Operational efficiency is a performance management tactic as well as a savvy response to the tele-wave; as remote work and business practices change the placement of energy and efficiency demands on commercial properties. Building an efficiency structure into your operations model begins with your infrastructure.

Are you set up to integrate efficiencies?

The Tech Spectrum

How does implementing technology save you money? The real estate market hasn’t been recognized for being cutting edge when it comes to using the latest tools, but now that efficiency is a heightened trend, many business owners are branching out.

The CRE industry has been undeniably shaped by technological impacts in recent years. The reality is the majority of commercial real estate owners believe they could streamline their operations and meet operational goals with the right tech, but they are struggling to manage their technology littered throughout their organization.

When Having Too Many Solutions Is a Problem

Sometimes, having many technical options creates noise. Operational efficiency usually deals with smart energy conservation practices and the use and delegation of utilities and resources. When applied through a 2021 lens, operational efficiency becomes about synchronicity. Can you have synchronicity among many applications performing many operational tasks? Or will it be more sustainable (and scalable), to have a primary provider?

Benchmarks

Expenses will always be a driving force in decision making. We talk about things like vendor pricing, purchasing efficiency, and maintenance costs often with a sense of tradition. It used to be you could gauge the purchasing efficiency of a property from one year to the next with ease.

In 2018 commercial building owners spent an average of $2.14 on energy consumption per square foot. Why are we bringing this up?

Well, in contrast, in 2021 operations costs are made more unpredictable by a surge of remote workers, placing an increase in energy cost on residential properties. With re-opening on the rise there will be a market oscillation that asks for adaptation from the CRE sector and adaptation needs live data.

Analytics

The British company PCW, which studies the effects of implementing operational efficiencies, found that using operational efficiency alone to keep costs low in a business model fails in the long term, with less than 30 percent of programs aimed at reducing costs hitting their target.

Best practices are not enough, data is needed to create direction.

How Does it Work?

There are two types of data. Yours, and everyone else’s. Put another way, there is external data; national listings, property data, company contacts & buying preferences, etc., and there is internal data; your property listings, client deck, purchasing power, and operations expenses.

Combined, this data almost generates a roadmap by itself that outlines energy requirements, market trends, and highlights inefficiencies like unsuccessful marketing campaigns, gaps in reach, and communications among your clients and team.

Streamline

Gathering data is the first step, implementing it is the second. This stage is about improving processes which brings us to feedback. Communication is an efficiency (or a roadblock if you don’t build healthy channels). Engagement among your team boosts productivity which in turn reduces costs but also leads to expediency from lead generation through to a final transaction.

Here are our top tips:

• Use data to design your approach – Like we said, be adaptable to the changes in the market but don’t leave decision making up to chance. Cut the cost of guesswork and exchange it for data-based direction.
• Stay conscious of the client’s journey and user experience – The first part is the human aspect of the client’s journey. Is your sales process efficient, sustainable, and able to foster a growing relationship with the client to encourage continued success. The second part is the end user experience. Remember, we’re talking about technology efficiencies here. If your CRE solution is centralized and able to facilitate remote signing, document organization, and transactions for the client you’re on the right track.
• Cost Awareness – Choose a platform with powerful analytics, as being able to draw conclusions from your data is something you can apply to your budgeting. Technology solutions, in comparison to brick and mortar overheads, can be surprisingly affordable. Further, cloud-based solutions take away the requirement of investing in a pricey legacy software solution.
• Apply technology to increase productivity. This point applies mostly to team management, but also extends to the productive timeline of individual deals. If you partner with a kind and conscious platform, tech solutions promote expediency and increase connectivity.

Final Thoughts

Building operational efficiency into your business is an infrastructure challenge with a lot of layers. Integrating efficiency takes every aspect into account from acquisition, to customer journey, to team management, to client engagement.

Your goal is to leverage efficiency to boost the bottom line. Our goal is to help you get there. Reach out to us today to demo our solution and see first-hand the benefits of working with a CRE platform.