From financial goals to client satisfaction, here is your cheat sheet for setting team KPIs.
When it comes to setting goals and KPIs, the sales side of real estate practice is familiar with the process – successful at it, even. To be fair, goal-setting in sales departments is a streamlined deal in comparison to the complexities of property management.
My advice is commit to taking a full day out of your property management department to set your goals for the next 12 months. Ideally, facilitate your goal-setting day offsite, hire temps to take care of emergency maintenance and administration, and allow everyone to really focus on the task at hand.
Before you commence your goal-setting day, understand that this is a process of collaboration. It is not an opportunity for management to simply pass unachievable KPIs down the line to their hard-working property management team without reason or context. Staff need to feel a connection to your property management department’s goals – a feat more easily achieved in consultation. Whilst dictatorial management styles may be common in the real estate landscape, they do not make for great outcomes or assist your team to take ownership of business goals.
Below are some great starting points for discussion about your existing portfolio and work-culture as it is, giving opportunity for your property management team to offer their ideas. This feedback forms the basis for your goals as a department – some of which might be expressed numerically with KPIs to match, others which might be less easily measurable; both are valuable.
IDEAL CLIENT
A good starting point for discussion is to identify what your ideal client looks like. What kind of property would they bring to your portfolio? Free up your team’s efforts by supporting them to encourage rogue landlords to shape up or ship out! Not all managements are good for your business – indeed some simply drain your team’s resources. Have your team identify trying or risky clients, and look at the fees you charge versus the effort property managers put in. Crunch the numbers and don’t be afraid to cease managements which are poor returns on investment. This is a great way to reduce workload and enhance profit.
FINANCIAL GOALS
What should your median fee be?
Discuss what you can do to build more value into your service, or represent your point of difference to clients more powerfully.
PORTFOLIO AVERAGES
Consider your average percentage of rented to vacant units and your average days on market. Could you set goals to reduce these statistics?
DEPARTMENT EFFICIENCY
How swiftly and smoothly does your department manage arrears and deal with maintenance, lease renewals and rent increases? Discuss how your team can be more proactive
at lease renewals and expiries, what aspect of operations they find most challenging and where efficiencies can be improved. What support is necessary to ensure better performance?
SYSTEMS AND PROCESSES
There are so many processes unique to your agency to consider. When tenants give notice that they’ll not renew their lease, how swiftly do you market the upcoming vacancy? Discuss what can be done to reduce the time between tenant move-out and new tenant move-in.
CLIENT FEEDBACK AND SATISFACTION
How do you poll your landlords and tenants for customer satisfaction? If you do not regularly request client feedback, consider what tools you might use to do so efficiently. Discuss any feedback you have on service and what can be done to improve it. In terms of response to landlords and tenants, how could you improve speed and accuracy?
PROPERTY MANAGEMENT DEPARTMENT CULTURE
Discuss internal communications within your property management department and whether they are effective. Could you harness new technologies to streamline processes? When it comes to communication with your colleagues in sales, administration and management, consider whether a there could be more open flow of intelligence. Also, make sure there are safeguards in place so that your team are not overworking; develop a system that matches your business to achieve this.
