Your Lettings CRM as a Reality TV Show, And Why Every Series Ends the Same Way
Episode 1: The Arrival. A new system joins the office. Everyone is on their best behaviour. Data is being logged correctly and completely. There is genuine enthusiasm. Nobody has yet discovered the import errors.
Episode 3: The Plot Twist. A spreadsheet is discovered that was never imported into the system. It contains two years of tenancy data. It was built by someone called Gary. Gary left in March. The spreadsheet is labelled "DO NOT DELETE" and nobody will open it.
Episode 5: The Alliance. Two team members have quietly stopped using the official system. They have built their own parallel operation using Excel and a shared inbox. They are, measurably, more efficient than everyone else. Management knows. Nobody is addressing it.
Episode 7: The Meltdown. A report has been run and the numbers are wrong, not dramatically, just enough. There is a lengthy email thread. Seventeen replies. Three separate theories about what happened. The report has been re-run four times. The numbers are still wrong.
Episode 9: The Confession. In a team meeting, someone admits they haven't updated their pipeline in six weeks. The silence lasts approximately four seconds. Then the meeting moves on. Nobody makes eye contact.
Episode 11: The Finale. A new system migration is announced. Everyone is relieved. The new system will fix everything. There is genuine optimism. The theme music is uplifting. Cut to Episode 1 of Series 2.
Here's the thing about this particular show: it tends to get renewed. Not because teams don't try, but because a new system without better processes underneath it produces the same story in a different interface.
The way to write a better ending isn't to cast a new system. It's to fix what made the old one fail.
That's what we do at Russou.
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