“You need to say, ‘This is the platform we use, and we think we can do a better job if you let us use it.’ Then, you customize output reports that are specific to their needs.” With most investors and owners comfortable with Microsoft Excel or Word, providing reports in those formats usually isn’t an issue.
The sticking point emerges when owners and investors realize they won’t be able to access their data in real time—one of the core advantages of using Web-based software—if their property management firm is on a different system.
But Heimler says that can actually be a great opportunity for fee managers to persuade clients to embrace the property management firm’s technology. “I tell them when they’re reviewing their financial statement at 10 o’clock at night, they no longer need to frame questions in an email that we won’t be able to respond to until the next day,” he says. “They can go in there and get the answers themselves, right then. When they hear that, they’re encouraged.”
Joe Bousquin is a freelance writer in Newcastle, Calif.
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ACTION ITEMS HOW TO MANAGE MULTIPLE TECHNOLOGIES WITHOUT ALIENATING CLIENTS
