Relate the culture to customers
With employees, your culture isn’t what you say it is; it’s what
they see it as. The same goes for your customers. That’s why
it’s important that your employees not only absorb and internalize the culture but reflect it, as well.
Hankowsky says that in the world of business, and real estate
in particular, you never know who is going to be a repeat customer, so you’d better make the best impression you can.
“As much as it’s a very big country and big economy, there is an
understanding that there is a real estate brokerage community,
and if we deal with a broker, we’re going to see that broker
again,” he says. “They’re going to bring in another customer,
and they can bring that customer in with a favorable recommendation about us, or a ‘watch yourself around these guys’
recommendation. Whatever happens, you’re going to see these
guys again.”
Liberty Property — which had approximately $698 million in
revenue in 2007 — has a number of metrics it looks at to gauge
the level of satisfaction of both real estate brokers and building lessees, including lease renewal rates, market vacancy
rates and periodic surveys.
However, the best way to ensure that the metrics look good is
to have a customer-centric approach to problem solving, which
again comes back to the culture.
“I have a saying that when a customer walks through the
door, his job is not to lease your 10,000 square feet of office
space,” Hankowsky says. “Your job is to solve his real estate
problem. That could mean telling him we don’t have an answer,
that a better solution for him might be something else.
“Culture absolutely manifests itself in the behavior of your
people in the field. If we take a long-term view and find the
best possible solution for a customer, that customer will come
back.”
HOW TO REACH: Liberty Property Trust, www.libertyproperty.com
