Mobile-enabled CRMs grow revenue and value

In today’s business environment, mobility is a competitive opportunity for a commercial property owner or REIT, says Yardi’s senior vice president Robert Teel. 

“We operate in an increasingly mobile world in which everybody – leasing agents, brokers, tenants, prospects – has a stake in minimising lead-to-lease cycle time,” Teel explains.

“At the same time, customer relationship management has grown in scope and complexity. The challenge is how to make the intricacies of CRM more manageable and, in the process, uncover new opportunities to grow revenue and portfolio value,” Teel explains.

Many commercial real estate companies are leveraging new CRM technology that integrates real-time data about available space, existing leases, budget, rent and other strategic data points with their core property management and accounting platform.

This approach can shorten the leasing cycle by tracking leasing throughout the process, from first contact to final signing, and providing equal access to key information for leasing teams, property managers and asset managers.

“Automated, fully mobile solutions can help leasing agents and brokers quickly and accurately identify revenue opportunities by combining contact and prospect management with portfolio health analytics,” Teel says.

In this system, all relevant information is available to anybody who needs it to complete a deal – from leasing agents who can finalise lease terms with potential clients onsite without returning to the office, to brokers who need full visibility into all leasing activities.

Teel says the mobile approach has been proven to increase revenue and minimise turnover times by shortening leasing cycle times, revealing new leasing opportunities, reducing vacancies and enhancing transparency.

“Internal leasing agents can easily see which leases are set for expiry and their completed deals are easily passed to the property management staff. Asset managers, in turn, can track the leasing agents’ progress. All of this results in a more efficient workforce and less vacant space,” he says.

Data integration also allows better collaboration with external partners such as brokers. Asset owners and managers are often starved of information on vacant space and typically have to wait until the end of each month to receive critical data that affects their deal pipeline.

“Allowing brokers access to an owner’s CRM system delivers a more timely deal pipeline, which is useful for forecasting and budgeting and saves time preparing pipeline reports. The shared workflow also enables real-time notification of activity on a space, allowing fast deal approvals,” Teel says.

The bottom line is simple. Prospects and tenants are on the move, every day, so your CRM should be too.

“Making a CRM system mobile-enabled translates into new efficiencies, time savings, higher revenue, and strategic business opportunities,” Teel concludes.

Established in 1984, Yardi Systems has become the leading provider of high-performance software solutions for the real estate industry. www.yardi.com