A month on...by Abigail Orona

It’s me again, still causing trouble as per usual. But, I have tried to be on my best behaviour, I swear! To prove it to you all, I am writing another blog to update you on some of the tasks that I have completed thus far.

The first thing I did was gain experience with phone calls. I had never done any in my previous work experiences and so, this was a great opportunity to change that. I observed satisfaction survey calls to tenants to get an idea of what to say which then helped me to prepare for doing them myself. I was a little nervous at first, but through repetition, I became more comfortable with talking to tenants over the phone. It was only when a tenant said that they were interested that I realised I didn’t actually know much about ambassadorship and how to properly explain the role to someone. After educating myself a little more, I now feel confident I can do this and that I’m ready for next time.

I then gathered more experience and further developed my phone manner by doing calls for the Great Estates project. This was different in that the calls were longer and I had to type whilst listening if somebody wanted to fill out the survey over the phone with me. If you’re an ambassador, you might’ve also seen me knick-knock nannying tenants and leaseholder’s doors on the Great Estates walkabout which was heaps of fun! That was until I saw Scott and Ian doing the same to my grandma who lives in one of the blocks. That was when I pulled it together and started to actually do the door knocking I was supposed to…

After seeing other team members do the talking on door visits, I did eventually take the lead on one and there were a few things I believe I could do better. Altogether, I really enjoyed seeing the communal areas for myself and hearing resident’s feelings on theirs. The surveys were great in pinpointing the positives and negatives that came along with the renovations as well as help us to reflect and see what could’ve been improved. Using the surveys we had gathered so far, I produced a presentation to analyse these results which I had to present to a lot of people. As soon as I woke up that day, I had already come up with 100 ways this could go horribly wrong. Although, once I began talking the attendees through my slides, I quickly got into the groove and before I knew it, I had finished. I was ecstatic that it’d went swimmingly and I honestly don’t know why I was ever worried in the first place. Nevertheless, I know how I can do better and I can’t wait to share my next presentation that showcases the final results.

At the moment, I’m working on a spreadsheet for Oxford Direct Services that lists all the tenants that’d voiced repair concerns in the satisfaction survey. When this is completed, I will then need to call the tenants to find out more details such as if the repair is still outstanding and when the last time they spoke to Oxford Direct Services was.

Stay tuned for more updates!