Eustace Builds Community, Facilitates Communication

Imfeld & Imfeld (I & I) Property Management has been managing condominium and homeowner associations in California’s Central Valley since 1979.  It currently manages 8,000 units.

The Problem:

I & I wanted to take its operations completely online — via a two-way customer portal— in order to provide a more streamlined and efficient experience for the condominium owners and tenants who use its services.   Previously, I& I’s business processes ran on multiple software programs with clunky user interfaces. Letter generation was not automatic, emailing was the main communication mode between the company and owners and tenants, spreadsheets were still used to tracked information and teaching new employees the systems and processes was laborious.

The company hired a consultant to implement SalesForce Communities. It would be a collaborative online hub where owners and tenants could go to get answers about all things condo-related, create and track work orders, reserve the clubhouse for an event, pay association bills and more.

As the Salesforce project moved beyond basic implementation and into the customization phase, challenges emerged that stumped the consultants. “We found ourselves providing the solutions for some of the workflows and we had no experience with Salesforce,” says I & I owner Sal Silva. “We needed to find a more experienced team that could move the project along quickly.”

That team was Eustace Consulting, a leading Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Solutions Provider specializing in Salesforce. Eustace is expert at customizing Salesforce for different types of business.

The Solution: 

Eustace took over the project, completing the customization of SalesForce Community and integrating it with Salesforces Case Management — a workflow tool that enables association members to do things like submit and track requests for permission to make modifications to their condos. The tool also processes complaints. For example, if a condo owner is believed to have violated a rule, a neighbor can ask I & I to look into it.  Case Management tracks the complaint through to resolution and another tool that integrates with Salesforce generates the letters informing the parties of the resolution. Owners and tenants can also submit work orders to I & I, which are assigned to a worker, tracked and billed.

And thanks to the implementation of Salesforce Knowledge, owners and tenants have access to all sorts of articles on topics such as condominium rules and regulations, schedules of events and community resources.

The ROI:

Silva says both I & I employees and customers are very pleased with the new system. “Everything is easier and more streamlined,” says Silva. “In the old days, if a tenant or owner wanted to make a request, they would have to download a form, hand-write the request, scan it, then email or drop it off to the condominium office. The portal makes this all much simpler.”  

The efficiencies gained by the new portal, with its streamlined design, self-service features and automation, has enabled I & I to grow by eight percent in a six-month period, with one employee less. And because the system is able to easily track and quantify the costs of work requests, I & I can now monitor employee performance and implement improvements, as needed.

How was Eustace to work with? “Our consultant Ben was great from the get-go,” says Silva. “He was responsive and extremely knowledgeable about Salesforce. He had a lot of good feedback on issues we were trying to solve. His experience with Salesforce has been obvious throughout the project.”