Who is SCUDO?

SCUDO Real Estate manages around 260 doors in the Kansas City area. Brittney is the co-founder and chief of operations (COO). At the time of this interview, they had 7 team members utilizing LeadSimple day-to-day, including several remote team members (VA's).

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The Problem

SCUDO anticipated having growing pains in the very near future, and they wanted to get systems and better organization in place before they hit that point.

Prior to starting this project, tasks were not being done efficiently and that led to more mistakes and slower completion times for tasks.

Team roles were not clear either, which was another cause of confusion and missed tasks.

At the end of the day, SCUDO's leadership knew they couldn't grow and sustain quality services this way. Something had to change.

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"How can we prevent hiring, save money financially, prevent everyone from being overworked to the gills and 'trimming fat' [in the business]...that was our why..."

~ Brittney

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How did they attempt to solve this before LeadSimple?

This was SCUDO's first real attempt to implement a process management / task management system.

They did explore other options such as RentBridge, but ultimately came back around to LeadSimple, partly for the done-WITH-you model LeadSimple implements in consulting engagements.

“If someone had come in and built all our processes for us without our help, I would have missed out on the nitty gritty details of how our day-to-day works.”

~ Brittney

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The Solution

SCUDO worked with LeadSimple to implement these processes, starting with the largest, most technical ones first.

• Lease Renewals - This is always a complicated process because there are so many possible paths it could take
• Move Outs
• Make Ready
• Marketing
• Tenant Application
• Move Ins
• Owner Onboarding
• Property Onboarding
• Delinquencies

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The outcome

The goal of the project was to:

1. Take work of their team's plate
2. Streamline processes and communication (internal and external with clients)
3. Document processes
4. Enable scaleable growth
5. Clarify roles and responsibilities
6. and Prevent mistakes

Now they are well on their way to achieving those goals.

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Getting the team to buy in

The value of implementing systems wasn't immediately obvious to their team, so they were a little steamrolled at first. This was mainly because their leadership didn't spend as much time on the "why" behind these changes in their business in the beginning. Teams are always more ready to get behind a change when they understand the "why".

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But while there was some resistance to change as you would expect, now their team understands who is responsible for tasks, VA's know exactly what to do and what's coming next, fewer wires are crossed and more communication is happening.

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Takeaway: Don't throw too much at your team at one time

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They have one person dedicated to working on processes (Brittney, their chief operations manager).

• Feedback: The team is constantly giving feedback to their process manager about each process. This feedback helps Brittney understand the day-to-day work that's happening in their business and adjust the processes accordingly.
• LeadSimple Support: SCUDO's team also utilizes the training and educational resources LeadSimple provides including process training courses, videos, and live chat support to get the training and answers they need.

“I’ve encouraged my team to use LeadSimple's chat/email/phone support & their feedback has been that it is over-the-top phenomenal!”

~ Brittney

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Advice to other property managers

We would all love it if change was an easy thing, but since that isn't the reality we live in Brittney had a few thoughts to share to other property managers who are pursuing the problem of organizing and streamlining their businesses.

• Set expectations on the commitment requirements for your team FIRST. If they understand how much time, learning and dedication is required of them during the transition period, they are much more likely to take it on rather than drag their feet.
• Lay the groundwork first, communicate the "Why" with your team. Your company's leadership team needs to lay the groundwork and communicate the vision,--the "why"--behind this change. You'll be surprised how much more motivated a team is to pursue change when they understand the vision behind it.
• Demo the LeadSimple system with your team so they can see the value in practice. It's one thing to hear someone tell you about it. It's another to actually see the system in action. Both need to work in conjunction with each other to clearly communicate the value of implementing any new system in your business.

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In the future, SCUDO plans to increase the level of automation in their processes so their team can focus on the tasks that get the most value out of a human touch. We don't really want robots making phone calls for us after all :)

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Are you interested in converting chaos into organization, efficiency, and accountability in your business? 

Schedule a call with us and we'll work with you to develop a plan of attack so you, your clients and your team can benefit from a business that runs like a well oiled machine.