How a Multi-Million Dollar Real Estate Company Eliminated Chaos and Improved Client Trust

Client trust is built over a period of weeks, months, or even years. Yet, it just takes one negative interaction to erode that hard-earned trust.

Clients can become disgruntled for many reasons, including inconsistency when receiving services or answers, missed deadlines, “undetected” bottlenecks, or undelivered promises, among other things. Often, these missteps can be traced back to chaotic processes and stakeholders without real-time access to the information they need to make informed decisions.

Whether it’s because employees need more time to track down answers, or frustrated clients take their business elsewhere, sooner or later an organization operating inefficiently will experience a negative impact on its bottom line.

On the other hand, when stakeholders with a direct line to clients have access to the data they need, they can spur an organization to become more efficient — and more profitable.

Eliminating Missed Deadlines and Decisions Made on ‘Half Information’

Consider Colliers International, a real estate and multimillion-dollar property development enterprise with more than 15,000 employees in 68 companies around the world. Colliers’ employees manage a complex web of property transactions, architecture, and design; and thousands of other details associated with on-time inspections to prompt lease renewals.

To build trust with clients, Colliers International | Wisconsin dared to do what most companies wouldn’t imagine — let  clients have real-time visibility into how work was tracking.

“If we’re not able to make a deadline, it could cost a company millions of dollars,” said Kristin Komassa, associate vice president of corporate solutions at Colliers International | Wisconsin. “Our customers need to know why they made a decision, when they made a decision, and who made that decision.”

However, tracking and reporting on deliverables to clients hasn’t always been smooth sailing, she cautions.

Like many organizations, Komassa and her team used to track client projects using spreadsheets that were emailed back and forth. The files quickly became unwieldy as project details were added. With multiple versions circulating among teams, key internal stakeholders and clients never had a fully up-to-date view of key deadlines and dependencies.

That all changed when Colliers International | Wisconsin started using a work execution platform to keep every project stakeholder fully informed and current from start to finish.

“Having a [work execution platform] has allowed us to provide that instantaneously. They’re not making a decision based on half information, and they’re also meeting deadlines,” Komossa explained. “It really sets us apart from our competitors and helps us gain more business moving forward.”

Informed, Engaged Stakeholders and the Bottom Line

On a more granular level, a network of stakeholders empowered by real-time visibility helps grow profitability — simply put, they can make better decisions quicker and see and manage more. When informed, stakeholders quickly have visibility into the issues that really matter. They also help build a more efficient — and profitable — organization by identifying and sharing best practices from across the enterprise.

Perhaps most importantly, an informed, engaged network of stakeholders makes the concept of collaboration work. Stakeholders with real-time access to critical information execute with speed and accountability, which in turn eliminates frustrating — and costly — productivity killers like silos, and fosters more engaged and efficient teams.

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