“too good to be true…”

Galbraith Property Services

Galbraith Property Services is one of the UK’s leading property management service providers, offering a professional and proactive approach to the management of portfolios across the Midlands, South East, Greater London and the South West. Properties covered include: student, commercial, residential, vacant and hotels.

The nine-year old privately owned business prides itself on its open, communicative and transparent culture, offering value to clients and occupiers alike.

Galbraith’s technical expertise means that the company can offer value at both a strategic and tactical level. And its advanced reporting structure, coupled with regular reviews ensures high standards are consistently maintained.

The brief

Traditionally, Galbraith has always handled facilities management in-house. As the company’s portfolio started to spread further geographically, they were finding contractor response times were often not fast enough.

Property director Clare Johnson, and her team realised that there was a need to centralise their contractor management, in order to speed up service response times. She comments:

“In most cases, reactive property maintenance means there is a requirement to get to a property and tend to any issues – quickly. Both we, and our tenants, cannot afford maintenance downtime.

“It was at the same time we heard about Propertyserve, and its national network of contractors – coupled with its often very speedy response times. It all sounded too good to be true, but – nevertheless – we invited the team in to provide a briefing on Galbraith. In all honesty, we didn’t expect they’d be able to manage the sheer diversity of our portfolio. They proved us wrong…”

Implementation (the solution)

Propertyserve’s access to a supply-chain network of national pre-qualified, fully-insured contractors, means that the company is readily able to support organisations like Galbraith.

Propertyserve actively manages this supply chain, ensuring they are capable of carrying out works. This – in turn – reduces risks for the client, and means that lower contractor rates are negotiated.

Clare Johnson comments: “In many parts of the country, Propertyserve has been able to negotiate rates either on a par with or more competitively than our previous contracts. Overall, our costs have been reduced, which we are able to pass on to our tenants.

“Propertyserve’s helpdesk is responsive and professional. Its systematic approach is very in line with our own business.”

Bringing in Propertyserve’s support has enabled the Galbraith FM team to focus on enhancing their own service. They are now more available to attend sites, undertake inspections and plan.

“The implementation was seamless,” continues Johnson. “We are two months down the line, and communication levels are impressive; the Propertyserve team is always on hand.”

The outcomes

Johnson cites the very fact that there have been no complaints about the service from tenants as a good thing.

“In this industry, people are quick to complain and very rarely praise you doing a good job. Since Propertyserve has come on board, we haven’t had any negative feedback.

“The online system is easy to use, and enables our team to keep a real track on the jobs that have been undertaken – supporting our own KPIs, and enabling us to truly centralise our contractor management.

Galbraith “Propertyserve has really taken the time to understand what we do in order to ensure the work they do is to the highest possible levels – never leaving us to our own devices.”