A week in the life of… a marketing communications customer lead

Tuesday

Today I spent a day in the office, which is unusual for me as I tend to be based at home. I came in to attend the final task and finish group meeting – a group of colleagues and customers who have been working to create Thrive’s new approach to engaging with customers.

Thrive has always been supportive of flexible working, even before the pandemic. The flexibility has always been incredibly valuable to me, as I have a condition called ME, otherwise known as chronic fatigue syndrome. Working predominantly from home and being able to flex my hours in the day (around our core hours of 10am-3pm) helps me to manage my fatigue where necessary, while also allowing me to perform at my best when I am doing my job.

Wednesday

At Thrive we have a number of cross-business working groups that align with our interests and job roles. These groups give us the chance to come together to discuss various matters across the business, and pool expertise that offers improvements to the services we offer. Each of these groups has a member of our leadership team present, so decisions made can be signed off and disseminated quickly.

I am a member on the customer group and also our safe and well group, both of which align with my interests to put our customers at the heart of all we do and support my role as marketing communications customer lead.

Today in the safe and well group we discussed ideas to help residents understand the importance of keeping communal areas clear, which is vital for health and safety should a building need to be evacuated.

Thursday

The working groups within Thrive are a great way of improving our services. But it is important to ensure that the work and outcomes we discuss in them get shared with the wider business, so we can all improve group practice.

I have been working with the customer working group to develop some top tips to master effective communication and have meaningful conversations. Today I am writing up plans to share this with colleagues at our next company away day.

This includes looking at language use – for example, avoiding the use of ‘we’ in sentences such as ‘we understand this may not be possible’ and instead speaking in the first person.

For conversations to be meaningful, communication should feel personal. People don’t want to talk to faceless businesses, they want to talk to human beings – but do our colleagues have concerns about taking this level of ownership in their communication? I’m keen to collaborate with colleagues on how these tips work in practice, so we explored these in today’s workshop.

Friday

Ending the week on a high, today I go and visit our homes in South Oxhey, to congratulate the winners of our tenant award prize draw. This is an annual prize draw we run, with a combined total of £2,600 in cash prizes.

This year there were 10 winners, so there were a lot of happy households to visit! I enjoyed visiting one resident in particular because of his adorable cat Rameses and I couldn’t resist including him in the photos I took.

It’s when I go and see our customers in their homes that I’m reminded why I love doing what I do, which is being part of a team who help provide homes for all sorts of people at different stages of their lives.