Reducing face-toface service
Health restrictions forced many SMEs to minimise in-person interactions with clients in 2020. Now some are revising their business models this way, either to pandemic-proof operations or because their customers prefer the remote experience or because efficiencies, savings and new markets were found.
Duo Tax Quantity Surveyors assess depreciable assets for property investors. In ordinary times the Sydneybased team would contact a property manager for authorisation to phone a tenant then organise with the tenant to visit a property, measure it and take photos of its wet areas, garage, living spaces – any assets that depreciate.
But property managers are busy, tenants aren’t always available and sites aren’t always close by. Typically, the process, from start to report generation, ran for more than two weeks.
Now it takes between one and three days. At first, to minimise face-toface contact during the pandemic, Duo Tax asked some tenants to take photos of specific items with their phone and they were happy to oblige. Duo Tax now searches for DA-approved plans submitted to councils and verifies photos through property analytics firm CoreLogic, which holds data on all premises over the past 40 years. (This data also allows owners to claim depreciation on renovations and “scrapping value” on knockdowns.)
“When things are hard, just work harder,” says Duo Tax founder and principal Tuan Duong of the initial rush to introduce new processes and technology. But of the 7000 surveys done between March and October last year, he says only 10 clients asked for a “revisit”. June was the biggest month Duo Tax had had in five years then July overtook June and August outdid July.