Through our ‘Back to the Floor’ initiative, our directors and senior management team get a chance to experience at first-hand what it is like to work in various roles around the company. This really helps our people and management to work more closely together and ensure Rendall & Rittner maintains its high standards of service.
During Customer Service Week, our two founders Duncan Rendall and Matt Rittner spent a day working on site with concierge teams. Duncan was at Discovery Dock and Matt joined the team at Bridges Wharf. We interviewed them to find out how it went.
What did you enjoy most about your time as a concierge?
Matt: It’s great to have the direct personal contact with our residents and lessees to find out more about what they think.
Duncan: It was great to spend the day working with Kaz, who was very friendly and knowledgeable and clearly a great asset to the concierge team.
What parts of the job have changed because of COVID?
Matt: Hygiene and cleanliness are of course paramount, as well as maintaining social distancing and wearing the new protective visors. But the team are doing a great job, working in a COVID secure manner and keeping residents safe.
Duncan: It takes some getting used to wearing a face mask for the whole day and can make it more difficult to communicate. There are also new sanitisation measures for handling parcels, but this is working well.
What positives have you taken from the BTTF experience?
Matt: It has really emphasised what high levels of personal service are expected from and consistently delivered by the concierge teams. The experience has also shown me that there is a need for clear communication at all levels of the company.
Duncan: It emphasises how busy the reception is and just how much parcel traffic there is, that was a real eye-opener.
Has your understanding of on-site staff and estate operations changed as a result?
Matt: Apart from key and parcel handling, the wide range of interaction on different issues was a revelation. It has highlighted that well trained and supported concierge staff providing a high level of customer service is critical to the success of interaction with our customers.
Duncan: It definitely underlines what a key role they play in the smooth running of a development. Our concierge teams are the front line of our interactions with our customers.
How has customer service delivery changed since you started 30 years ago?
Matt: I think it is light years apart. Lessees and residents expect a responsive and knowledgeable front of house service with high levels of professionalism and discretion. The sheer number of Deliveroo deliveries from early in the morning through the day and into the evening was quite a surprise.
Duncan: With the boom in online shopping, the number of parcel deliveries has grown beyond what we could have imagined and that has brought with it a lot of work for the concierge.
Is there anything you will be changing / implementing as a result?
Duncan: We will try to introduce systems that make processing parcels easier and more efficient for the staff.
Is there anything else you would like to add?
Matt: A big thank you to Simona and Owen, and of course Katerina at Bridges Wharf for guiding me through a very busy day and evening!
Duncan: Edd, Kaz, Mark and Tak at Discovery Dock make a great team!
Posted: 20 October 2020
