For my upcoming one-year anniversary at Vacasa, I plan to celebrate tenacity. During that time, the company’s portfolio has increased by nearly 70%.
Ten years ago, I would have told you that maintaining operational stability while growing at this rate was impossible.
Today, having a system for high-growth operations is table-stakes for any property manager aiming to be an industry leader.
The past year has been full of learnings. And while we’ve made progress cracking the logistics-of-scale nut, we still have room for improvements and efficiencies.
In the interests of sharing information that you may find useful (and in the hope that you do the same), here are the operational priorities I’ve found to be most helpful for scaling operations in a high-growth environment.
1. Create a culture of consistency - everywhere
From training to terry, your operations system should produce consistent experiences both in-home and beyond.
When operating in a high-growth environment, with new markets opening every month, consistency can be challenging.
Avoid the temptation to create a one-size-fits-all solution. Try creating a culture of consistency instead.
Don’t be rigid and impose a single org across all your markets. Work with regional field leaders to build orgs that cater to their strengths and regional nuances.
Bob Milne
Successful operations systems are fueled by great people, and maintaining a culture of consistency when scaling across markets should be one of your top priorities.
We fly new field leaders to our Central Office in Portland for training. Having one centralized curriculum helps us ensure consistency in the field. More importantly, the trip provides our front lines the opportunity to meet the larger team.
It’s empowering for field leaders to see that they’re part of something much bigger than just their region, and the visit instills culture and learnings they can take back to their teams.
Try taking it even further.
A culture of consistency isn’t built in a week of training. It takes open lines of communication and - for us - Vaconference, an annual multi-day townhall bringing our field and Central Support teams together to network, celebrate, and get a sneak peek at where the company is going next.
2. Build a flexible system
The irony of building a successful multi-market operations system is that achieving consistency involves embracing variety.
For example, while we have strict Standard Unit Appearance Guidelines (SUAs), I’ve learned to give regional field leaders the freedom to get there in different ways.
Properties in Key West have different management needs than properties in Vermont. Vendors around the world vary in terms of dependability and quality.
You want to focus on the end product by establishing and training to SUAs, but create enough flexibility so that your system can adapt to each region’s unique needs.
The best way to do this is by empowering and trusting your field leaders to make decisions about how to achieve consistency in their markets.
Variety for the sake of consistency isn’t limited to execution. Be sure to regularly review your SUAs and don’t be afraid to make changes and retrain your teams around them.
Fight the urge to settle. You should be continuously evolving SUAs based on feedback from guests and homeowners. That means you need to build system capabilities for capturing meaningful data from the field.
3. Accurately measure operational excellence
My primary concern at Vacasa is customer satisfaction. We use lots of measurements to quantify it, but one of my favorites is Net Promoter Score (NPS).
To get more consistent and comprehensive feedback, try adding two NPS flows to your system—one each for owners and guests.
NPS is an index that measures your customers’ willingness to recommend your services to a friend. Participation is easy, so response rates are typically high.
Taking the time to build automated NPS email sends into your operations system results in invaluable real-time performance data.
For a deeper look, create different NPS user-flows with unique follow-up questions for customers who’ve given positive or negative scores.
These more detailed questions will help you hone in on where your system is functioning or falling short. It’s also great for morale. For example, over the past year, Vacasa’s homeowner NPS score increased 81%.
That’s a concrete win my entire team can celebrate, regardless where they’re based.
4. Prioritize structural efficiency—one size does not fit all
When it comes to sculpting an org structure for high-growth environments, we’ve found that one size rarely fits all.
Build a dynamic org that can be custom shaped for maximum efficiency in each market.
For example, 50 units in a high-density market require lighter staffing than 50 units spread over a three-hour geographical area.
Don’t be rigid and impose a single org across all your markets. Work with regional field leaders to build orgs that cater to their strengths and regional nuances.
It’s important to remain flexible with your team as well as your org.
When entering a new market, you may want to staff up with generalists, whereas after establishing yourself, it may make sense to bring on more specialists to focus on things like owner relations and maintenance management.
Before entering a period of high growth, be sure to invest in technology that improves operational efficiency.
You can’t scale rapidly with housekeepers running between cleans and a computer in your office.
Both managers and housekeepers should be able to do everything on their phones—from completing tickets and logging hours to receiving real-time updates about missed cleans.
5. Build a support web of partners
Partnering with the HR team is critical to operational consistency. Some managers, young managers especially, see HR as a roadblock to streamlined operations.
Hiring the best people takes time, but it pays dividends in the end. If you utilize HR correctly, they’re the best partner you can have.
For example, our Regional Directors have a HR business partner whose team is solely dedicated to hiring and managing employees for their region.
These teams include specialized recruiters (e.g. housekeeping, field management). SRDs trust their HR partners with everything from recruiting to counselling their teams and helping make employment decisions.
Successful operations systems are fueled by great people, and maintaining a culture of consistency when scaling across markets should be one of your top priorities.
Bob Milne
Another essential partnership you should build is with your guest services team.
At Vacasa, each regional director has a dedicated team of guest service agents with specific knowledge about their local market and the teams working there.
The agents help with everything from billing issues and rates nuances to onboarding. With the right partnerships in place, your field crews can spend their time concentrating on homes instead of administrative work.
Thanks in large part to the strides made in the world of technology, operational challenges that seemed insurmountable a few years ago now are not only possible but are becoming commonplace.
As our industry continues to evolve, I hope you join me in sharing how you’re approaching logistics of scale to deliver consistently great guest experiences.