New customer portal gives Principle leading edge in technology for clients

The portal, which is hosted by Principle’s MRI property management software, also notifies customers of important information relating to their property, such as maintenance issues.

Brett Williams, managing director of Principle, said: “This is a further step in our planned use of the very latest technology to improve our services to clients.

“It will also refine our staff’s working days, removing some of the nitty-gritty administrative tasks and freeing them up to spend more time with customers.

“We’re really pleased with the look and feel of the portal which is branded in Principle’s colours to make it a seamless experience for our customers once they are on our website.”

The new customer portal is Principle’s latest development in a suite of technology for property management services which already includes the Qube site survey app.

The portal provides secure access, a noticeboard service for important updates on problems like a lift being out of order, and the ability to submit maintenance requests directly to the customer services team.

Customers can see any balances due for items like rent, ground rent, service charges and insurance, along with an accounts history of invoices raised by Principle and payments they have made.

They can then make payments with debit or credit card facilities that are safely and independently hosted online, meaning that no card details are recorded by Principle.

The online storage system gives direct access to service charge accounts, budgets, leases, site plans, minutes of meetings etc., and customers can update their own contact details.

Users supply their email address and are then able to receive all of Principle’s outbound correspondence electronically – speeding up communications as well as reducing paper and carbon use.

Mr Williams added: “The current COVID-19 pandemic shows the increasing importance of the latest technology in today’s world, and our new customer portal means Principle is ahead of the game.

“Many customers want a self-help service and we are able to provide this via our portal. We also know that a lot of our customers want to pay by card, as paying by telephone can be slow and has some data protection concerns.

“This online service has already been welcomed by many customers, and we are seeing the take-up grow on a daily basis.”

Principle Estate Management was launched in 2018 by Mr Williams, the former head of residential property management at CPBigwood in Birmingham, and a past-chairman of ARMA.

The company, based in Birmingham, offers a national property management service, and the number of developments it manages across the country has recently grown to above 200.