Cornell Pace manages over 6,000 units of market-rate and affordable properties in New York City and the surrounding areas. With their large and varied portfolio, the Cornell Pace team is always looking for ways to increase efficiency, communicate better across field and office teams, and ultimately provide a great resident experience.
We interviewed Celeste Vasquez, Cornell Pace’s Senior Vice President of Operations, who is responsible for a team of 20 that handles building oversight and maintenance, compliance, insurance, rentals, and violations about how Synco has changed the way her team works for the better.
Why Synco?
Before Synco, Cornell Pace relied heavily on emails and text messages, leading to communication overload. The introduction of Synco reduced email traffic significantly, allowing for more manageable and efficient communication. The easy-to-use mobile app ensured that team members could stay connected and informed, even those who spend their whole day onsite at a property. This shift not only improved internal communication but also enhanced the speed and quality of customer service provided to residents.
Painless Synco Implementation = Team Adoption
Additionally, the Synco team handles every aspect of technical implementation, mapping each customer’s entire portfolio, creating properties and units for tagging in our system, so that every conversation can be easily organized from day one.
Key Synco Features: Translation & Voice Notes
Synco’s translation and voice note features have been game-changers for Cornell Pace. The ability to instantly translate Synco messages bridged communication gaps between office and on-site staff, allowing team members to communicate in their preferred languages. This inclusivity has been particularly beneficial for maintenance staff, who can now convey messages accurately and efficiently.
The Cornell Pace team also uses Synco’s voice notes feature heavily: as staff are walking around a building and seeing issues, they can quickly comment while on the go. Their voice notes are transcribed – and even translated if necessary – automatically within the Synco thread.
Streamlined Onboarding and Knowledge Transfer
Onboarding new employees in property management can be a complex task because each property, especially in a large portfolio, has a long history of residents, issues, projects, and more. With traditional email, it’s impossible to give an employee access to every email sent about a property – and even if you could, the employee would never have time to read through all of them.
Synco simplifies this process by providing new hires with access to a comprehensive history of properties via tagged threads and group conversations. This centralized information allows new team members to quickly get up to speed, reducing the time and resources typically required for training.
