Work Order Happiness: ACK, WIP, CMP* ... Remember the Dispatch, Zell's Angels: How Can We Help You? (Feb 26), about EOPlus,
Equity Office's initiative to centralize property management services along functional lines? Several PikeNet readers wondered about issues like accountability and personal service when service is initiated via a call center.

So I welcomed Mark Geisreiter's invitation to visit Equity's San Francisco call center. As you enter Equity's reception area, you look through a glass wall directly into their call center with cubicles for up to fourteen Customer Service Coordinators (CSCs) fielding service requests for Equity's San Francisco Bay Area portfolio of 16 million square feet (Financial District, Peninsula, East Bay and Sacramento).

Staffed from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., the center handles about 4,500 service requests a week (800 via e-mail). Using Angus Systems, CSCs manage each service request and respond to tenants via phone or e-mail. Communication with on-site engineers is handled via the walkie-talkie feature on Nextel phones. Consequently you hear a buzz of activity as you wander around the cubicles.

Wow, it's hard not to be impressed with the economy of scale implicit in such an operation, and it certainly seems more efficient than the 32 previously separate building offices that were consolidated into San Francisco. Does it really matter whether you contact your own building or a call center miles away? Not as long as you get prompt service. Right?

As Geisreiter points out, property managers are now freed up from the administrative burden of servicing requests and, therefore, expected to spend 60% to 80% of their time in the field with tenants and vendors. Theoretically, they should have lots more time to strengthen relationships with tenants.

Call Center Tour... Here's another reason to attend Realcomm in San Francisco, June 3-4, 2004. The day before the conference officially starts, Realcomm will offer an Intelligent Building Tour, which includes a visit to Equity Office's call center in San Francisco. Save $100 by registering with the PikeNet Promotional Code, RC04PIKE1 (that's zero-four). Go to Realcomm, click "Register Now," and then the "Promo" link in the right-hand column.

*Angus Systems: ACK-acknowledged, WIP-work in progress, CMP-complete.

--Peter Pike