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An award-winning agency has bucked the conventional wisdom by deliberately running a business top-heavy with staff.
Your Property Manager won the Excellence in Customer Service Award at the Leading Property Managers of Australia conference due partly to its strategy of running smaller portfolios.
Director Carolyn Wright told Residential Property Manager one reason the business excels in service is it currently has three PMs managing fewer than 300 properties.
“They are also supported by a full-time leasing consultant and myself doing new business,” she said.
“We are top-heavy in our business always by at least one staff member – we have almost got a spare person.”
Ms Wright said she is constantly challenged by people in the industry on the agency’s structure because so many are “driven by profit and numbers”.
“I would be lying if I said I wasn’t interested in profit, because of course I am, I am a business owner,” she said.
“I think one of the things is, I said to myself, ‘If you service the clients, the money and the growth will come’.”
Ms Wright first learned about customer service while working in the hotel and airline industries – and also learned some tough lessons as a real estate customer.
“When I had some investment properties when I was much younger, the thing for me was that I found a gap in the market where the service standard in this industry was just appalling.”
Ms Wright said another aspect that has contributed to the agency’s service success is her availability to clients.
“My clients know that they have direct access to me whenever they need it,” she said.
“I would know probably 90 per cent of my clients just to be able to pick up the phone, give them a call and have a chat.”
Ms Wright said as the business grows she understands it may be difficult to keep up, but as soon as an owner is on board, she gives them a call.
“I am actually astounded by the number of people who say, ‘I can’t believe you called’.”
Your Property Manager business manager and trust accountant Naomi Smith also won an award for Excellence in Corporate Support.
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