CASE STUDY
At SHAPE Properties, strong customer relationships and innovation are at the crux of their success. So when it comes to their properties, they needed a software that both helps them manage their projects and aligns with their vision for the future. With Spark, they found a robust customer relationship software that stretched from end to end of the sales process, and was their equal in forward facing innovation.
The Vancouver-based SHAPE Properties has one of the most exciting portfolios in North America, with over 150 hectares (370 acres) of projects adding up to 6.2 million square feet of commercial and residential space.
With one team offering a full range of real estate services, SHAPE has been successful because of their seamless collaboration across teams, and communication across departments, locations, and areas of expertise. They keep on top of the real estate sector through hard work, using their expertise in multiple disciplines to understand the direction of the future and then moving forward to create it.
“The world is changing and we are changing ahead of it,” Brenda Truong, SHAPE’s director of corporate marketing, said, “SHAPE challenges the norm, seeking to elevate the global standard for quality, innovation and future-oriented design.”
With a portfolio as diverse and impressive as SHAPE’s, it was vitally important for their customer relationship management (CRM) software to be their equal, in terms of functionality and forward-thinking innovation.
“We set out to find a robust CRM software system to support our residential sales and marketing business,” Ms. Truong recalled.
“SHAPE challenges the norm, seeking to elevate the global standard for quality, innovation, and future-oriented design.”
But while there are many CRM software options on the market, few are specialized for the real estate industry. This can make it difficult for development firms like SHAPE to get what they need out of the software. Oftentimes, they turn to cobbling together several different solutions in order to get all necessary functionality. This can become both costly and unwieldy—overall an unrealistic solution for the fast moving real estate industry.
“It was important to find a product that encompassed the strengths of CRM systems but was [also] aligned with innovating for the future,” Ms. Truong explained.
“Spark immediately stood out as a leader in their field.”
With more than $25 billion worth of new-development projects, and rapid growth from its inception in 2012, Spark showed promise and a hunger for innovation from the start. More importantly for SHAPE, Spark was more than a CRM system serving the real estate sector. It’s one of the first platforms to integrate all the aspects of new development creation into one piece of software.
“...a product that encompassed the strengths of CRM systems but was aligned with innovating for the future... Spark immediately stood out as a leader in their field.”
By melding an intuitive user interface with flexible and ever-growing functionality, Spark dismisses the need to use additional software for email marketing, sales and inventory management, analytics, and even contracting.
Because of this, Spark was perfectly positioned to help SHAPE streamline their sales and marketing efforts across the company, getting rid of the patchwork technology setup that was typical of the real estate industry. SHAPE understood Spark’s unique offering very quickly.
“We’re Spark’s number 1 fan,” Ms. Truong said.
SHAPE saw great success in their first project with Spark.
“They’re solid in their core offering but also flexible in adapting to our business,” Ms. Truong said, “Spark provided us with the right tools to manage and measure customer relationships throughout the full life cycle.”
Spark’s ease of use means that it’s simple for project developers like SHAPE to manage and view data, making sales teams more effective and organized across the board. In addition, Spark’s constant innovation within their product and exceptional customer support allows for interested developers and managers to utilize the platform’s extensive data to the fullest extent.
“Spark provided us with the right tools to manage and measure customer relationships throughout the full life cycle.”
“As [we’re] one team with a full range of real-estate services, [our] projects benefit from seamless collaboration and communication across departments, locations and areas of expertise,” Ms. Truong elaborated.
With the multiple levels of utilization available in the Spark platform, SHAPE is truly able to exercise their multidisciplinary approach. Built-in functions including email templates, follow-up process creation, and powerful data visualization give the team at SHAPE the flexibility and autonomy they need to create and successfully bring top-calibre developments to market. And Spark is constantly improving the product to raise the bar on real estate technology, meaning the SHAPE can trust the software to support their innovations far into the future.
“Spark is a valuable asset to our company. They strengthen our customer relationships, which in turn strengthens our business.”
Director of Corporate Marketing, SHAPE