The "Rules" Approach
to the Tenant Service Process

Throughout this document, we make reference to the ServCtr “Rules” (Decision Support) Technology. The following provides an overview of how the process works.

The Blue squares represent the Property Manager’s agent or “Building Service Coordinator” (BSC) talking to the Tenant caller… the human interaction stage.
At this stage the BSC is focused on making the caller feel listened to, one human to another. As the conversation progresses, the BSC is asking questions to identify who the caller is, and specifically what space has the issue. For our purposes a space isn’t so much a physical boundary as it is an individual lease. The importance of the lease is that it contains the specific service commitments made between the Landlord and the Tenant. In other words, the lease forms the basis for the individual “Rules” or service standards applied to a specific space.

Once the BSC identifies the specific space, the system automatically drills down to the overall “Rule” for that lease (and ignores all other rule sets). The next step for the BSC is to identify the precise issue. The Dark Blue boxes identify activities that are handled by the ServCtr System (without BSC intervention).

As the BSC provides bits of information, the ServCtr system continues to drill down and display ever-shorter lists of relevant next choices. For example, when the BSC broadly categorizes an issue ie: Temperature, ServCtr immediately displays a short list of specific items that might apply (ie: Too Hot / Too Cold / After Hours). The short list process helps guide BSC’s while also ensuring that the Property Manager’s rules are followed for the given space.

One of the most powerful features in the ServCtr world is the ability to funnel all requests through one single system, whether it’s a Building Request or a Tenant Request. The single most important step in that process is the identification of “Who Pays”. It may change from space-to-space and even item-to-item based on the intricacies of the lease deal between the Landlord and Tenant. As an example, Tenant “A” may pay for faster response on Temperature calls (because it is critical for their server room), but Tenant “B” does not. To the SrvCtr System, “Who Pays” is absolutely pivotal, and is identified based the Property Managers’ rule for that item / in that category / for that space.

The reason that ”Who Pays” is so important is that the rules structure is built to allow the “Payer” to set their rules of their own (since it is their money). The “Payer” sets the rule around which service provider to use, what the deadline is for that type of service (at this time of day), whether or not an approval is needed (& if yes, by whom). (For example, if Tenant B pays for lighting calls, they are allowed to select the Approver, the deadline for service, etc.)

Armed with Space / Category / Item, ServCtr is able to guide the BSC through the specific details of the request resolution, including distributing the request to the appropriate Service Provider and measuring performance against the tenants’ expectations. Should the deadline be missed or the Managers “Rule” broken, ServCtr will notify key stakeholders in real-time.

One of the benefits of ServCtr is that it empowers Managers to benchmark Service Provider performance and to make changes to “Rules” on the fly, if required. Another benefit is that changes take place immediately (irrespective of who takes the next call). Time lags for re-training are virtually eliminated.

The upshot of all this technology is that Property Managers and their Tenants have more control and spend less time dealing with routine issues.

An added benefit is that Service Providers can be held accountable to the service levels that the Tenant expects, rather than some arbitrary standard set across a wide portfolio, and that performance exceptions are flagged immediately, which helps Managers prevent crisis.