Your Total Guide To Business

My Strategy For Surviving Coronavirus

By Jodie Fraser who is the managing director of Fraser Allen Estate Management.

When did you realise the Coronavirus could be a problem for you and your business?

After following the media coverage it was clear to me that not only would my family and friends be at risk, but the residents living within the blocks we manage would be at risk too.

A number of our residents are elderly or vulnerable and this immediately gave me cause for concern that they would not be able to have access to basic necessities and would feel isolated in their home.

What has been your plan to continue?

Communication during this time was incredibly important as I wanted to be able to ease residents' concerns at this strange and difficult time. Personally, I did not want anyone to feel like they couldn’t contact us if they needed help.

Ensuring our residents felt safe in our hands and showing that we are taking all necessary precautions by following government guidelines is our top priority.

Thankfully, as we have always been set up to work remotely we only needed to divert calls and redirect post. We have used all measures at our disposal such as social media, email, letter and text to communicate with residents.

How have you changed your business as the weeks have passed?

I did not want anyone to feel nervous or uncertain surrounding our office closure so other than communicating frequently, we are now able to hold meetings via web based systems such as Zoom or FaceTime if these measures are suitable for the client.

Despite being out of our remit, I recognised that there may be people who did not have family or friends who could help them so I set up a team of volunteers within the area who could assist those most vulnerable.

Speaking from experience of my own family, you realise how tough it may be for some people to do things we take for granted every day. Certainly for someone who is elderly who would normally have regular visitors can no longer have that level of contact.

Since starting the business, my aim was to look after the buildings I manage like they were my own. To respect the building as someone’s home and not just bricks and mortar. The clients have put their trust in us to manage their block and it is even more important during this time that we do everything we can to assist them.

What have you seen about business which has been positive?

Our contractors have continued to work communally enabling us to meet our obligations to the development. I’ve been really touched by how they have gone above and beyond to help. We’re really proud of the relationships that we have with our contractors and we know we could count on them to help our residents if needed.

Have you seen any negative behaviours in business?

In general we have not identified any negativity with our fellow agents or contractors. Unfortunately we have experienced an increase in fly tipping across some of our developments and more reports of noise nuisance, but we have been able to deal with this quickly.

What can we do to help each other?

Everybody’s needs are different and always changing. The most we can do is offer our support, ask what our residents need and to be supportive and understanding during this time. We also do this with fellow business owners.

Your parting thought?

For many of us this is a scary time and we all have family and friends who are at risk, leaving us all with fear, concern and anxiety about the people we care about.

The way we see it, our residents, clients and contractors are also someone’s family and friends so we hope to treat them with the same care and respect as those closest to us.

For more information visit www.fraserallenem.co.uk

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