Role design and job descriptions for Apartment Developers: who promises, who delivers, who answers the buyer
In an apartment project, the buyer deals with sales, then customer relations, then the site. Clear roles mean the buyer hears one story and each department knows which promises are its own.
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Share your requirementsWhy role design and job descriptions matters in apartment developers
Developers often grow by adding people to a project without redrawing roles. Sales executives start answering construction questions, customer relations start negotiating dates, and the site engineer finds himself explaining a delay to a buyer on a Sunday. Each does a bit of everyone's job, and nobody is accountable.
Role design sets boundaries. Sales owns the booking and the first conversation. Customer relations owns documents, payment reminders and follow-up. The site owns progress, snags and handover. A one-page description for each role names the tasks, the decisions the person may take alone and the person they pass things to.
How to set it up
1. Map the buyer's journey
Draw the path from enquiry to possession on one page, naming who deals with the buyer at each step.
2. Write one page per role
List the daily tasks, decisions allowed, reports owed and the person to whom problems pass. Sales, customer relations, broker coordinators and site engineers each get one.
3. Mark the hand-offs
Where a booking passes from sales to customer relations, or a snag from the buyer to the site, write what information goes across and in what form.
4. Agree what may be promised
Sales may quote only dates and finishes approved by the project manager. Put this in the role page and in the weekly note.
5. Review roles after each project phase
When a tower is handed over, read the role pages with the people who did them and revise. The HR process consulting work can keep this tidy.
Check these first
Before changing anything, find out what is true today. These take an afternoon and use your own records.
- Ask a customer relations executive which three questions she answers that belong to someone else.
- Look at the last ten buyer complaints and note how many were passed across more than twice.
- Read any one job description and see whether it matches what the person does.
- Check that sales knows who approves dates and finishes.
GullyHR can do this with you. Read how we approach role design and job descriptions in general, or share your requirements and we will tell you where to start.
Questions owners ask
Yes, short ones. Even a team of ten confuses roles when launches get busy. One page each is enough and takes a few hours to write.
The project manager or site head, in writing, at least weekly. This keeps sales honest about what is possible and protects the buyer relationship.
At each major phase, such as after launch, after structure completion and before possession. Roles change as the project moves, and the pages should too.