Brewer & Stratton Property Management manages 1500+ single family properties in the Phoenix area. 

They have a deep understanding of the importance of providing an incredible experience to their owners and tenants; not just good customer service or fulfilling their contractual obligations, but going above and beyond for each and every client.

“One thing that we really strive to do is just make sure that our customers are having a great experience with Brewer & Stratton. We’ve tried to differentiate ourselves by not only making sure that we’re providing good customer service - because I feel like everybody can do that. But what type of experience are our owners and tenants having when they entrust their investment home or a tenant renting a home through Brewer & Stratton - what type of experience are they having?”

~ Chris Goodman, Broker at Brewer & Stratton Property Management

However, as a rapidly growing company, they were feeling some growing pains and were concerned about whether they would be able to continue providing that great experience.

“We started to see that we really were falling behind in making sure that we’re doing these certain tasks and processes the same way every time, and making sure that things weren’t getting missed.”

There were a lot of busy tasks like writing emails and remembering to follow up with delinquent tenants that were time-consuming and easily forgotten. Training new team members was also challenging because everything was in the most-experienced team members’ heads.

“I started losing some sleep at night wondering, ‘Well, are we really doing a good job of making sure all of these tasks are being completed? How do we make sure that the next property manager is set up for success and really understands and knows the processes of what it takes, to make sure we’re getting things done the right way?’”

“A lot of times we felt like we were being reactive to issues, where owners were notifying us, ‘Hey, how’s it going with renting my home out? Have we had any showings? How many leads have we had?’ We wanted to turn it so we’re being proactive and the ones reaching out to the owners with those important details about their property.”

To address these issues they started using some technology and automation: automated email campaigns and a lockbox system for self-showings.

“So we started trying some automated things and those definitely helped but I think we lost a little bit of the personal touch too. LeadSimple allows for some automation but also feels more real; it’s actual communication from your property manager and you’re not just on some robotic email chain or call.”

Having heard about LeadSimple in a Facebook group, Damon Stratton, one of the owners and founders of Brewer & Stratton, asked Chris to head up the implementation project.

“As he was explaining it to me I thought, ‘Man, this is what it’s going to take to get us to that next level.’ And not even of getting to that next level of getting to 2000 properties, but that next level of just providing a great service and a great experience for our owners and tenants.”

Chris’s expectation before starting the implementation was that LeadSimple would be a one-size-fits-all product that they would make work for their team. 

However, he was pleasantly surprised at the high level of customization and participation both the product and the onboarding process allowed for. He felt he walked away from the onboarding with the tools, skills, and mindset he needed to implement any process into LeadSimple on his own.

“So that was awesome; I really liked being able to get in and do our own tweaks to each process as opposed to just running with what was already there. I feel like that helped me have a better understanding of how to use it as well, and also helped me be a really big cheerleader for it, and letting the property managers and staff know, ‘Hey, if you guys have any problems, let me know and I think I could figure out a way to fix it with LeadSimple and make LeadSimple the answer to everything right now.’ And it really has been on a lot of occasions - just certain things that we didn’t think of before. I think we could probably create a process that would help with any issue that we’re having.” 

Some of Chris’s favorite features in LeadSimple are:

✅ Email templates that can be customized if needed but are right there in the process 

✅ Direct connection to the team’s email accounts so emails come from the team to look more personal than a mass email chain

✅ Documentation of all communication so other team members can pick up the conversation

✅ Documentation of all completed tasks so management can see what has and hasn’t been completed yet without bothering the team

✅ Automated tasks & conditional logic in the Delinquency process to remove the need to check every tenant has paid every month

Getting the team on board took some effort at first - it was important to demonstrate the value of the tool.

“It is really just meant to be a tool to help them do their jobs and have better peace of mind knowing that they don’t have to remember every exact detail of every process because it’s here and laid out for them….When they really saw it worked and saw [the delinquency process], I think a lot of them got on board at that time and saw the true benefit of using it on a daily basis.”

Chris said the best benefit of LeadSimple for him has been:

“I sleep better. It’s true. I sleep better. Just the peace of mind of knowing that we’re providing a great service to owners and tenants by having LeadSimple has just made life a lot easier. You’re not waking up with those worrisome thoughts of, ‘Did I do this, or did I get that right? I have this deadline of 14 days with this move out, was it done in time?’ I just sleep better knowing that we have something tracking what we’re doing and what we should be doing to provide that great level of service.”

When asked whether he would do it again, Chris answered:

“Oh absolutely. Absolutely I would do it again. And I’m looking forward to getting more and more use from it and figuring out other ways that we can implement it in other processes. A process doesn’t have to be a huge blown move out scenario - we can use it for the smallest of things too, so I’m excited to continue to use it and continue to grow using LeadSimple.”

Are you losing sleep over forgotten tasks and missed deadlines? Schedule a call and let’s chat to see how LeadSimple can help you!