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 customer experience during COVID-19 and beyond.
To continue this series, we'd like to shine a light on Rebecca Goreham. Rebecca is a Community Manager with Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL). 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.
Meet Rebecca Goreham
Sarah Hudson (SH): Can you tell us a little bit about your professional journey, from where you started in your career to where you are today.
Rebecca Goreham (RG): Once I graduated from university I began working as part of the events team at a luxury hotel in London, organising everything from week long sales conferences with awards dinners to wedding receptions, private dining and filming/photoshoots. I then transitioned to a role within a professional membership body, again as part of the events team, where I was responsible for delivering an annual calendar of events and activities for their members in the UK and overseas. During my time I delivered residential conferences and roadshows, networking events, research launches, as well as awards and graduation ceremonies. After four years I was ready for a new challenge and opportunity to grow and so I joined JLL as Community Manager for 70 St Mary Axe. I work to build a responsible and thriving community at 70 St. Mary Axe, through engagement activities and events, bringing together people that work in the building and local area.
SH: What attracted you to working in your current role?
RG: The opportunity to be creative and to have a positive impact on people was one of the main reasons I applied for this role. I've also always had an interest in the property industry; so a chance to expand my knowledge of commercial property was exciting. I'm one of those people who enjoy seeing something that I've worked on come to life; and value getting feedback directly from those that are engaging in the events and activities that I manage along the way. It's rewarding that the work that I do makes such a difference to someone's day.
SH: What advice do you have for someone looking to work in the industry?
RG: By understanding and anticipating the customers' needs and industry trends, you will always be one step ahead. So much of what we do is based on being able to identify the changes in needs and behaviours. If you are able to do that before that need is realised by the customer you can have the solution in place ready to go and their experience will always be positive.
SH: Why do you believe that occupier engagement is important?
RG: Engagement gives us the ability to provide a connection between the occupiers of the building, the team that manage it daily and the community in the surrounding area. Connecting directly with occupiers give you the opportunity to learn directly from them and understand their needs better.
The community platform has been a great place to focus our communications and engagement. We have been able to share news, updates, resources and events easily, as well as gain insights on the needs and behaviours that have changed as the working dynamic has moved more towards home and remote working.
SH: How do you approach tenant engagement?
RG: I look at our strategy as having four key aspects: Ongoing activities, key moments, hero events, and added extras. Ongoing activities refers to activities that take place throughout the year like our wellness programme of in-person and virtual classes, webinars, news content and charity partnerships. Key moments are interactive activities that happen quarterly, targeted and themed — for example, our Valentine's Day pop-up flower shop, dad Joke competition or virtual chocolate tastings. Hero events are the stand out moments for the year, seasonally themed around summer or Christmas as an opportunity to bring the whole community together at the same time. Finally, added extras are all the benefits we provide for the 70 SMA community, like access to local retailer discounts and in-house services such as dry cleaning. We established our community pillars early as a team, so all elements of engagement within the building, whether that be the activities I mentioned or the experience of walking through reception, are delivered with those pillars in mind. We want our activities to be relaxed, inspiring, quality, original, and connective.
SH: During the pandemic, how has the Equiem tenant experience platform been of use to you?
RG: The community platform has been a great place to focus our communications and engagement. We have been able to share news, updates, resources and events easily as well as gain insights on the needs and behaviours that have changed as the working dynamic has moved more towards home and remote working. Identifying those changes is vital in order to be able to adapt our engagement strategies to reflect the new working dynamic and continue to engage with people now working from home as well as in the office.
SH: How does the platform help you communicate with your tenants?
RG: We are always adding and updating what's on the platform and app so there is a lot of content available. It means there is just one place that occupiers can access all information on their building and community activities and benefits in their own time. Having that information available allows us to use newsletters via the platform to highlight key information when needed as well as communicate about any new activities coming up. The template format means that the newsletters look slick and professional, and they're very simple for me to put together in the back-end.
Written by Sarah Hudson and Rebecca Goreham.
Special thanks toRebecca for your contribution to our Experience Experts blog series. If you are interested in featuring in our series, please contact sarah.hudson@getequiem.com.
Rebecca 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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