Bettering your experience with Ivans Process | REI | EP. 41

Welcome back, Freedom fans. We are recording another episode, vlog41. And I'm Aaron Davis, president of Freedom Real Estate Group, here with Tiffany Biddle, our transaction coordinator. And we're going to talk today about the aiven investor experience. And Tiffany is my guest for a reason, because you, you pretty much run that experience, right?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So tell me a little bit about what you do day to day. Let's start with that for those who don't know.

Yeah. So the transaction coordinator, I take a property from, you know, contract is signed all the way to closing. I deal a little bit from at the beginning and a little bit at the end, but the bulk of my, you know, my role is from contract to close.

Yeah. Good. So obviously Tiffany was like the first person I went to as I'm starting to learn a little bit about what our investors go through and then like a whole army of other people that got involved with us in this. Right? Yeah. So let's talk a little bit about the whole, like, I've an investor experience. So, Tiffany, what were your initial thoughts when we, when we first began that whole project?

Yeah, initially I didn't even think we needed it. I was like, what are you talking about? This whole experience that, you know, we signed the purchase agreement, we get to close. Done. It's done. And then Aaron lays this all out on a wall and all these people are in the room and they're all pinning up things that they do that I didn't even, I didn't even know they're happening because I'm just trying to, you know, keep. Keep properties moving along, keep deals going. And so, you know, my initial thoughts were, what, what is this? What are we doing here? And it completely changed and ended up being a very productive and I think, meaningful thing, that experience that we went through.

Yeah. What was the first aha for you? Like, like the first thing that you. The first real moment when you realize something, it was impactful for the first time.

I think the first aha for me was putting something that I had done for three years that had not changed on the board and seeing that's not right.

Okay. You know, so you, like, you had a realization that, like, something was messed.

Up or we'd been, we'd been doing it with, you know, not thinking there's an issue because we're just go, go, go, go, go. And I saw it on the board and I said, that's wrong. And we fixed it. It's the first thing we fixed was that, you know, first intro email, and we Shortened it down from three emails to one. We, you know, simplified it and it worked nice. For the next three, you know, clients that we sent that out to, it started working and we started seeing.

Yeah, that's cool.

The fruits of our labor right there. So that was very cool.

We're getting into a lot of the meat right away, but we should, we should slow down, back up a little bit. So, like, you know, what is. Who is Ivan the investor? We keep talking about Ivan the investor or whatever. So I'll answer that question. Ivan the investor is a kind of a semi fictitious Persona that we've used to describe the typical person who buys a turnkey property from us. Right. And so that was a bit of a negotiation right away. That was one of the first things we did, was say, okay, who is this person? What do they look like, sound like, act like, what do they value? What kind of things do they do professionally? What things matter to them? We decided to call him Ivan. I had actually had a conversation with somebody named Ivan, not that, not that long before that. So next thing you know, we're all talking about Ivan, but Ivan the investor is you. It's actually me too. Right. And you had your own kind of like, you know, thought process about who Ivan was. And then collectively we all had to kind of compromise and decide that this is the typical set of characteristics for the person that's going through our process. The whole process was exactly that. Just looking at everything we do from that customer's perspective. Yeah, okay. So you said you saw an impact. You started to see an impact with an email that we changed. How did you know it was working? Whatever that tweak that you made, like, how did you, how were you able to tell that it created a better experience?

Yeah. So right away, you know, when a purchase agreement is signed and something is sent out that says, hey, here's the title company, here's your next steps, here's the property management, here's everything that you need. It was overwhelming. I think for them it was a lot of information. And so people were missing crucial steps like send your earnest money in, you know, introduce me to the lender. It was stuff that I was following up over and over. Like, hey, you know, did you do this? Did you do this? And kind of walking them through where we changed it, we completely revamped it. It's a step by step, do this, do this, do this. Here's your action items, they're highlighted for you. You don't have to read all of this stuff. You can just look at it. And, you know, I did it. We sent it out to one client, and I said, we'll see how this goes. Right. And he did everything that was on that list. And I thought, okay, maybe a fluke.

And that was different. That was unique.

He's just on the ball. Right. He's ready to go. We send it to another one. Done. Done, Done, done.

Really?

To another one. Done, Done.

Yeah. So I'm like, hearing this feedback for the first time.

Yeah, it was. It's. It's fast. It's like what it's doing to my role is. It's making my role, you know, when I have all of this stuff. Follow ups, follow ups, follow ups. They're just less people just on the ball right now because they see exactly what they need to do. So it was a really cool.

Well. And that's that many. That's less emails, phone calls from you.

Yes.

Right. So what's really important, it's great when we make our own lives better, but we make our customers life better too.

Absolutely.

So if they're able to be clearly responsive to people directly to, you know, to engage in the next steps of a process that they've said they want to get into. Yeah, we've simplified their life. Right. And I was part of that email redesign or whatever. I was in that conversation. So tell us a little bit about how much. How many long hours of labor and.

Hard work went into that.

Like, how hard was that?

It really, honestly, it wasn't that bad. But, you know, we went. I know. I sent you a draft. I was so proud of it. You know, I said, I did it. I did it. I combined these. Look at it. It's done. And you were like, okay, cut it in half. Take out, you know, take out half of the wording and do it again. And do it again and do it again. And I was like, I can't. I can't even do it once. I think we did it five, four or five times. I think I put four or five drafts in there.

10, 15 minutes into that. And maybe a couple of other folks did, too.

Exactly.

We're an hour.

It was maybe an hour, right? Yeah, because we. We threw it in a, you know, a shared Google Doc. We all just threw ideas in there. Boom, done. We picked the best of the drafts. And. And yeah, like you said, obviously, it. It helped my life, but it helped the investors as well, because now I have time to have more fruitful conversations with them about other things versus just, hey, who's your lender? Hey, who's your lender. You know, there's, it's just better, I think all around.

You said something to me at one point about, you know, I didn't have. I just never looked at this. These are easy changes to make and making an impact. But so tell me a little bit about that. Like just expand on that process.

Yeah, that taking that email and, you know, making it just one easy to follow email was something that I have been so busy. I also deal with when we buy properties and I work with our private money lenders and I do all of this stuff in the beginning.

No shortage of things to fill your day.

Exactly. So I'm bouncing around doing a million different things so I can't look at what needs to be improved. I should, I would love to. You know, I loved what we did, but I don't see those things. I don't see what needs to be improved. So. Or if I do, I'm like, yeah, we should improve this. It's gone something else. Right. So having that laid out and that dedicated time to. Let's look at all these, these pain points, what are they? How can we fix them? And just having the dedicated time to be able to actually know. Okay, I do need to fix this. Let's, let's put some time in. It didn't take that long, you know, but when you're running around all day long, you can't see it. You can't see what needs to be fixed.

That's exactly right. That email was low hanging fruit. Right. It was one of 15 big friction points that we kind of identified as like these are things that might slow down the process for Ivan. These are things that might confuse the next steps or muddy the waters a little bit for Ivan the investor. And so we identified all these friction points and then picked our low hanging fruit. And that was one of them. And immediately it's having big impact. But obviously there were a lot of people in that room.

Yes. Virtually and physically.

That was an expensive meeting. Right.

Or series of meetings.

It wasn't just the hour it took to tweak and redesign an email that you send out all the time, right? Yeah, There's a lot of hours and eyeballs and attention went into that hour of effort to figure out exactly what that is. So.

And you thought that that was going to be one one hour meeting. I just want to make that note because it was four one hour meetings.

You know, that that experience was really insightful to me because I mean that was, that was my freshman year and I'm like, wow, There's a whole body of knowledge here, like just, just what it takes to go through that process.

Right.

And so great design makes it really easy for the customer, really hard behind the scenes. So it didn't upset me too much. And I realized how many transactions and handoffs and processes and faces and emails and logos and email signatures and stuff that went into it. But it was surprising to me how many, how clear all the friction points were and how many things we kind of agreed like, were worth digging into and improving.

Right. Yeah. And everyone had some input on there, you know, and a lot more people gave input than I think I thought would have. So it was very cool.

I thought we would be able to knock out a to do list in an hour.

Right. People were going back and forth about everything and. Yeah.

So what, what was there, Were there anything, were there things that surprised you? That from the investor's experience, from Ivan, the investor's experience. Were there things that you said, wow, I didn't realize he was experiencing this or she was experiencing this. Was there anything that you were observing through the eyes of our customer that you kind of saw more clearly for the first time?

Yeah, I think the whole property management, you know, that entire track that they take after they close, you know, and what actually happens there and how we're continuing to follow up with them at the same time that property management is. And it, you know, that was.

We're telling the story that we don't sit in the same building together.

Yes.

And we're not all sister companies working together.

Right.

But in reality we're all.

I can run down the door to Chris's office if I need something. Right. And we're looking like we don't, you know, but yeah, that's. I had no idea what was going on with IPM and what, what their property management process was.

So, so the integration piece was huge.

Yeah. It closes and it's done for me. Right. You know, so just seeing everything that continues going is really cool.

Yeah, that's, that's a, that's such an interesting observation. So it's done for you because that's when you stop being engaged and involved. Like your help's not needed at that point.

Right.

But for Ivan, it's just begun.

Exactly.

Right. He just purchased this thing that now he lives with.

Yeah.

And so it's such a small, you know, we each play such a small part in our customers experience and journey that we don't just miss what each little interaction feels with. We miss what the entirety of their experience is Right. Most of us don't see most of our customers experience.

So yeah, yeah, for me it's, you know, 30 days of closing. It's a big deal. You know, it's the biggest deal for me and it's.

For them it might be a lifetime.

Minuscule and what they're gonna.

Yeah, yeah, it might be a lifetime of owning that asset in their portfolio.

Right.

Interesting. The surprise for me was seeing all of, all of the faces. Right. So we actually took pictures of everybody who interacted with Ivan the investor from the point they first hear about freedom real estate and turnkey to the point where they're integrated and we're delivering owner draws, you know, we're delivering cash to them out of their cash flowing property. Right. So it was interesting for me to see how many faces in our organization, our sister companies and then our preferred providers like lenders and inspectors and stuff that we refer folks to. There were so many that I was, it was, it was an aha moment to me that wow, that's a lot of people to meet and to understand how they interact with each other and.

So to know who to go to for the.

Right, that's exactly right. Yeah. That still weighs on you. That's still on that list of 15 things.

I'm not thinking about that.

Right. That is not an hour long email design that we tweaked and fixed. That's a lot of hands that need to be in there doing important things. But it's potential confusion.

Right, right.

So those are friction points that we're digging into and hopefully by the time we do our follow up episode in the podcast, we'll have more content on that because we've got a list and we're continuing to work through it.

Yes.

So that's cool. What do you think, Tiffany, like when you look at the next hill to tackle or whatever, what do you think we could still improve for Ivan the investor in that experience?

Well, one of the, I mean you touched on one of the things is just who to go to, who do I talk to when I need? You know, another thing that I think we can still, we can still improve is making sure that it's, it's well understood that we are, we are one company. We are all, you know, incorporated together. IPM Freedom through the life of your, of your property. You still have us too, you know. So I think that those are a couple things that we can still improve.

Bulldog came to mind too because now as we're managing properties and a tenant turns, we have a go to renovations company that actually executes the renovation, the rehabs. When we buy turnkey properties, rehab them and sell them to investors. We now have, you know, a renovations organization we know and trust. We know their rates are great, we know their quality is great, and we know they show up. That's the biggest thing these days.

Right, right.

We know they show up. And so that's such a huge asset to be able to commit to our ongoing ownership. Right. To the, to the investor who stays in that property for a lifetime or whatever, that their property manager literally, you know, sits right down the hall from the renovations company that helps them turn that property.

Yes.

Right. So anyway, the integrations piece is a big deal and make making sure our investors understand how closely we work hand in hand, buying properties, rehabbing properties, selling those properties, then managing and renovating, you know, upkeeping those properties. We're all like literally sit here together.

Yes.

And if we're not all in this building or whatever, we're all part of the sister companies or whatever, the family.

Of companies, and we're all mixed together in the building. I mean, it's not even. Here's a section of the building that's bulldog. Here's a sec. I mean, we are.

That's right.

I'm next to somebody in the acquisitions team and then next to somebody who does marketing. Like it's very.

That's such a huge asset to that investor to know that all those solutions are right there. Working hand in hand to alleviate the concern that those things are disjointed is where we need to do some work.

Right.

Perception is reality sometimes. Right?

Yeah.

Okay. Well, I've got my projects too. We talked a little bit about like the way we do surveys and you know, ask for feedback and that kind of thing. Kind of integrating, clarifying that is a big thing on my, on my to do list. Simple things like email signatures have a big impact because they create clarity.

Right, right.

So we'll be talking more about this, obviously.

Awesome.

So what else you had asked? Well, two things come to mind that we didn't get into. One, kind of painting the picture of what this, you know, mapping Ivy and the investors experience was about. Tell us a little bit about what that actually looked like physically, what was included. You know, you referenced all the stuff on the board or whatever. Like, tell us a little bit about that.

Yeah. So we had, we all came in and Aaron had put tape, blue tape up on the walls and he had, you know, one big long horizontal line and a bunch of slashes kind of through it.

Yeah.

Talk with your hands on these things. We had big, you know, slashes, and then we had printed off every interaction that we have with our investors. So introductory emails to our clients, a call that's been scheduled, just anything that we could print out or just write, you know, this is what happens here. And we took tape and we taped everything to the wall in different sections. Like this happens at the beginning. This happens here. This step, this step, this step, you know, property management. I said the property management track went down and around over here. And then we took our pictures and we taped them up on the wall with everything that we are involved in, if we are talking to the client at that point or if we are being introduced or whatever it is. You know, I think there was a section that had like four or five people just taped up there. Yes. So we taped our pictures up there. We taped everything that was, you know, that we could see as an interaction. And then we took post it notes and we said, this is a friction point. This is a friction point. This is confusion. This could be confusing. This could be confusing. And we went through and we did all of those and then we just sat down and we talked through. We talked through this process and that board stayed up. We wanted it to stay up until today, but I think Aaron got stressed out about it. He tore it all down, was done with it. But, you know, it was on the board for. Or on the wall for weeks.

Yeah.

You know, and everyone joked, you know, did you find the, did you find the fugitive? It looked like a manhunt or something, you know, so. But it was really cool. It took up an entire wall in our training room.

You know, I don't think we're done with it exactly, but I do. I mean, we're done with kind of mapping out what that process was and kind of who's involved in it. I called all those things artifacts. Right. It's every email, every email signature, every handoff, every document, every webpage we point somebody to, every person they talk with, all the different things that are involved. Right. But we're definitely not done solving those problems. There's friction points and we use red sticky notes or whatever. We got a long list of them. And some of them are low impact, some of them are big impact. And then, you know, I referred to return on effort, you know, Right. Like we want to do the things that are easiest to fix on that email. Boom. An hour of effort. We've already saved all the time we put into this whole process for having the investor. Right. Collectively, the handful of buyers who have been engaged since then, we've already saved all the time we put into it, and so the rest of it is just. It's gravy on the.

Yeah.

So. Okay, cool. Well, we'll talk a little bit more in the podcast about other outcomes that we're chasing, improvements that we're making. But, you know, I think the moral of the story is that we're listening a lot of these things. We know because we have been listening. What we did was just. We just tinkered with an approach to applying all those inputs that we've received over the period or whatever, into kind of designing intentionally what that journey is for the buyer.

Right.

So, anyway, I appreciate your help and leadership and pushing out some of those outcomes.

No problem.

Anything else you want to add or thoughts or questions or whatever?

No, I don't think so.

We'll get into it more.

Covered it all. Yeah.

We'll get into more of the content and the things that we're changing and the processes and the impact for Ivan when we do our. When we do our podcast next time. So in the meantime, thanks, everybody.

Invest smart, live happy.

All right, let's do it.

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