One of the keys to offering a community management system that makes everyone’s life easier, is comprehensive support. Not just a customer service and help desk response when you send an email, but over the phone support and thorough training for everyone using the system. When everyone can get what they need from a building and community management system, great things start to happen – managers have more time for the tasks that really matter, residents start to feel more connected and responsible for their building, a real community spirit begins to flourish.
Louise Roetman is BuildingLink International’s Customer Service and Training Team Leader, one of the people behind why building managers, developers and residents are falling in love with their community management software for buildings. Today, she shares with us a behind the scenes view of working with one of Australia’s leading building management systems.
: Hi Louise! Thanks for taking time out of your busy schedule to chat with us today. You’ve been a mainstay for BuildingLink International’s team for over three years now, can you tell us a little about life before you joined the team?
I worked in education straight after graduating from Griffith University with my Bachelor of Primary Education (Hons I), first in the classroom for four years and then as a university tutor working with future teachers. Before uni, I worked in guest services at the Gold Coast’s theme parks and my family background saw me growing up in the hospitality sector too – my parents have managed several different buildings on the Gold Coast since I was a baby, so you could say customer service and hospitality are in my blood and teaching is a passion that led me here.
: How did teaching lead you to BuildingLink International’s PropTech business?
As much as I loved teaching in the classroom, I wanted my career to go in a different direction and academia didn’t quite fit either – the reality of academia is that you spend 70-80% of your time generating research and the rest of the time teaching. I just knew this wouldn’t satisfy my thirst for teaching! So I looked around for opportunities that would let me use all my favourite skills, not just teaching but the problem solving and customer service skills that I’d started my working life with. When the opportunity came up at BuildingLink for a trainer and customer service representative, I jumped at the chance. I felt that this role could be a perfect combination of responsibilities for my varied skill set. Which has proven to be true!
: Can you tell us about a typical day for you?
I get to do lots of different activities in my day – one of the aspects of my job that I love! A typical day has me providing support to our clients via phone and email, onboarding new buildings, hosting online training sessions for a variety of clients (building managers, strata managers, builders/developers, and committee members), and of course providing support and feedback internally to the team.
As well as helping our clients, I help my team with any questions they come across that they aren’t sure how to answer, investigate any issues clients have reported and troubleshoot the sometimes left-of-field questions and requests we get! Each day we’re challenged to think outside of the box. I love working with the team to reach the best outcome for the client and I get the double advantage of getting to train clients as well as our team internally.
: How has your background given you insight for taking care of BuildingLink’s clients?
I think I have a deeper understanding of the challenges faced by our clients each day because I grew up in the hospitality sector. I can easily see how BuildingLink empowers clients through the use of software, and the support we provide, to find ways to work efficiently and make their jobs that bit easier.
When I started university, I began working for my parents at their building part-time and did so for several years. Even after I started teaching, I would often step back in during school holidays to help out. I have witnessed first-hand the experience of on-site building management, I get what it takes on a day-to-day basis to run a building, to have to work with committee members and strata managers, and how demanding a role it can be. When a client emails to say they’ve had an emergency come up and can’t make it to their training session – I totally sympathise with them! It can be an unpredictable environment to work in, with a lot of accountability on their shoulders.
: You clearly love what you do, can you share with us some of the highlights of your role with BuildingLink International?
I always enjoy making connections with our clients! Building up that rapport, getting to know their ways of working, and how I can help them get the most out of BuildingLink is an aspect of my job I love the most. We have lots of really fantastic clients that I have built up great working relationships with – one client, in particular, calls me Tina Turner because he thinks I’m “simply the best”.
: Finally, how do you see BuildingLink and Proptech in general changing over the coming years?
I think the apps are going to become more and more important and more widely used – I’ve already seen this happening in the time I’ve been with BuildingLink International. We are also currently working on a range of training/tutorial videos for pretty much every function within the BL management site, resident site, GEO app and resident app. There is definitely an increasing demand, and expectation, that we will have these sorts of resources available.
We will continue adapting to changes in the technology, and the expectations of the market and our clients, but I think the core of what we do will remain largely unchanged – providing 5-star service to our clients!