Zoom Together, Bloom Together

In the last Wednesdays at 1, CoFounder and CEO Felicite Moorman and CoFounder and CTO Ryan Buchert addressed how communication from businesses can be most considerate. Add this event to your weekly calendar by registering here.

Felicite began with saying there are people joining the webinar who have experienced the loss of friends and family members due to COVID-19 and the entire STRATIS team sends heartfelt love and condolences.

She spoke to the different ways and paces that different people process our current circumstances, especially being in physically different places. This should serve as a reminder to be mindful if able to continue to conduct business.

A STRATIS team member named this situation “QuaranTEAMing,” which is the optimism that the company is striving to embody.

Some tips from Felicite and Ryan:

• Power hour: This is an hour of uninterrupted work time. Communicate with everyone you’re cohabiting with what this is, and interrupting during this time is like pulling someone up from a deep dive and they can’t go back into the water that day. This could be the opportunity to do the hardest thing on the to-do list, and maybe it could be baby steps to move multiple projects along.
• Very strange times affecting eating: If your eating habits have changed, be kind to yourself and try to move towards what would be healthiest for your body while also knowing that it’s okay to see some fluctuation in eating habit changes.
• Accountability partner: In high school, Felicite and a friend had a daily pre-class phone call to set intentions for the day and end in prayer. In a similar way, the STRATIS team has a 9 AM wakeup call so the team could see each other. A team member set up after-work conversations with small randomized groups of people so coworkers could get to know each other in a smaller setting and maintain human connections.

Below is a recap of the questions asked. (Answers edited for clarity and brevity)

How have you been effectively communicating with customers?

Meeting them where they are at and reducing friction. Refine your message for each audience. It’s undoubtedly harder right now, especially as there are many partners in real estate who have not traditionally used Zoom, and we typically travel to a property or headquarters for meetings.

The STRATIS Wellness Team’s standard check-in calls for wellness have been even more appreciated by Property Managers during this time.

To our clients, we communicated our business continuity plan. We are uniquely enabled to do so with the privilege of our work. Sites are still installing and in the situations where we are going to those properties, we are taking necessary precautions.

From an audience member: We should be overcommunicating right now and not take anything for granted. Listen to what people are telling you about their adaptation and go at least halfway to meet clients.

With balancing overcommunication with being concise, how often should you communicate with clients?

As often as something changes around your services, as frequently as you can add value.

What are some organizations you’ve seen either for communication to you or to others that are communicating effectively?

This is very relevant to Property Management, as their job requires compassion and empathy. Sprout Marketing, a company that provides marketing materials to Property Managers, has done this well. I don’t think I’ve seen a company shift as quickly as they have.

We’re being careful about what messaging goes out right now. It’s amazing to see our people-facing team members create calm for clients on the other side of their communication.

From an audience member: GM has shifted their tone to be safety-focused, even if it’s not directly about the virus. They’re still selling cars, and highlighting safety measures in place.

When should we start thinking about the strategy of once “we come out of the crisis (whenever that is)”?

We’ll have new normals. Thinking now from a place of hope for how we come out of this as a community. Opportunity to come out better, to have learned, and communicated more meaningfully.

We’re focused to grow through this, not get through this.

What are unique ways of communicating that have come up during this pandemic?

A lot of door signs now. Especially door hangers for our Property Management groups. A lot more LinkedIn activity than ever before. Haven’t seen any skywriting or smoke signals yet, but ...I’ve been inside.

We saw a tremendous amount of innovation in 2008, so I’m expecting to see a lot of it.

As we’re wrapping up, last week we talked about Mr. Rogers’ mom telling Mr. Rogers, as a toddler, to assuage his fears. Gentle reminder that this was advice to a toddler. It’s blessedly easy to see the helpers right now. As community members, I’d like to encourage us to safely and generously BE the helpers.