“Get Kato right now if you are a niche leasing agency”.

North West Commercial Experts 

As the name suggests, Sixteen was established in 2016 by Andy Backhouse and Nick Nelson. They initially covered offices and industrial respectively, and have since expanded into the retail sector, professional services and building consultancy. Having started as a team of two in 2016, they have since grown to 16 - perhaps there is something in that number?!

Their impressive client roster includes many of the big funds such as Aviva, CBRE Global Investors and Schroders Capital. For the latter, they are appointed on the Stanley Green Trading Estate in Stockport, a new build development where they have just achieved a record rent for the North West with their latest deal. Having recently been shortlisted for the Industrial Agents of the Year, Sixteen have quickly established themselves as the region's go-to agents.

The Old Workflow & Embracing Modern Technology

Sixteen is a busy team, which is why they put such importance on best-in-class tech to arm the leasing team with the best, most efficient tools. When founding the business, Andy admits that “we were old school in our processes - we relied on Excel spreadsheets and in some instances, paper files! Keeping our website and portals up to date was taking two days a week. Simply put, it wasn’t a good use of anyone's time”

When Kato first engaged with the founders, they confessed their inefficiencies and both admitted they weren’t tech wizards. They had considered older systems but sensed they were clunky: “we feared buying a tech system that isn’t easy to use that would gather dust! We didn’t have admin support and we realised we had to be more efficient”. 

Improved Efficiency with Kato 

The Sixteen team now consider Kato to be vital to their business. So much so, that every new employee’s first task is Kato training! Andy says “It has made us so efficient, I cannot speak highly enough of it. Even our professional team are using it now to log market comparables and conduct rent reviews because it is so simple and intuitive”.

When asked for his favourite feature, Andy plumped for the full set of Marketing features. “When we used to get a new instruction, the initial elation was replaced by the dread of having to get the property out to the market which really could take up two weeks by the time it was on all the portals, we had produced particulars and emailed out to Agents and everyone on our applicant list. Now it takes 30 minutes tops and you are confident that you have covered all the bases at the press of a few buttons”.

As well as improved marketing, Sixteen also benefits from quicker client reporting. Their interest schedules are automatically updated on Kato and by integrating with the Industrial and Office Agents Societies, they can be sure they are capturing all agent-led enquiries and inbound leads in one place.

Overall, Andy thinks that he saves 2 days per week via Kato and is confident that the rest of the team benefits in a similar way. Kato has been pivotal in the quick growth of their business; their ability to service existing clients and win new ones and their growth - from 2016 to 16-strong!

“As a niche practice you have to win work and service it properly - and not drop the ball. You should get Kato right now if you are a niche leasing agency”.

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Would you like to save up to 16 hours per week or more, allowing you time to win more business? Click here to find out more about Kato.  ‍

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