Knight Frank: How KeyNest Points have improved operations
Key Summary
- The Partner: Knight Frank, a prestigious, global real-estate consultancy with a strong UK presence.
- The Challenge: Managing new developments across new areas far from the central London office demonstrated an efficiency issue - staff and contractors were making 20-mile round trips.
- How did Knight Frank use KeyNest?: The central London team took advantage of the ever-present KeyNest Point network to store keys at local 24/7 shops directly within the range of the new areas Knight Frank now covered.
- Key Results:
- Reduced Contractor Costs - Rather than picking up the key at the main office and charging by the hour to get to the new location, contractors go straight to the new area instead.
- Operational Efficiency - Staff no longer need to take hours out of their day traveling to-and-from new property locations, allowing them to spend more time on actual property management.
- Secure Access - The addition of digital, one-time, 8-digit codes is a welcome layer of security, ensuring keys will never fall into the wrong hands.
- Instant Scalability - KeyNest’s ability to quickly get a new Point established has allowed Knight Frank to effortlessly expand their reach.
As well as acting as one of the UK's most reputable high-street estate agents, Knight Frank is also one of the world's largest global real estate consultancies for new homes investors and international landlords - offering services ranging from financing options and lettings management, to furnishing and tax services.
When we spoke to New Homes Lettings & Customer Care Partner, Freddie Hills, he explained that many of their overseas investors were looking to diversify and buy in regeneration areas like Croydon and Stratford. But with most of Knight Frank’s high-street offices located in more traditional areas within central London, the team were in need of alternative key storage solutions to service these areas.
A crucial property access solution
With an increasing amount of their new build projects completing in Outer London - and often further afield from any high-street Knight Frank branches - Freddie and his team use our network of KeyNest Points as an integral key storage solution.
Trusted by staff, contractors, and clerks, our KeyNest Points play a crucial role in the day-to-day operations of the whole team. Freddie adds:
"The secure coding just gives us that little bit of extra confidence that keys aren’t going to fall into the wrong hands, or end up lost.”
How much time did KeyNest save Knight Frank workers?
Heading straight towards the development without having to make any significant detours is proving popular amongst all of the team, who find using our KeyNest Points a much more productive use of their time.
And when it comes to managing contractors, it’s been a much more favourable solution for all parties. Freddie explains:
“Using local KeyNest Points means our contractors no longer have to factor in unnecessary 20 mile round trips into and out of town to get property keys from one of our central offices. They can just go straight to the local area of the development they’re managing - which is more efficient for them, and cuts down hourly costs for us.”
Speedy set-up of new KeyNest Points
Often operating with tight deadlines, it’s crucial that the Knight Frank team have access to secure and simple storage solutions, as quickly as possible. Thankfully, Freddie says that if he’s ever needed to request a new KeyNest Point, our team has always managed to get the job done in a timely fashion.
“It’s rare that there isn’t already a KeyNest Point close to where we need it, but on the few occasions there haven't been, the KeyNest team have been able to find us one and get it up and running really quickly.”
