With customer experience at the core of what we do at Equiem, we believe it is crucial to highlight the experience experts from our client partnerships, who are out in the field delivering excellent customer experiences during COVID-19 and beyond.
To continue this series, we'd like to shine a light on Shaz Kadri. Shaz is a Receptionist and Community Manager at 88 Wood Street in London, UK. Our Head of Product Marketing, Sarah Hudson, chatted with her about the importance of creating experience and nurturing a tenant community, and where Equiem comes into the mix.
Meer Community Manager Shaz
Sarah Hudson (SH): Tell us a little bit about your professional journey, from where you started in your career to where you are today.
Shaz Kadri (SK): After I graduated, I spent a year doing an apprenticeship at a Design House, which was fun but really strips you back creatively as everything needs to be commercialised. I soon realised the only way I coule truly have full control over my creativity was if I was to work for myself. So I started working on my own line and would put these design pieces online to sell. I also moved onto work at Next head office at the same time, where I worked as a customer adviser. After that, I moved onto the social media team where our team would help run the Twitter and Facebook pages. I really enjoyed my time there but had to leave due to my move to London. After working at the National Australia Bank for a while, I moved to start with the 88 Wood Street Building Management team as a Receptionist, alongside Amy. After a year into the job, Equiem was launched at the building, and its arrival opened a whole new chapter for us here at Wood Street. I was, once again, able to tap into my creative side, and have really enjoyed it.
SH: What do you enjoy most about your role?
SK: I enjoy the variety that this role brings, especially with having the online platform. Every day is different. It's not just the standard Reception duties — there's the events planning, creative content writing, working with local retailers, engaging with the community, hosting popups to charity events, and more. Also, being able to work alongside such a great team makes it all the more pleasurable to come into work.
SH: What excites you the most about delivering occupier engagement?
SK: In today's society we spend so much of our time online and on our phones, that it makes sense to engage with our tenants on an online platform. It's exciting to know that we are able to deliver a message to them no matter where they are. Tenants can interact with us, enter competitions, and read articles either from work or home. Now, more than ever, as people have been working from home due to the pandemic, it is great that we are still able to engage and interact with our community online. If we didn't have Equiem, the absence would undoubtedly be felt, whereas now we still have a link to the Wood Street community away from Wood Street.
SH: Do you have a memorable activation or engagement experience that you've worked on that you can share with us? What made it memorable?
SK: I would say organising the health check event with the NHS was certainly a memorable experience. There was a lot of work that went into planning, and it was at times challenging to put together — especially figuring out an appointment system that would work well for both the team coming in and for our online platform. But in the end the event was a success, with all appointments fully booked ahead of the event date. We received a lot of great feedback and praise from tenants, too.
Tenants can interact with us, enter competitions, and read articles either from work or home. Now, more than ever, as people have been working from home due to the current pandemic, it is great that we are still able to engage and interact with our community online. If we didn't have Equiem, the absence would undoubtedly be felt, whereas now we still have a link to the Wood Street community away from Wood Street.
SH: During the pandemic, how has the Equiem tenant experience platform been of use to you?
SK: The tenants have really appreciated the platform during lockdown. There were regular competitions being run and lots of self-help articles and relevant information being posted. It was a difficult time for everyone, but I certainly feel that the platform was appreciated. Importantly, for a lot of people, the platform was a way of staying connected to Wood Street. Since the lockdown we have had to make changes to the way certain physical giveaways are run and switch these over to virtual, but this has worked out well, with the tenants still happy and engaged.
SH: How has the Equiem tenant experience platform helped you better understand your tenants?
SK: Since having the platform, we have been able to connect with our tenants on a different level and seem to have a better understanding of what they like and what works well for us as a Community at Wood Street. The tenants love to engage in competitions and giveaways, for instance, and the polls are a good way of giving us an insight into tenant preferences. It also gives them a say, and they know we hear them.
After a year into my job, Equiem was launched at 88 Wood Street — and its arrival opened a whole new chapter for us. I was, once again, able to tap into my creative side, and have really enjoyed it.
Written by Sarah Hudson and Shaz Kadri.
Special thanks to Shaz for your contribution to our Experience Experts blog series. If you are interested in featuring in our series, please contact sarah.hudson@getequiem.com.
Shaz is among many Experience Experts delivering superior tenant engagement with the Equiem platform. To find out more, download our 2020 Annual Report here.
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