Tech Talks Daily
00:31:18 · Dan Lifshits, Neil C. Hughes
Because, like, if you have a problem, you're a tenant, and you need it being resolved, then I think that it would be unreasonable to kind of expect those things should be taking more than, like, ten days to [00:31:29] S0: get fixed. And if we were to take everything you've just said there and then scale up even further, I was reading how you'd said that one operator can now manage up to 1,000 departments with a much, much higher quality, which is a a huge shift there. So what does that mean for people working in these agencies at the moment, and how are their roles evolving? Because everything's changing at the moment. And what what are you seeing here? How's that space evolving?
00:31:55 · Dan Lifshits
[00:31:55] S1: Yeah. Yeah. I would say that I think that we're not getting to kind of a thousand properties per one person just yet, but I think that we clearly see that there is like a path towards that. However, we obviously kind of do already increase effectively the throughput of the people by kind of, yeah, factor factor of, like, three factor of four. So kind of it's increasing it significantly. And I think that having said that, what happens with the kind of with the role of the people is, yes, their focus of attention does change, but it becomes much more of what I think the people actually were coming in this industry to do in the first place. And this being spending much more time with the customers, with the landlords, and with the tenants to really build a much deeper, long lasting relationships with them. So I think that the the above mentioned example that I've provided, you don't need to kind of, a person to provide the phone number of the tenant to the contractor, and then make sure that the contractor contacts the tenant, and then make sure that they agree on the appointment, and be this middleman just running around the things and trying to align to calendars and intermediating between the two things. You end up having to do that in today's world. Because let's say with a general kind of regulation out there, and especially with the Rentals Right Act kind of coming into force, obviously you have to make sure that the property management is compliant. So hence kind of because you are in charge, you have to make sure that let's say, the guest certificate appointment is being booked and is happening according kind of on time. Because then otherwise kind of you have a criminal liability up to the kind of going to to to prison, right, in case if it's like not happens on time. So that's why as a result, you have to do all that. But with the current technologies, actually, they can take on a lot of this basic admin things that very few people were coming to this industry to do in the first place.
00:33:37 · Dan Lifshits
Because provide the phone number, make sure that one kind of party contacts the other, make sure that they agree on the appointment, make sure on which day the appointment has been agreed, then kind of just follow-up, let's say, contractor or the tenant to ask for the kind of has the problem been resolved, yes or no, and then provide, for example, the confirmation of works done together with the pictures and with the quoting of the kind of of the works. It's not very kind of sophisticated process. Right? It's just like basic admin work that should you kind of take it away from kind of from some of the people, you actually do free up their time to actually be much more on the kind of salespeople, be much more on the frontline, be much more on the kind of spending more time with the landlords to really try to provide the excellent level of service to them, and rather be there the customer advocate. And I think that be the intermediator for some of the most complex customer situations when you need really kind of a conscious decision maker in between the tenant and the landlord. And you need to resolve a a deposit dispute, or you need to do some other things that do require kind of conscious judgment compared to the other things that are just basic admin effectively. And I think that's exactly the point that some of the basic admin can be taken away to free up people to just spend time on what really matters the most.
00:34:50 · Neil C. Hughes
[00:34:50] S0: And if we were to look ahead into our immediate future, if AI roll ups do continue to gain momentum, which is where all the smart money is being placed right now, so it's certainly looking that way, how do you see this model reshaping the wider services economy? And and what should any business leader listening to our conversation today? Any... Anything they should be paying attention to right now?
00:35:12 · Dan Lifshits
[00:35:12] S1: I think that there is a lot of directions. It's it's a great question. To be honest, I think the jury is out, and I think there's a lot of people, leading the thesis. I think that the future of the world remains very undecided to some extent in that dimension. But I think that everyone realizes that, as the service I think becomes a bit more of a commodity service, then obviously the next, obvious, implication that will happen is that the services would start and should start becoming cheaper, effectively ensuring that they become just much more accessible to the broader audience. Right? So for example, kind of I might not know the details of some of the industries and applications that well, but I'm seeing obviously also a lot of AI relapse activity in the likes of, legal space and accounting firms and the others where, for example, kind of there is an amazing another company kind of, let's say, kind of called low high for... That is like doing an AI roll up of law firms in The UK and in The US. And I think for consumer law, and I think that from, how kind of I understand that is that kind of a lot of basic, law requests do still require kind of a lawyer effectively kind of looking into your case, providing some judgment, etcetera etcetera. And becoming a lawyer is expensive. So meaning that kind of getting some advice also becomes sometimes prohibitively expensive. Should you be able to resolve some of the things with technology and should you make it much cheaper, then effectively the price point gets lower and then you can start serving a much bigger audience of customers just because your service becomes so much more accessible. Right? So I think that this is, for example, one of the directions into where this all can go. That effective without getting more efficient, it just ends up with, better customer service and serving more customers eventually because the service becomes more accessible. Another dimension where it can go is that, now that, some of the kind of people have more of the time to spend with the customers, I think that you have an opportunity to upsell a lot of additional services on top of that. So rather than, for example, if you talk about our case, then it's just a property management company.
00:37:17 · Dan Lifshits, Neil C. Hughes
Why don't you, for example, on top of that also upsell with a kind of rent guarantees and zero deposits and some additional kind of products and fintech offerings to the landlords. So that effectively... Imagine that historically, effectively, the property manager has been rather just like property managers. But what if the letting agents, as in general, move away from just kind of becoming just a property manager fixing the kind of toilet leaks as you mentioned, to just becoming much more of like wealth manager, really looking after the kind of the asset of the landlord where kind of usually owning the property is one of the most precious assets that you kind of own in your life. So then kinda why not the property manager is getting to be a bit more upskilled to become really like a wealth manager, just like property focused wealth manager for the landlord, where kind of as we discussed the bathroom and toilet leaks and kind of the collecting the rent and reconciliation just happens semi automatically by the kind of system and technology. Right? So I think that there are different directions where it could play out, and I think that the jury's out, really. But I think that all paths of the future are more than possible. Incredibly exciting times. [00:38:26] S0: I would urge anyone listening to check you guys out. And on that side of things, for people that are listening that are intrigued by everything we've talked about today, they wanna find out more information, connect with you or your founders. Where would you like me to point everyone listening?