18 November 2024
By Cathy Reid, Customer Operations Director at The FirstPort Group
Property management is a multifaceted industry characterised by multiple stakeholders and varied lease agreements. Unlike retail, where customer journeys typically follow a linear path, the property management sector can present unique challenges involving unpredictable and diverse interactions. These challenges require careful navigation to ensure an optimal customer experience.
At The FirstPort Group, we know that people and culture are central to helping customers navigate the leasehold landscape and providing a service that exceeds expectations. It’s not just about managing customer service; it’s about overseeing the entire customer experience and ensuring it is tailored to our diverse customer and client base.
Becoming more customer-centric
With over 30 years of experience in customer-focused roles, I have always been passionate about looking at ways to improve the customer experience. Having started my career in a shop floor role, I worked my way up and progressed to become the Customer Director for an omni-channel retail business. My experience spans face-to-face customer service, leading transformation projects, and ultimately focusing on transforming the customer experience for businesses.
To achieve this at The FirstPort Group, we are investing in our people, ensuring they understand our goals and are equipped to deliver the level of service we aspire to provide. This involves recruiting the right people and offering them opportunities for career development. For example, we’ve recently introduced career progression plans for our customer service colleagues, allowing them to join entry-level positions and advance as they gain experience and take on more responsibilities. Additionally, we launched a property service administrator apprenticeship earlier this year and we are hoping to expand this initiative across our UK offices. This is providing more individuals with the opportunity to build a career in property management – a sector that many may not even be aware of as a viable career path.
Building a new foundation with technology
Enhancing customer engagement also requires us to look at technology, and our new Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system is the foundation required to create a step change. This end-to-end system integrates marketing, communication, and case management, giving us a comprehensive tool to improve and evolve our customer interactions. It’s an ecosystem that will allow us to be more efficient, add new communication channels, and ultimately serve customers the way they want to interact with us.
Our customer portal is part of this change, which now offers enhanced features for communicating with customers. I am particularly passionate about this aspect as it allows us to move beyond being the business that sends the bills and towards building meaningful relationships with our customers, ensuring our customers know the portal is the best place for quick responses and essential information.
With a significant number of customers logging into our portal each day, we see the power of digital tools in improving accessibility and communication. Looking ahead, we’re exploring the introduction of additional channels, such as live chat, to further improve our accessibility and responsiveness. However, we are equally committed to ensuring that our customers always feel a personal connection with us. And while technology, particularly AI, is transforming many industries, our focus at The FirstPort Group remains on maintaining a human element. AI has its place in streamlining operations and prioritising tasks, but our strategy is to use technology to complement, rather than replace the personal interactions that build trust with our customers.
Outsourcing support
The most significant shift in our strategy is the reconsideration of outsourcing customer support. While outsourcing might appear cost-effective, we’ve found that it doesn’t always deliver the level of service our customers expect. The complex nature of property management requires specialised teams with a deep understanding of the sector – teams that we believe are best situated in-house.
We are in the process of transitioning back to in-house teams over the next six months. Our goal is to resolve customer issues at the first touchpoint, reducing the need for repeated contacts whilst increasing efficiency and customer satisfaction.
Looking ahead
At the heart of our customer experience initiative is the goal of building trust with our customers. By taking ownership of our role in maintaining and enhancing their home environments, we can make sure that when it comes time to sell, our customers will feel confident in the value and service they’ve received from us.
Note: This article was originally published in Property Week.
