Balancing Profit, People, & Customer Experience

 Note: The names in the video are swapped. The first guest shown is Tommy Chambers and the second is Chris Harold. We welcome you back to the Property Management Show with your hosts, Marie Tepman and Brittany Stephens. In Part 1 of our conversation with Chris and Tommy of Chambers Theory, we talked about how they used data and innovation to expand their customer lifetime value amidst area-specific market forces that tend to shorten it. Here, in Part 2, we’ll cover how they balance profits, people, and the customer experience. Retaining Property Management Employees A happy property management team will almost always lead to a happy set of property management clients. How is employee retention encouraged at Chambers Theory? In a number of ways. * First, there’s a new role: Director of People and Culture. That role really sprung from fast growth. In four years, they grew to 30 employees and while every employee is moving in a different direction, helping the company succeed is the end goal. * There’s also a focus on work/life balance. The team is friends outside of work. Many of them have been together for 15 years. When you’re working with fellow humans and not just working in a company, it’s easier to focus on what you do together. * Committing to a capacity-to-care ratio. * 8Profit sharing so that a portion of the company’s profits are dispersed among the entire team. Everyone benefits from company growth. There’s a timeline for reviews with the team where each employee gets to discuss their own plans for career advancement. Tommy and Chris have also borrowed a measure from Navy SEAL Team 6, which is focused on two things: performance and trust. You want high performers who you can really trust. And sometimes, if a particular team member isn’t performing well, they’re worth keeping close because you know you can trust them and their peers can trust them. Capacity-to-Care Ratio The capacity-to-care ratio began as a look at how many properties per person made sense to keep the team functioning as well as they wanted. Companies that have problems with quality seem to have a higher property per team member ratio. A 100:1 ratio makes it hard for those team members to care about the 100 properties they have to manage. It doesn’t matter how good you are, if you’re too burdened, you’re losing your capacity to care. To increase that capacity to care, the ratio has to be lower, and/or more infrastructure is needed to support the team. Each team member at Chambers Theory is specialized in what they do. And, more experienced hires have more capacity. So, increasing capacity has become a key metric. Right now, the company is at 24 properties per staff member. They’re investing heavily in the staff ratio, but expect to grow to 30 properties per staff member before too long. They’re skeptical of going any higher than 35 to 1. Even if the team seems capable, they’ll want to hire enough people that the ratio stays closer to 30 properties per staff member. How to Stay Profitable While Focused on Capacity-to-Care How do you balance taking care of your team with making money? Profitability is more likely – even if it’s tighter – when you have better quality of service and higher average rents and lower vacancy rates. Hire so that you’re prepared for growth and not waiting for it.