TMC's Client Service Process
TMC has a unique approach to the Client Service Process—we do it from the client’s point of view. We ask ourselves what we would want from a real estate provider if we were the client: What qualities and services would we want? How could we evaluate the service provider at no cost and see if they deliver useful added value?
Learning Your Needs
We differ from other real estate companies right at the outset. We don’t seek a contract, don’t ask to be hired, and don’t obligate either ourselves or a prospective client to any relationship. Instead we structure a period that allows us to learn about the client’s needs, and allows them to learn about working with us and the services we can provide. We would rather deliver those services at no cost and no obligation for an evaluation period of 30 to 90 days.
Learning about the needs and issues of our prospective client is the first course of business. Some companies will have one large headquarters and no other offices. Some have 60 or 200 small or big offices around the country or the world. Key data such as the company’s headcount, rsf/person ratio, lease expiration and other critical dates are learned.
Property Synopsis and More
Whether it’s a portfolio of leases or one corporate headquarters, we routinely find prospective clients without proper files and tracking processes for their leases. Our Lease File Processes organizes data on the company server or in physical files. This is similar to how our Fortune 100 clients do it. We also gather all key data and input it to our Property Synopsis sheet, which provides all critical data about the company’s leases.
One of our most valuable services is the Lease Review. Our Lease Review is a sophisticated, extraordinarily detailed document that lets our clients know every leverage point they have in their lease. It analyzes the lease clauses to determine which terms and conditions are better or worse than Fortune 100 companies typically achieve. The Lease Review helps us generate a fair market value appraisal, so the client can learn if they are above or below market rates. At this point many of our clients make the decision to ask us to renegotiate lease rates with their landlord.
Reconciling and Auditing are two standards that most companies disregard. Larger companies with developed real estate departments do this internally. At no cost to our clients, every year we reconcile and audit their leases. After 30 years in the industry, we can simply say most companies aren’t paying the right rent. We can show you our spreadsheet tool that verifies rents and operating expenses for accuracy and audit.
After the initial evaluation period we take a pause, and ask the client how this is working for them. Quite frankly, at this point in the client service process most companies recognize the kind of value-add we offer, and let us become their tenant rep for their next renegotiation, renewal or relocation. And at that point we start bringing them another batch of services. These include processes, and resources that clients like Cisco, Apple, JP Morgan, and Clorox receive from us. Those clients also use other tools we offer like our standardized Green RFP, our Property Study and our Sustainability Study. They like our Landlord Analysis process because it prevents them from negotiating with a troubled property. Our Project Management and Project Schedule processes are just simply not offered by other real estate service providers.
We think these concepts of a trial period, many value added services, and an experience level that comes from working with many great international companies will create a terrific relationship. Very importantly, we bring big and successful experience to all our clients, and we enjoy it!
