July 12th, 2022
10 tips to deal with challenges and conflict as a Property Manager
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Upon reflecting on 2022, we can safely say that it was a year of hard work and dedication as we came together to release more exciting features, as well as welcome even more members to our amazing community. It was easy with the presence of La Niña, the rental crisis and the increasing cash rate to feel bogged down with feelings of doom and gloom, however with opportunities to meet our community at a plethora of events, as well as celebrate our hard work as a team, it allowed us to remain positive and thankful.
Admittedly when writing this blog we searched for ‘heartwarming’ news events that had occurred over the year to include as a reminder of joy. However, we don’t need an online search to remind us to be joyful, instead, we only have to look at the photos we’ve been tagged in by our community or remember the conversations we got the chance to have at events like AREC 2022. We value every member of our community, so we wanted to take a quick moment to reflect and say thank you. Thank you for choosing to use our platform, and for consistently providing us with valuable feedback and kind words. Let’s make 2023 the best year yet!
Before we deep dive into the year that was, we thought we’d start off by taking a look at our yearly statistics to see how we went in 2022:
Our growing community
With the expansion of both our product and community being a driving force behind everything we do here at PropertyMe, it’s no surprise that we continued to prospect and onboard like never before. We were so grateful to hit a massive milestone of 5,000 subscribers back in March! We got the privilege of sharing this landmark occasion with Doyle Spillane – our 5,000th customer. Their team was a joy to meet and work with and reminded us why our community is so special.
Additionally, we got the pleasure of expanding to Papua New Guinea and New Zealand. Our expansion to Papua New Guinea back in June was marked by a trip from our community member, John Peppas. John travelled to Papua New Guinea to aid the team at Professionals Lae with their migration. He stated that “it was a pleasure to work with the team who were happy, cheerful and willing to learn”.
If you’ve been following us for a while you’d know that we’ve had a small presence in New Zealand for some time, however, in the second half of 2022 we ramped up our commitment to the island nation. This was marked by the addition of our Territory Manager for New Zealand, Sam Barker, back in October. Sam has hit the ground running with a wealth of experience and a sense of personability that has left a positive impression on the team and customers alike. We also had the pleasure of sending members of our Australian team out to Wellington and Christchurch for PMC 2022 and to meet with the team at Harcourts Accomodation Centre. It was an enriching experience to meet with both existing and prospective members of the community, and learn about the intricacies of being a Property Manager in New Zealand. Tēnā koutou!
An exciting year of releases
Feature releases are always an exciting time at PropertyMe, as we’re all itching to share what we’ve been working so hard on and this past year has been no exception. We asked the team for their favourite feature releases of 2022, and the results were unsurprising. Our Owner mobile app was by far the most popular, allowing owners to access all their information from the palm of their hands, and allowing for an unprecedented level of communication and transparency.
Our second most popular feature release was Key Management, which allowed Property Managers to track keys within PropertyMe easily. This release helped to solve the long standing issue of keys getting lost or disorganised in the office, and was met with rave reviews from our community. Similarly, our Inbound SMS was well received by PropertyMe users. Inbound SMS allowed users to access their emails and text communications from one unified inbox. This release aimed to increase the efficiency of communication and streamline workflows. As we look toward 2023, we are extremely proud of all that we released in 2022 and cannot wait to share even more exciting new features with you all!
What did 2022 look like for our team?
It’s no surprise that office life post-lockdown looks a lot different than office life pre-lockdown. With flexible work environments and schedules becoming the new norm, we can safely that we also adopted this new norm in 2022 which has boosted productivity and mood around the office.
In conjunction with this, we’ve also had the opportunity to celebrate our accomplishments as a team on multiple occasions this year. Most notably we celebrated our 5,000 subscriber milestone at Luna Park, as we became children again for the night and rode the rides long into the evening! Most recently, we celebrated our hard work and the year that was with our annual Christmas yacht party in Sydney Harbour. It was a relaxing and refreshing evening that allowed us to catch up with familiar faces, and get to know new team members.
In November we also had the pleasure of welcoming, Jessica Hill, our new People and Culture Manager to the team. Jess brings with her a wealth of experience and a passion for what she does, which was infectious from the first day she began. Jess has already implemented Friyay Fiesta’s, positioned herself as a person to turn to in the office, and outlined moments for connection in 2023. We look forward to the upcoming year to see what else Jess has in store!
From online to in-person
2022 marked a year of conferences, as the Property Management industry lit up again after two years of lockdowns and restrictions. It was extremely exciting to look through our calendar back in January and discover that we had over 15 conferences and events to attend across 2022. Our sales and marketing teams were itching to get out and converse with customers and partners alike.
AREC 2022 was our most notable conference, as we debuted our ‘PropertyMe Survival Kit’ merchandise packs as well as interviewed our partners and customers to document their experience at the conference. We also got the privileged of being involved in Property Management Partners and Mitchell PT’s events over the course of the year. From International Women’s Day to National Property Manager’s Day we were overjoyed to be involved in such thoughtful and refreshing events.
What does 2023 hold?
It’s no surprise that we’re continuing to focus on innovation and connecting with our community in 2023, however, we also launching an exciting new product that will revolutionize the way you receive rental payments (so keep your eyes peeled). When speaking to our Chief Customer Officer, Sarah Dawson about what the future holds for PropertyMe she stated that “we are committed to developing and supporting our product based on industry feedback. All of our customer-facing teams are dedicated to capturing thoughts, ideas and conversations from our community to ensure our development is in line with industry needs”.
Thank you again for all of your support in 2022, we cannot wait to see what 2023 holds for both PropertyMe and the industry at large. Happy holidays, we hope you take time off for some much-deserved rest!
