Propertyware’s “Implementation Yogi” Helping Single-Family Clients Breathe Easier

With his team of implementation experts and trainers, Tom Hall is taking the stress out of the single-family client journey.

Our first profile in this series addressed Senior Vice President James Wagley’s mission to improve and stabilize Propertyware’s products, pricing structure and customer service before moving on to any new bells and whistles.

The “product” part of this mission is currently ahead of schedule in the hands of ace software engineer LaTonya Green, profiled in our second article. And here, in the third, we turn to the implementation and training side of things, with Tom Hall, director of client services for single-family.

The term “yogi” in the title of this article is no figure of speech: Hall really is a yogi, a certified instructor. And not surprisingly, he believes his deep understanding of mindfulness and de-stressing informs his mission to make everything as “simple, peaceful and pleasant” as possible for clients challenged with onboarding new Propertyware products.

This experience is layered on top of an extensive background in real estate that includes development, investment management and property management in Chicago and Dallas. “I’ve pretty much done it all,” Hall says, “and my time in the trenches has given me a very clear window into what single-family property managers want and need.”

Guiding the client journey

When a property manager becomes a Propertyware client or takes on a new product, they embark on what is now being called the client journey. This involves a number of stages, from first getting acquainted with the product through complete mastery. “My mission is to make this journey as pleasant and efficient as possible,” explains Hall. “This involves superlative support during implementation along with ongoing training to make sure our clients are getting maximum value out our products.”

Last year’s simplification of the Propertyware product line and pricing have led to lots of existing clients taking on products they weren’t using before, in addition to the regular influx of new ones. This surge of implementations has made Hall’s job critical. He breaks his role down to three main components.

First is the relatively recent “single point of contact” initiative, designed to give clients a single person to interface with rather than having to work with a variety of people in diverse functions at Propertyware.

Second is the institution of “client health scores” – regular checkups that ensure users really understand the products and are taking full advantage of their benefits. “We don’t want to just sell a property manager our software and move on,” Hall explains. “When they get the most out of it, we win, and not just because it makes us feel good: the clients are more inclined to do more business with us and to say good things about us when their businesses are running fantastically well using our solutions.”

The third component of Hall’s mission involves the team of experts he’s been training in Manila to help with the backlog of implementations following the product realignment. “These folks are smart, devoted, very service-oriented – just great at working hand-in-hand with the clients to get up and running,” he says. “The feedback has been absolutely fantastic.”

Reinventing training

Hall is particularly excited about the transformation of Propertyware training. He says the training program has changed from explaining the various features and how they work to a much more effective “day in the life” approach. “Now it’s more about looking at typical tasks a property manager needs to accomplish and showing them how to go about it using the software, instead of a walk-through of features,” he explains.

Propertyware University is now also offering free, daily live online training as well as on-demand pre-recorded training.

Foundation for the future of single-family

What Hall wants is to institutionalize six milestones designed to bring a client through implementation and training on new products in only 30 days. This process will ideally see Propertyware professionals working closely with clients to reach these milestones. “We want this to be a collaboration, rather than just us telling clients what to do,” says Hall.

Beyond helping current clients achieve operational excellence, Hall would like to enhance the product line and support to better serve institutional clients. “Large institutions are increasingly acquiring or putting together portfolios of single-family properties as investment vehicles, and we want to be on the forefront of this trend,” Hall says.

With experienced problem-solvers now driving improvement initiatives on both the product and support sides, James Wagley is well on his way to achieving his mission to make Propertyware the unassailable leader in rental property management software for single-family. “By adding leaders like Tom Hall to our team, we’ve shown how serious we are about being the best in the business,” he says.