real difference in their decision to buy or rent.
This is the direction the industry is moving towards and the companies that don’t adapt won’t survive. A good mobilisation process, which starts well before the customer is involved and is aimed at helping clients deliver good schemes ready for the customer, is all important in achieving this.
So, what should this mobilisation process look like? And why is this customer-focused approach so important?
At FirstPort, we’ve developed a seven-stage mobilisation process that addresses the common property management issues clients often face. The first step is adopting a partnership approach with them at the earliest point in the process to understand their vision and service requirements. To make it easier for the client, appointing a single point of contact is the next step because mobilisation involves so many different people and teams.
The management team needs to imagine exactly how customers are going to live on a site, so that they can know exactly what to expect. Where will they park? How will they collect their rubbish? Will there be enough lighting? Asking these questions as early as possible is the best way to avoid any headaches later down the line.
Read the full article on Property Week here
This article was originally posted on Property Week on 28th February 2019.
