Redefining the CFO Role Around Customer-Centric Finance

Interview with Mathias Kedl | CFO and Prokurist, Projekt Wohnen | 20+ years in banking, hospitality and real estate, including Reiters Resort

Published: July 21, 2025 · Some quotes have been edited for clarity from a spoken interview and approved by the expert.

Most CFOs start an investment case with cost and return. Mathias Kedl starts with the customer. As CFO and authorized signatory (Prokurist) at Austrian real estate developer Projekt Wohnen, he runs every investment decision through customer lifetime value (CLV) first, and he argues that finance teams that do not will keep optimizing the wrong numbers.

Every Investment Starts With Customer Lifetime Value

"Every investment in our company begins with a customer lifetime value," Kedl says. A project that looks good on margin alone but does not increase aggregate CLV does not fit the strategy, he explains.

The principle reaches compensation. A large share of variable pay for commercial and sales teams is tied to tenant retention, vacancy rates and even changes in Google review scores. "The fastest route to a bonus is to delight repeat customers." In his view, those indicators are not just satisfaction measures. They predict future growth.

Finance as the Designer of the Experience

At Reiters Resort, Kedl built a guest-journey P&L in which each interaction, from booking to check-out, was budgeted and benchmarked like a revenue-generating asset. He also created a dedicated "Wow Capital" fund, reserving around 2% of room revenue to surprise loyal guests. He tracked food and beverage and occupancy alongside those moments so the team could see that guest experience drives the economics.

A later move into proptech and fintech showed him the other side: designing satisfaction through a digital journey without meeting customers. At Projekt Wohnen he combines both, using fast test-and-learn cycles that weigh financial return, customer analytics and sustainability together. "A building that residents love but that wastes resources is not sustainable for investors." And: "Finance is no longer the after-the-fact scorekeeper but a designer of product experiences."

Three Numbers That Reveal Customer Strength

At Projekt Wohnen, Kedl tracks three indicators of relationship strength:

• Vacancy rate. Across more than 600 residential and commercial units, vacancy runs well below the internal target, helped by a referral program. "When a tenant moves out, they can refer the next renter and receive a discount. It keeps turnover low and costs down."
• CLV per unit. "We can compare each flat based on how much revenue and loyalty it drives."
• The link between Net Promoter Score (NPS) and payment timing. "Happy tenants pay faster. It's a simple truth, but a powerful one."

When Every Team Optimizes a Different Number

Misaligned KPIs are the main blocker Kedl sees. Finance pushes for net operating income, operations for occupancy and marketing for clicks, and each team ends up competing with the others. Without a unifying CLV framework, he warns, those metrics work against each other.

Visibility is the other gap. "Finance cannot quantify why a tenant leaves after the first lease cycle." His answer is more customer data and connected systems. "The more data you have from the customers, the more you can understand how they react. And if you have no data, you cannot decide if it's a good sale or a bad sale."

Short-Term Numbers, Long-Term Trust

Kedl's team uses a dual-horizon dashboard: monthly net operating income (NOI), loan covenants and liquidity on one side, brand and stakeholder indicators on the other. He sees ESG performance as a valuation lever in real estate. "I think ESG performance will be a game changer in the next couple of years in real estate."

In practice, that shows up in tools and transparency:

• KI Voice, a 24/7 AI voice assistant (KI is the German abbreviation for AI) that handles tenant issues across channels, backed by multilingual human teams. "She can solve almost every problem our renter can have."
• Public metrics in the buildings, such as response times and satisfaction scores, posted for every tenant to see.

That openness, in his view, turns customer experience into a signal of credibility for investors and partners.

From Guardian of Cost to Guardian of Trust

Kedl's closing advice is simple. "Evolve from guardian of cost to a guardian of trust." Cost control still matters, but it is no longer enough. "The most valuable resource today is the customer."

"The CFO role is expanding. Today the CFO is not just managing costs but actively allocating capital, talent and technology to support transformation, innovation and customer outcomes."

Kedl's Takeaways for CFOs

1. Customer goodwill is a strategic asset. In his view, retention, reputation and revenue all come from earning trust early and compounding it.
2. The CFO is a transformation partner. He sees the role moving beyond compliance and cost control toward cross-functional alignment and customer outcomes.
3. Data-driven agility beats static planning. Behavioral data and real-time insight, he argues, let CFOs measure what matters and adjust when customer expectations shift.

Mathias Kedl is a finance executive with more than 20 years of experience across banking, hospitality and real estate, including Reiters Resort and proptech and fintech roles. He currently serves as CFO and Prokurist at Projekt Wohnen, a real estate development firm in Austria.

Sources

• Projekt Wohnen company website

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