The impact of transparency in estate management

Communication is one of the biggest challenges in estate management. The world’s best property managers, housekeepers, tradespeople and artisans aren’t always the best communicators — which leads to a common disconnect: work gets done, but the principals don’t know that it’s been done.

Without transparency, principals are left wondering what household staff are working on. Staff can feel micromanaged and overwhelmed with questions and reminders. And estate managers are trapped in the middle, trying to fill in communication gaps and keep everyone on the same page.

Bridging the communication gap

“Keeping things running smoothly stems from the staff understanding what their role is and who’s owning each project,” says Bay Area estate manager Stephanie Portillo, who found herself in the position of bridging the communication breakdown between her principals and her high performing (but not overly communicative) team.

Stephanie oversees a 200+ acre estate that runs like a hotel. She and her seven team members are responsible for managing eight different buildings with an indoor art collection, maintaining an extensive outdoor sculpture collection and complex systems like water tanks and fire suppression systems, and caring for a property that’s home to an orchard, hillsides, edible gardens and chickens.

“I am so lucky that for my staff, this is not just a job to them, this is their vocation,” says Stephanie. “They want to do everything to make sure that they are putting 110% into their job at all times.”

But two years ago, she noticed a hiccup: her team of experts didn’t have a way to stay on the same page, and they didn’t have the tools to easily communicate progress to their principals. If the principals asked whoever was standing in front of them for an update, the staff could be left floundering.

“The principals just want to know that it’s getting done,” explains Stephanie. “The issue was, who’s getting back to them? And then I realized that I was always holding the bag because it wasn’t clear.”

Stephanie set out to find an estate management platform that could create transparency across the organization. Today, Stephanie, her principals, the household staff, and a handful of trusted vendors all use Nines to communicate.

“I think it’s completely changed both the morale for the team and the principals,” says Stephanie.

Let’s explore how improving transparency had a ripple effect on the principals, the team, and the overall estate operations.

For the principals: clarity and accountability

Now that Stephanie and her team keep track of tasks and projects in Nines, the principals can easily see what everyone’s working on.

One principal is very involved, and logs in regularly to get an overview. They can look at the full task list across properties, filter to see what each team member is focused on, or search by zone to see what’s happening in each part of the property. The other principal stays updated through auto-generated email notifications for the tasks or projects they’re following.

“The communication from the principals asking, where are we on that? has truly diminished,” says Stephanie. “They no longer ask me what team members are doing that day or why something didn’t get done, because they can see that we have five pages of tasks that cover that one month.”

Now, they can see when tasks are deprioritized to make room for other projects, and they can gain the reassurance that just because something didn’t happen today doesn’t mean it’s slipped through the cracks. Clear accountability has changed the conversation between the principals and their estate management team.

“They are more hands-off,” says Stephanie. “We do check-ins, but the check-ins are not necessarily about tasks – they’re about upcoming projects, things that they would like to do, more long-term what they see for their property versus the day-to-day.”

For the household staff: a new sense of accomplishment

Today, Stephanie’s team members also appreciate having a transparent system, but at first, they were reticent. She chose Nines for one key feature: ease of use. She needed a tool that would make her less tech-savvy team members change their tune.

“No one wanted any type of technology, they just wanted to go in and do their jobs,” says Stephanie. “So I was very mindful, I listened, and I said, let’s just take baby steps and let me show you how I think this will help us.” 

In every one on one meeting, she pulls up the staff member’s page and uses their connected tasks as an agenda.

“I can click on their name, see what they are working on, and facilitate conversations around what they may need guidance on or simply extra time,” says Stephanie.

With a clear view of all of the moving pieces, it’s easier to prioritize. Tasks that seem straightforward frequently become bigger projects with a number of unexpected subtasks. Now, they can easily change the deadlines for less urgent tasks and log why something changed.

“It’s taken the pressure off of deadlines, and it’s reduced stress,” says Stephanie.

Once she got her team members’ buy-in, everyone gained a new sense of pride and satisfaction.

“Nines has provided that sense of accomplishment,” says Stephanie. “It’s satisfying to make a task list and check off the box, and to be able to say, look at all I’ve done — here are the pictures of what it looked like before, and now here we are.”

For the team: efficiency and collaboration

Before moving to one communication platform, team members would call the same vendors for help with different problems.

Now that all of a vendor’s tasks are connected to their page, the team can see when one of their colleagues needs help, saving the vendor from having to make multiple trips.

For example, maintenance might call the electrician to fix the lighting on the path. Before he leaves the property, he can check the vendor’s page, see that Stephanie just created a task for the electrician to troubleshoot a problem with the interior lighting, and radio her to see if she’s available to meet with him.

A handful of trusted vendors are even invited to log in to Nines with limited permissions.

“It helps them because they can go and look at the projects they’ve done with us in the past, but they only have access to things that relate to their tasks or projects specifically,” says Stephanie.

With visibility into what everyone is working on, Stephanie and her team can also plan around each other. The gardener can adjust their plans after finding out that maintenance is bringing in pest control, and Stephanie can ensure that she doesn’t schedule outdoor sculpture preservation work on a day when the landscapers are on the property.

“It’s been very collaborative,” says Stephanie.

For the estate manager: seamless operations

Armed with a platform where information is connected and accessible, Stephanie can keep everyone on the same page without having to constantly field questions and send reminders.

“The ultimate game changer is the Connections feature,” she explains, referring to how she can make connections between any two objects in Nines.

For example, she might connect one task to an asset, a zone and a vendor. Later, she can look at the asset and ask, when was this last serviced? She can check the zone to see what work has been done there in the last few months. Or, she can look at the vendor’s page to understand what they’ve helped with recently. In all three places, she can see that task (but she only had to create the task once).

“A spreadsheet is a fixed way of looking at something,” she explains. “There’s a myriad of variables in Nines, so if you’re someone who is a visual person, you can look at pictures to help you complete something, and if you’re someone that is just very task oriented, you can look at your task list. There’s always another way for you to research something, and there’s always so much more that you can do.”

Now, her team members can find answers on their own, whether they’re looking for a serial number or all of the historical maintenance tasks connected to an asset.

“It’s been an excellent tool for maintenance — if they’re out at the hardware store and get a call that something’s going on with the dishwasher, they can look at their app, see what the model number is, find a picture of the appliance, and show it to whomever is on the other side,” says Stephanie.

As a manager, Stephanie can also create automated reminders for her team members, saving her time and taking any emotion (or feeling of micromanaging) out of the equation.

“For me, it’s been amazing because I can keep an eye on all of their tasks and set reminders in a way that doesn’t feel like, why didn’t you get it done?” says Stephanie.

And with a bird’s eye view of all of the team’s priorities, she can advocate for additional resources to tackle tasks that have spent to long on the back burner.

“When I stepped into this role, my predecessor kept an Excel spreadsheet and we would get together every quarter, and some things had been on the list for 6 years,” says Stephanie. “When we moved over to Nines, it was great because the principals could see that we needed help on these things, and they’ve been much more open about having temporary or seasonal labor come on to get those things off the list.”

Improve your household’s transparency with Nines

Want to see how Nines can bring transparency to your household? Schedule a call with our team today.