Digital Transformation Insights: The Property & Real Estate Industry
Introduction
In today’s current economic climate, companies need to make faster, more informed decisions to meet the ever changing needs of their Customers and staff in order to stay competitive. Yet, many companies still don’t have a comprehensive platform in place to process and present their data and information. With the real estate space becoming increasingly digitised, the demand for a faster and simpler Customer journeys has similarly increased. Employees must be provided with the necessary tools, data, and insights to meet this demand.
In partnership with Salesforce, Tableau, and MuleSoft, we held our Property Summit on April 29th this year. We spoke with some of our property Customers about their experience implementing Salesforce, and discussed what benefits the platform has brought them. During the Summit, we examined how Salesforce has enhanced the three key areas critical for success. These being; the Client Experience, Driving Efficiencies across Organisations, and Empowering Employees. In this blog, we will explore how Salesforce has Empowered their Employees following its integration across their business.
Complete Visibility of Customer Interactions
In order to effectively manage a company’s day-to-day operations, it is essential that employees from across a business have access to the right data, tools and insights which they can access from any location, at any time.
As highlighted by Martin Corry, Vice President of Real Estate and Construction at Salesforce UKI, “Companies must provide their Customers and clients with a more transparent, flexible service that’s directly focused on their needs.” This has become especially crucial due to the current economical climate, and complications from the COVID-19 pandemic. Employees need a platform that increases their visibility of data and information to ensure they are equipped to make smarter and faster decisions.
At our summit, Mark Abram from Residential Management Group (RMG) spoke about their positive experience following their Salesforce implementation. He said; “we now have complete visibility of the Customers’ interactions all within Salesforce. It’s made the Customers’ experience better, and staff really enjoy that visibility. They feel they are helping the Customers a lot more.” Emphasising that the Customer 360° view that Salesforce provided, allowed employees to work far more efficiently and the increased visibility allowed them to respond more rapidly to Customers, helping them make better informed key decisions.
Scott Parris from Hammerson added “there’s been a number of benefits reported back. Not just for a usability perspective, but actually from an overall visibility perspective. For any particular deal, employees can see where it’s at, what stage it’s at, if there’s any blocks in the approval process, who it’s with, so they can be chased through and we can get deals done quickly.” This is permitting employees to more easily comprehend each unique Customer’s journey, and augment their offerings to provide an enhanced experience.
Reinventing Customer Communications
Communication between employees and Customers is an imperative aspect in any real estate company. The pandemic highlighted the importance for companies to maintain a space online where employees and Customers are able to more easily connect. As Martin Corry from Salesforce summarises, real estate companies need “to provide an even better client experience, organisations should consider bespoke, personalised marketing journeys to keep their clients updated with changes, re-opening plans on their preferred channels.”
Scott Knight from Grainger Plc highlighted that Salesforce was selected for its strengths in supporting the Customers’ unique online leasing journey. He explained; “From campaign automation, lead nurturing, and multi-channel communications with our Customers, and potential future Customers, they can now easily connect with us, and importantly find their new home with Grainger.” This has enabled employees to interact with Customers with ease, personally dealing with any issues, helping them progress and creating a more enjoyable and successful leasing journey.
Understanding Customers’ Needs
During the summit, Tableau was noted as a key tool to empower employees. Tableau is a Business Intelligence (BI) tool which connects data sources, processes them, and presents business data to employees in a visual, interactive dashboard. This provides employees with the increased visibility across Salesforce, and the Customer 360 platform. Overall providing employees with a deeper understanding of their Customers, enabling them to enrich the Customer experience.
As Martin Corry reiterated, the key takeaway is that real estate companies must “consolidate and organise data to create a new standard of collaboration, encouraging greater internal transparency and breaking down silos within the business.” Supporting employees by increasing visibility and communication, businesses can improve the Customer’s experience whenever they interact.
Read the next blog in the series: Transforming the Real Estate Customer Experience
To begin empowering your employees, and ensure your Customer receive the best Customer experience, please get in contact with us!
