Having worked in real estate for two decades, it pains me to say this, but many of us haven’t worked it out.
Firstly, let’s set the record straight on what I mean by success. Success isn’t just the roll out of technology; in many ways that’s the easy bit! Success is when technology achieves the objectives originally scoped by the buyer be that ROI, operational efficiencies gained, and improved communications or transparency.
The reality is that the tech supplier is always held responsible for the success (or not) of the technology and pretty much zero responsibility lies at the foot of the buyer.
As some of you know I’m a single father of four – the kids are all grown up now, but when they were young – the household chores were too big a job for one person. So, my approach was to delegate – in other words – get the kids to help me do some of these tasks. And yes, initially it took time, effort and patience – certain tasks had to be explained in detail from how to operate the washing machine to ensuring the clothes were hung up, dried and folded all at the right time.
Now that all takes time to explain, to show them a few times BUT once they had understood the process they were empowered to do it themselves.
Anyone see any parallels here?
Let me give you some insight – we are a team of 30 – we have marketeers, sales, developers and designers and even a credit control person, but we also have three people dedicated to onboarding, customer success, growth and ongoing care - ultimately looking after our clients. They spend a considerable amount of energy at the start of the Locale journey onboarding, training, hand holding and supporting our clients and stakeholders, eventually making sure the teams are comfortable with the platform.
So why do we allocate so much resource to this?
If the system is adopted effectively, then everyone benefits. All the stakeholders from the front-of-house teams, the building managers through to the developers and asset owners benefit from various aspects of the platform, but most importantly, it benefits the end user – the occupier or resident. They are more appreciative of the efficiencies and effective communication, and so they look to stay longer.
What are the challenges to adoption?
Like any other industry, people move jobs. It means that those that have initially implemented the platform leave with a lot of the vital knowledge and energy and so tech providers have to start from square one in educating and empowering new joiners who are not familiar with the system.
If the benefits of the platform are not explained properly, front-of-house teams can see it as another system and not a benefit to them and their customers. They feel threatened that new technology will make them redundant. In fact, it tends to free them up to spend more time with their customers and better understand the needs of the community.
And the biggest one of all - companies do not explain why they have introduced the system to their workforce and also do not set KPIs or objectives when they do. And if it isn’t successfully adopted then the system gets cut – and we lose out.
So what can we do to improve the situation?
If you are introducing or further developing a platform then take these steps and it will have more chance of success:
Like raising children, with support, structure, good communication and empowerment, they will flourish.