Tuan Duong: The property industry and the pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic was a wake up call for my business.

As a business that conducts in-person home surveying services for depreciation purposes, the restrictions had a significant impact on what we could and couldn’t do. Customers weren’t keen on having a stranger enter their homes and our own team members weren’t particularly keen on the idea of interacting with customers either.

It means that we had to find a way, or else be at the mercy of the market.

Here’s a little bit about what we did to survive the pandemic that we believe business owners can learn.

 

Pivoted Service Delivery Model

With restrictions in full force, we pivoted towards a desktop surveying model where we were able to access real estate data and floor plans to be able to virtually survey the property. What this unearthed was the ability for us to turn around tax depreciation schedules at a faster pace with little to no effect on claimable allowances.

 

Increased Sales Activity

I spent a large amount of time focusing on improving sales and business development activity with my team to further hone our prospecting strategy. We looked at ways to automate and become more efficient with our sales process by using LinkedIn as a key B2B tool to build more relationships and referral partners such as accountants and mortgage brokers.

 

Scale our Marketing

As everyone shifted their activity online, we identified that much of the attention lived on some of the major social media platforms and search engines. I engaged an experienced marketing agency to help with driving these results where we produced weekly SEO optimised articles, email marketing and video content on all platforms to deliver an omnichannel presence.

 

Key Results

It’s interesting to reflect and realise that simply because the industry conducted business a certain way, it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the best way. With a black swan event like a pandemic, we were able to pivot and deliver a consistent service and product while being able to shortcut a lot of things that we previously thought were bottlenecks in our business.

As a result, after shifting our model, we were able to see record revenue numbers in June, July and then August – each month beating the previous month. I attribute this to the hard work of the team but also our ability to not simply rest on our laurels, but to be proactive about how we should be shifting our business.

So tell me, did you shift your business model to adapt with the pandemic?

 

By Tuan Duong

 

About the author

Tuan is the Principal and Director of Duo Tax Quantity Surveyors – Australia’s most reviewed and highest-rated quantity surveying company. With a nationwide footprint and a vision to help property investors, Tuan is focused on sharing the power of tax depreciation as a way for investors to keep more cash in their pockets.

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