While CRM systems have benefits, they usually require other integrations and plug-in PropTech to perform as needed. For property managers, this usually increases friction between functions, leading to information that's hard to find and time wasted.
So, what happens if every person and process in the lettings lifecycle were connected on one property platform? How would that help letting agencies? In this blog, we answer these questions and more.
What’s the difference between a central property platform and a CRM?
Customer relationship management (CRM) software does what it says on the tin. It handles customer relationships, matches tenants to properties and landlords to mailings, and takes care of marketing, sales and lead opportunities.
CRM systems can do billing, but that's where their capabilities end. CRM systems are all about managing the front end of the lettings process. CRMs rarely host any critical back-office processing involved in the lettings process. Hence, a CRM has to integrate with other providers' products to create something that can ostensibly compete with a platform-based solution. Except it still doesn't.
Inherently, using 10 different software products from several developers will cause your business problems.
Returning to billing — it's a useful function for a CRM, but in property management, there's client accounting to take care of. It's not a nice to have, it's critical. It's deep, ledger-based accounting that has to happen.
A full-service property platform features all the capabilities of a CRM with additional built-in PropTech solutions.
For example, the PropCo platform can handle customer relations and reconcile billions of transactions and rent receipts every year simultaneously for the UK's biggest estate agency firms. And that's the power of a genuine property platform solution. It's the whole supermarket — with all the functions at the same level of detail, talking to each other perfectly and sharing data in one place.
Why should you choose a full property platform?
Rich data for better decision-making
Without a property-specific platform, you cobble together lots of partially non-property industry integrations onto a CRM.
Your vital information may be stuck in different silos, leading to misunderstandings — duplication and missing or corrupted data. That means that as a business, you won't have the right, rich, real-time data you need to instantly understand where you are and what you need to focus on.
If all your processes take place on one unified platform, you have the power of centralised analytics at your fingertips to drive better business decision-making.
Different software, higher fees
Using a disjointed solution has one key downside — you'll potentially pay more for it. If 10 different companies are selling 10 different pieces of software to you, they don't have the economies of scale that a single platform provider has.
Everyone needs to make a profit on their piece of the puzzle, so it's much harder for those providers to give a competitive price on their part. Add that premium from several different providers together and the client loses out in price and functionality.
Who’s keeping your data secure?
Data security is a huge issue for every industry, but even more so for the lettings industry, which handles sensitive data from tenants, clients and landlords. Maintaining data security becomes a nightmare if you're using a CRM solution to handle your data.
Who's in charge of you and your customers' data? At which point does one provider's responsibility start and end? If there's a data loss, who's responsible? Will you have to go to several providers to find out where the loss occurred?
If you use one platform-based provider, you get the benefits of knowing that only one company is handling your data, so there's less chance of loss, and if there ever were one, you'd know who could fix the situation fast.
A platform takes efficiency sky-high
Working with a company that builds property platforms means that your provider must have all of the expertise to build all of the parts of the platform under one roof. Business analysts, developers and subject matter experts work together to fully understand the industry's lifecycle and every client's business from top to bottom.
This is a world away from taking the piecemeal approach with a CRM and some integrations from companies that might not understand the whole picture. It will massively limit what lettings agents can do with their tech and, ultimately, with their business.
Access to your platform tech partner's 10 subject matter experts on tap, who love nothing more than solving property-related operational challenges, is a game-changer.
Giving agents’ customers the best service
You may have heard people talk about having a "single view" or "golden view" of a customer. The reason why that's important is that having a single view of the customer, where all of the records and documents are in the same place, makes for happier customers.
But that single view can only happen in a platform where every interaction a customer has ever had with you and your business is stored in one place. Agents can ensure that they never lose a customer, because they can see exactly what's happening, analyse the health of a customer and foresee what's going to come up.
A single view enables agents to become far more intelligent and strategic in their interactions, for example, knowing when tenants are going to give notice before they do.
Operationally, using a single property platform saves agents vast amounts of time and money. That's because all end-to-end processes happen in one place, so efficiencies are baked in at every stage.
Admin-heavy tasks like tenant onboarding and chasing rent arrears are transformed by platform technology like PropCo, slashing hours of boring admin time for agents and enabling them to focus on growth.
But the customer benefits massively because, again, they can do everything in the same place because of platform tech. Instead of having to receive two or three emails to go through the tenant onboarding process, re-entering their details multiple times in different places and setting up new accounts, they can just enter them once, in one place. That makes for a far slicker, quicker process — and happier customers.
Pioneering tech, for today and tomorrow
Property platform technology is the heart of TBL's flagship product, PropCo. It enables our clients to achieve their business goals and scale quickly by solving big problems and simultaneously creating a tidal wave of incremental gains. That's because everyone can see and act upon what they need, when needed, in one place.
To experience PropCo for yourself, why not book a demo with one of our experts? We'll show you the platform's capabilities and how it can benefit you, as well as answer any specific questions you may have. Book your slot by clicking the link below.
