Customer Support
Enhancing performance through continuous employee improvement
Is it a loop or a straight line?
Measuring employee performance and investing in team member development leads to noticeable returns
When assessing influences on portfolio outcomes, where do you start? There is more to the results than just income and expenses. Understanding the dynamics behind portfolio performance also goes beyond lease-up, renewals, and capturing all expense recoveries. For many successful commercial real estate companies, measuring employee performance and investing in team member development leads to noticeable returns.
Talent management is the key to positive relationships with tenants
Among the many reasons why tenants decide not to renew their lease, some — a need for additional space, shifts in demographics, or business cessation — are out of your control. But poor customer experience driven by interaction with the landlord (aka “your staff”) is preventable. Talent management is the key to positive relationships with tenants, and there is a direct correlation between tenant satisfaction and retention.
Are your team members doing their best on behalf of the tenant throughout their lifecycle?
Employee interaction with tenants comes in many forms. Are your team members doing their best on behalf of the tenant throughout their lifecycle? This means that all employees understand your company policies — from signing the lease through routine maintenance and during renewal — and know how to put them into practice so that they are mutually beneficial for both landlord and tenant.
One approach to talent management that addresses these complex dynamics is the continuous improvement feedback loop. Within this methodology, three essential components — policies, training and assessment — provide a workforce management solution that drives constant improvement.
How many times have you lost a tenant because an employee wasn’t following the most current policy? The framework starts with policy management that is clear, up-to-date, and accessible. If team members across all your properties are tuned in to the same set of online policy manuals, your tenants will have a standardized customer experience that leads to loyalty and retention.
Is your team up-to-speed, aware, and knowledgeable? Structured training reinforces your policy content with deeper understanding of tenant needs and situations. A robust Learning Management System can provide industry-specific training that is designed for employee engagement knowledge retention. It can even be tailored to address gaps in the team’s or individual employees’ knowledge.
Assessment gives you an ongoing picture of your operations through the feedback of tenants, investors and employees
How do you find those gaps? Assessment gives you an ongoing picture of your operations through the feedback of tenants, investors and employees. This feedback has many sources, from casual conversations to formal surveys. Honest answers provide the foundation for proper asset positioning as well as policy updates and training enhancements.
We recently had the opportunity to talk with a current client who is based in a major east coast city. Their portfolio is spread across three states, and they shared some of the issues they have encountered. Of course, their biggest issue was that their policy management consisted of printing and mailing updates. Employees never knew whether policy binders were current, and couldn’t access information when they were not in the office. Tenant satisfaction had decreased over time due to poor communication by team members and inconsistent policy execution across properties. This linear approach wasn’t working for them. When the company decided to upgrade to an online policy management system, they saw an increase in productivity and greater management effectiveness, which led to enhanced tenant satisfaction.
This continuous improvement feedback loop framework can work for you, too. Manage your policies efficiently, train your people well, assess results, and repeat. Your employees will be empowered to provide the best possible customer experience, reducing tenant turnover due to poor policy management and lack of information about tenant intentions. To learn more about how Grace Hill’s Talent Feedback LoopTM can elevate your property performance, visit GraceHill.com/commercial-solutions/ or call 866-GRACE-HILL.
