Why Risk Your Relationship? Image

Why Risk Your Relationship?

January 15, 2025

Lease Management

Brokers invest years developing and nurturing strong relationships with their clients, built on trust and confidence. These relationships are the foundation for repeat business and client loyalty, often leading clients to follow brokers throughout their careers. To support strategic and execution work, brokers and clients require accurate and transparent lease data to provide insights into portfolio performance. 

When it comes to lease administration, clients may either manage the service in-house or ask brokers for a referral. Brokers often feel pressured to recommend their in-house lease administration service due to cross-selling referral incentives or perceived convenience. However, there are critical risks to consider before making an internal referral.

Key Considerations:

  1. Time and Focus: When the broker is the primary client contact, they often become the escalation point for the in-house lease administration issues. Poor quality or errors in lease data management can consume valuable time that brokers could otherwise devote to strategic portfolio management and negotiations.
  2. Financial and Relationship Risk: A critical date miss or a quality issue causing financial loss to the client may strain the broker’s relationship. If the lease administration service is in-house, clients could leverage the broker relationship to recover losses, jeopardizing commissions and trust.
  3. Reputational Damage: If the internal lease administration team fails to meet client expectations, it can negatively impact the broker’s reputation and put both the lease administration and brokerage scopes of work at risk. A third-party provider like Scribcor offers a safety net, enabling clients to change providers without damaging the broker’s reputation or firm.
  4. Financial Neutrality: Rebate fees can fund either internal or external lease administration services. Typically, the costs are comparable, so there’s no inherent financial advantage to using an internal service.
  5. Cost-Centric Approach of Larger Firms: Internal lease administration teams at larger firms often treat the service as a cost center rather than a value driver. This approach results in high turnover, offshoring, and client frustration. The focus on cost reduction often leads to diminished service quality and poor client experiences.
  6. Misaligned Focus: Large brokerage firms design their lease administration services to cater primarily to Fortune 250 companies, such as major banks. While this approach supports their largest revenue streams, it creates inefficiencies and service level gaps for other clients. Standardized processes may not meet the unique needs and expectations of all clients, leading to dissatisfaction and unnecessary costs.

Protecting Your Relationships

Brokers have the option to maximize value for their clients while safeguarding their relationships and commissions. Internal pressure to recommend in-house services should not outweigh the potential risks to client satisfaction and trust. Ultimately, large commercial real estate firms prioritize their own interests, leaving brokers vulnerable if a relationship is damaged or lost.

Now is the time to assess your situation and make the right referral decision. If your lease administration team is not meeting expectations, consider making a change. Scribcor specializes in independent lease administration, delivering tailored solutions to meet each client’s unique requirements.

Why Choose Scribcor?

  • Expertise and Best Practices: Scribcor builds long-term client relationships by providing industry-leading expertise and best practices.
  • Tailored Solutions: We customize our services to align with each client’s way of doing business.
  • Dedicated On-Shore Team: Our experienced on-shore account managers administer the end-to-end delivery from detailed quality reviews on everything we do to scheduling and leading the quarterly business reviews to ensure client satisfaction.
  • Trusted Partner: We integrate seamlessly into clients’ teams, consistently exceeding expectations and adding value.

Contact us today to learn how Scribcor can bring independent lease administration expertise and exceptional service to your portfolio.

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Contact Scribcor

We’re always happy to talk lease management. If you’d like more information about our services, or have a question, or just need some helpful advice on how to get started, just send us a note and we’ll get right back to you. There’s never any pressure or obligation and your contact information is kept confidential.