A man with a mission: Creating a service culture

Franco Valletta, who joined Dhalia in January 2001, came from the hospitality industry. From the start, he was committed towards re-branding Dhalia with the aim of establishing the company as the pace-setter and benchmark for quality in the provision of real estate services.

In June 2001, Mr Valletta spearheaded an intensive change programme characterised by a radical re-arrangement of the company's shareholding and a transformation of the organisation structure. Mr Valletta was convinced that Dhalia could only retain its leading edge as a property consultancy service provider by revisiting the operations, assessing each member of the organisation, doing away with inefficient and ineffective systems, and taking the painful decisions where necessary.

At the time, it was decided to close down four offices and to part company with more than 50 per cent of the sales force. This carried the immediate endorsement of Chris Grech, Dhalia's major shareholder, paving the way for an accelerated process of re-organisation.

Mr Valletta was quite surprised at the negative public perception towards property consultants and he admits that attracting new recruits towards Dhalia was initially a constant uphill struggle.

It therefore became a personal mission to work towards turning this image around. Dhalia's recruitment criteria were revised and rigorously adhered to. Service standards were formulated and training programmes were designed to develop the knowledge and skills necessary to deliver the Dhalia service promise.

Today, Dhalia's new recruits undergo an intensive seven-day induction programme delivered by both members of the management team and selected experts from the industry. Compensation and incentive programmes were created to reward excellent performance and adherence to Dhalia's service standards.

As part of the three-year strategic business plan, Dhalia implemented a rigorous human resources (HR) strategy that saw the number of property consultants treble. Mr Valletta is satisfied with the quality of people and, particularly, with the fact that Dhalia has attracted a number of graduates. A team of academically qualified and experienced heads of department supports the branches at Head Office.

Mr Valletta notes with interest that head office personnel do not come from a real estate background but rather from a variety of other sectors. This, he feels, gives added value to the quality of decisions and leads to increased levels of creativity within Dhalia.

Dhalia recognises that times have changed and that the business environment has become cut-throat and ever more demanding. Mr Valletta stresses that there is no place for complacency in Dhalia. Managers and property consultants are set demanding performance and behaviour standards. The guiding philosophy is that only the fittest and motivated survive.

Mr Valletta spares no words in emphasising his commitment to safeguard the Dhalia brand and management's determination to take all the necessary measures to protect the interests of the customer.

Dhalia, today, operates ten offices across Malta and Gozo, with a team of ten experienced managers and a sales force of 75 property consultants. As part of an internationalisation programme, Dhalia has an overseas network of partners from the UK and Ireland, Germany and Dubai.

It is envisaged that by year-end more partners would be added to this list from across the European Union. With the opening of the Birkirkara and Fgura offices in recent months, it is aimed to take the consultant complement to the full capacity of 90.

Gone are the days when companies could take their quality of service for granted. Customers have become more discerning, expecting to be given the most updated advice and professional service.

The job of the property consultant is not solely for the street-smart individual - they must be trained in an extensive array of technical matters pertaining to the provision of real estate services, be it legal, architectural or financial in nature.

More importantly, they must develop a repertoire of intra- and interpersonal skills that would enable them to understand the customer's requirements and ensure that the quality of service would meet customer expectations.

Mr Valletta added that it is high time that government authorities work in tandem with private sector players to regularise the real estate industry, taking into consideration all parties who, in some way or other, are players in the real estate ball game. Malta should strive towards developing its own standards, making reference to what some of the European countries have been doing for several years.

Mr Valletta firmly believes that efforts should be made towards designing an educational and training programme that would lead to the certification and licensing of property consultants. This would represent a major step towards profess-ionalising the industry and, concurrently contribute towards enhancing the image of a property consultant's job.

Regularising the industry would ensure that the interests of the customer are safeguarded and would control, if not eliminate, any possibility that individuals and companies would engage in unethical behaviour.

Dhalia's main objective for 2004 will be to embark on a major exercise to review Dhalia's brand service standards through research conducted both within Dhalia and, more importantly, with a representative sample of customers and business partners.

Dhalia will continue to invest in the education and training of branch managers and property consultants as witnessed by the past three years and continue to enforce office and service standards through regular audits, thereby ensuring that its identity be maintained and its image consistently safeguarded.

Mr Valletta's ambition is to continue to rationalise Dhalia's operations and to transform the com-pany into an organisation with a level of professionalism compar-able to established local and international corporations. Mr Valletta feels this has been achieved in several respects but the journey is a never-ending one. The enforcement of rigorous standards have come at a cost.

However, Mr Valletta considers this direction as an investment, and although benefits have been reaped in the short term, the more significant returns are likely to come in the medium to longterm.

It is worth acknowledging, however, that Dhalia's transparency has already produced the desired results through the formation of international strategic partnerships, recognition by local and inter-national banks, and a number of established law and accounting firms, to work jointly on various projects.