ARAMA Report

Service with a smile

makes TOP Awards work

One of the most important maxims for anyone working in Management and Letting Rights (MLR) is that to be in the hospitality industry you have to be hospitable! Likewise, to be in the service industry you have to provide good service.

That’s the mantra of Michael Cross, who with his wife Karen, took out this year’s TOP Award as Building Managers of the Year for the amazing work they do at the Gold Coast’s Dorchester on The Beach.

The Top Awards made for a phenomenal night with close to 300 guests sitting down to a gala dinner at the Brisbane City Hall. It is a beautiful location that looked absolutely magnificent on the night. One of the main reasons ARAMA started the TOP awards program in the first place was to recognise and reward outstanding service providers in order to highlight the positive aspects of the MLR business model.

Our industry is occasionally attacked by people or organisations who are ignorant about the benefits that a resident manager delivers to a community title scheme, who don’t understand the role of a resident manager, or who are jealously trying to poach the various jobs performed by resident managers. The TOP awards are a way for us to demonstrate that our managers do some really fabulous things, and that our most successful operators are the ones who understand what service to others means.

Michael and Karen Cross won last year’s TOP Award in the category of Resident Managers of the Year, Short Stay letting, and this year were rewarded as Building Managers of the Year. Michael said: “We’ve been at Dorchester on the beach for eight years and we love it.” “The building is 40 years old but still in good shape, and regular maintenance is an important driver of guest satisfaction The property has to look good even if it’s an older building. We used the two years of COVID to do a fair bit of work around the property.” Since taking over the management rights in 2014, Michael and Karen have been involved with repainting and repairing concrete cancer. They upgraded the property’s windows and its fire safety and electrical systems, as well as re-landscaping the gardens. They also helped ARAMA implement our COVID safe plan. “Karen was working on that with ARAMA and we were probably the first hotel or management rights building to put the plan in place,” Michael said. “ARAMA was working with the Queensland Government at the time to get something implemented and our plan became something of a template for the industry.” Michael and Karen are tremendously helpful to everyone else in the field of MLR. “We’ve got a little geographical cluster group of 20 or 30 people where anyone in management rights can get together once a month for a chat,” Michael said.

“We help each other because it’s not only the right thing to do but also because our business seems to grow every time we help someone else. “I’m a strong advocate that there’s strength in numbers. You shouldn’t see properties around you as the opposition. We are all in this together and if we can raise the profile of someone else’s business then

Trevor Rawnsley,

CEO, ARAMA

the profile of everyone next door will be raised too. We believe that every ARAMA member should take the time to work on the business every now and then and submitting an application to the ARAMA TOP Awards can open up a great opportunity for self-actualisation and self-help.” Helping others is the hallmark of Rod Argyle, who has been the General Manager of the Riverside Hotel in Brisbane for five years. He is the Resident Manager of the Year (Mixed Letting Category). When Rod’s property was threatened by the rapidly rising Brisbane River during devastating floods, Rod used what he described as “empathy and connection” to deal with it.

Residents and guests helped staff to push cars out of knee-deep water. “We all pitched in to help,” Rod said. “Our lifts were taken out, and on the second night of the flood all the electricity went too. “But I had all my team on the floor helping people. We had a little gas barbecue, and we were cooking food, handing out sausages on a roll and hot tea and coffee to people. It is the manager’s job to take responsibility and tackle any problems head on. “It’s been a challenging couple of years, for sure. During COVID I had to let over 30 staff go, and that was heartbreaking. We’ve had to adapt quickly and we’re finally coming back. “In this business we’ve got to help each other and always strive to improve. Winning a TOP Award was validation of a great team effort.” Paul and Francine Tuddenham, who won the Resident Managers of the Year (Short Stay letting) award, hit the ground running, only taking on their first management rights business on July 1 last year at the Peninsula at Airlie Beach.

“We were absolutely thrilled by the ARAMA TOP award,” Fran said, “apart from our children I don’t think we’ve ever been prouder of anything. “We had to learn on the job very quickly, but we’ve been blessed with some lovely owners and we’ve had great support from our body corporate committee. “Our team of cleaners, led by Kenny and Annie have been exceptional, along with our maintenance guy, Alex. “We really knew nothing about working in management rights when we started here and we had to rely on the support from our suppliers as well as ARAMA who have been outstanding.” Fran said the secret of their success was that she and Paul treated everyone as welcome guests. “People come to have a holiday and to be greeted with a smile and to find out where the good things are to visit,” Fran said “If I know it’s their birthday or some other celebration, I make up a hamper and I include a bottle of champagne and a little card.

“I buy chocolates, too, and Kenny and Annie put them on the pillows when they clean the rooms. “It’s a nice touch. Kids love that and you always hear them saying ‘this is the best place ever’.” Ian and Maree Smith, from Hidden Grove and Brays on Vista, north of Brisbane, were the winners of the Resident Manager of The Year Award for Long Stay letting. They oversee 150 units and have promoted a real sense of community in their schemes after taking over in March 2020. “COVID hit us two or three weeks after we moved in,” Maree said, “and everyone went into hibernation. We didn’t even know who was living here. We never met any of the tenants and no one came to the office.

“So, after lockdown we decided to try to promote a real sense of togetherness. “We set up a lot of community engagement for our tenants as well as Facebook competitions.” “We started a ‘hidden duck’ competition which is the best thing to get people out and about and talking to each other. We hide 250 yellow plastic ducks throughout the gardens and common areas and the kids and adults run around trying to find them. They bring them back to the office for a raffle ticket so we get to meet and chat to everyone. “The prizes for the monster raffle include Westfield vouchers, photography packages, lots of toys, remote control cars, watches, and all sorts of different things. “It’s continued every year and it helps promote a sense of fun and togetherness.” Maree said ARAMA’s online resource had been a tremendous help to their business while our regular functions and gettogethers had been essential to see the fantastic ideas other managers were implementing. Ian told me the TOP Awards was the first and only time he’ll be wearing a suit but changed tack when I said he had to enter the awards again next year. We’re encouraging more managers to enter the TOP Awards next year because it gives all entrants the chance to reflect on what they do for others, and what they are doing well to make their own businesses work.

Everyone in MLR faces a constant challenge in their own scheme to continue to prove that long-term management rights are in the best interests of the scheme. The TOP Award winners know that fundamental to management rights is the realisation that the job is for service providers, and that they have to give great service to their customers, who in many cases are their neighbours. Marketing experts say it costs five times more to gain a new customer than to retain an existing customer, and that good service is the key to repeat business. The TOP Award winners all abide by the principals of the ‘Triangle of Management’ and this is what sets them apart from the rest. Understanding of and adherence to the ‘Triangle of Management’ is what sets the business of management rights apart from any other outside service provision. All of this year’s TOP Awards winners get on well with their body corporate committee and the body corporate manager and they go the extra mile to satisfy their client/lot owners and their customers/tenants. This is the ‘Triangle of Management’. Add in service with a smile and a hospitable nature and be assured that success will follow.