How do you get your team using the software you already pay for?

Short answer

Most agencies already pay for software that can send updates, hold spending limits, book appointments and flag what’s gone quiet, but those settings were never switched on, so the work carries on around the system. You get the team using it by turning those settings on one at a time, giving each one an owner, and making the system the only place that kind of work can move forward. Start with the six-question test below, because the number of “no” answers tells you where to begin.

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Most agencies already pay for software that could take a big share of the owner’s job away, and it’s switched off. The same thing turns up in almost every agency I look at, in sales, lettings and management, whatever software they run. Nothing is broken and nobody is idle. The settings that would have caught the problem were never turned on, so the work runs round the system, and every gap ends up with whoever is in charge.

I ran property management for 5,000 properties before I started doing this for other agencies. Here are the six things I’d switch on first. None of them need a new system.

How many of these are switched off in your agency?

Answer yes or no.

1. When a job moves on, does the client hear about it without anyone remembering to tell them?
2. Does your team know in pounds what they can agree without you?
3. Are safety certificate dates and other key dates owned by a role, so they still happen when someone is off?
4. Could you see today what’s gone quiet across the business, without asking anyone?
5. Has anyone phoned a past vendor or landlord this month because the system told them to?
6. Do you know what you pay for software each month, and what you actually use?

Two or more “no” and at least one of the moves below will pay for your time this week. Write your score down and take the test again a month after you make changes, so you can see whether anything has moved.

1. How do you stop clients ringing for updates?

A lot of the calls into an agency are people asking where something is: the vendor asking about the chain, the landlord asking about the boiler, the tenant asking if the contractor is coming. Every one of them interrupts somebody. Almost every CRM and repairs platform can send an update when a job changes stage, but it’s often switched off, or set up years ago and never looked at again.

What it gives back: a big share of your inbound calls, and the complaints that start with “nobody told me”.

This week: ask your team which question they get asked most, then find the stage in your system where the answer already exists and turn on the update from there.

2. How do you stop small decisions waiting for the owner?

Repairs over the landlord’s limit, a fee discount to keep a landlord, a goodwill gesture after a complaint. None of these are hard decisions, but if nobody has been told they can make them, they wait for you. Many repairs platforms and CRMs can hold an approval limit per landlord or per job, and send anything above it to a named person rather than to the owner. In most agencies that field is blank.

Decide the numbers first:

Decision	Who decides	Up to	Above that
Repair over the landlord’s limit	Property manager	£____	Head of lettings
Fee discount to win or keep a client	Branch manager	___%	Owner
Goodwill gesture after a complaint	Branch manager	£____	Owner
Offer to settle a deposit disagreement	Property manager	£____	Head of lettings

What it gives back: the decisions that queue up behind you, and the days they sit waiting.

This week: fill in the amounts at the level you’d sign off without reading twice, then find where your repairs platform or CRM holds a spending or approval limit and put the same figures in. Where it can’t hold one, pin the table up so the team can still use it.

3. How do you make sure key dates never get missed?

Gas safety, electrical safety and the other compliance dates usually live in a spreadsheet, or something like it, that someone has to check by hand. A lot of agencies have the next stage up, which is a nudge: a reminder that pops up when a date is getting close. That’s better, but a nudge still relies on someone doing something off the back of it, and with the phone ringing and people at the desk, it gets missed. It’s usually the things that shouldn’t and can’t be missed that get pushed to one side in the middle of everything else.

The systems most agencies already use can go a step further and run the compliance process for you, so when a date comes up the works order goes out to the contractor, even when the person who looks after it is off or out of the office. One thing to check while you’re there: a compliance report can only count what’s been set up, so a property with no dates entered can look fully compliant. If setting this up is of interest, it’s something I can help with.

What it gives back: holidays and sick days that don’t turn into a missed date or an expired certificate.

This week: pull a list of every date due in the next 60 days and ask how each one would get actioned if the person who usually handles it was off.

4. How do you see what’s stuck without asking everyone?

Most owners find out what’s stuck by asking. Your system can already tell you: jobs with no update in a set number of days, offers with no progress, repairs waiting for approval. Save it as one report and read it once a week, on the same day each week.

What it gives back: the chasing, and the feeling that you have to be in the office to know what’s going on.

This week: build the report with whoever knows your system best, and keep it to what needs action.

5. How do you get more from past vendors and landlords already in your CRM?

Every agency has years of past vendors, buyers, landlords and tenants sitting in the CRM. Most have no routine for contacting them, so the phone only rings for past clients when they happen to remember you. Nearly every CRM can pull a list by date and type and set a follow-up task.

What it gives back: valuations and instructions from people who already know you, with no portal fee on the lead.

This week: pull the people who sold or let through you in one month, three to five years ago, and set one call or letter against each. Do the next month the week after.

6. Are you paying for software licences nobody uses?

Licences for people who’ve left, add-ons bought and never set up, a subscription that rolled on because the notice went to an old inbox. It’s common, and it’s usually the quickest money back.

What it gives back: cash, and often a feature you’ve already paid for that fixes one of the five moves above.

This week: list every system, the monthly cost, the number of licences and the number of people using them.

Which systems does this apply to?

All of them, because the settings are the same kind of thing whatever the name on the login screen. A few examples of what’s often sitting there unused:

• Your CRM (Reapit or whatever you use): stage updates to clients, follow-up tasks on past clients, and a saved report of what’s gone quiet.
• Your repairs platform (Fixflo or similar): updates to tenants and landlords as a job moves, and approval limits per landlord.
• Your property management system (MRI Qube or similar): dates and tasks owned by a role rather than a person.
• Your inventory app (InventoryBase, Inventory Hive or similar). Inventory Hive, for example, has a diary that plans inspectors’ days on a map and sends appointment details to tenants automatically, and it can export the maintenance issues from a report to a spreadsheet. If your team still rings or emails tenants to book interim visits, that’s a setting to look at.
• Your end-of-tenancy tool. The Depositary, for example, runs the end of a tenancy from notice to refund: getting tenants ready before they move out, keeping the tasks and messages in one place, and agreeing any deductions. If those steps still run by phone and email alongside it, the tool is only doing part of the job you pay for.

Is your PropTech worth keeping?

If the team says they get no value from a system, check what’s switched on before you cancel it. A system with half its settings off will always feel like extra work, and the replacement will feel the same a year later if it’s set up the same way. Use the list from move 6: for each system, write down what you bought it to do, whether that setting is on, and who owns it. If the setting is on, it’s owned and the team still works around it, that’s the time to look at something else.

What’s the one rule that makes it stick?

Pick one kind of work, repairs is usually the best place to start, and agree that it only moves forward inside the system. Managers approve inside the system too, so nobody can get round it by going up a level. Once that one route works, do the same with the next.

Then take a week off

Once these are in, take a week away and ask the team to note every time they would have phoned you. Give each one a home: a setting, a line in the approval table, or a named person. Do it again three months later with a full fortnight, and the list should be shorter.

Who can help

I’m Sam Olliver. I ran property management for 5,000 properties before I started doing this for other agencies, and I work across the systems agencies use, including Fixflo, Reapit, MRI Qube, InventoryBase, Inventory Hive and The Depositary, so I know where these settings live and which ones get left off. The Operations Scorecard is free and takes three minutes, and the Operations Audit looks at your actual set-up.

Frequently asked questions

Do we need new software to get more out of our systems?

Rarely. Most agencies already pay for the updates, approval limits and reminders they need. They were never switched on, or were set up once and forgotten.

Should I cancel software my team says is no use?

Check what’s switched on first. Write down what you bought it to do and whether that setting is on and owned by someone. If it is, and the team still works around it, then look at alternatives.

Which setting should we switch on first?

Start with whichever question your team gets asked most. If it’s “any update?”, turn on the stage updates. If it’s “can I agree this?”, set the approval limits.

How do we find out what we’re paying for but not using?

List every system with its monthly cost, the number of licences and the number of people logging in. Licences for leavers and add-ons nobody set up are the usual finds.