Background:

A national property management company came to us with multiple challenges. The property managers were constantly bickering, turnover was high, and the corporate office was receiving regular customer service complaints.

Objective:

To improve relationships among the property managers in order to positively impact customer service and turnover.

Challenge:

Poor customer service, turnover measurably impacting profitability.

Solution:

We established a baseline using the Team Effectiveness Questionnaire (TEQ) with measurements in 5 key areas – Direction, Structure, Leadership, Atmosphere, Processes. Their initial “score” was an overall 55% in team effectiveness. We designed and facilitated a team building process that included the use of awareness-building instruments, a high degree of experiential learning via ropes course, group discussions, and action planning. The group became highly engaged in the team building, was able to use the energy and insights from the activities to create a new model for how they would work together.

Results:

Two months later, a post-measurement TEQ indicated a 25% improvement and during interviews the managers expressed commitment and enthusiasm for maintaining the improvements. The general manager reported that customer service complaints and turnover had decreased significantly.