So, Jane, thank you so much for joining us on another series or episode of the Yardi Living Series. Um, I'm so excited to be speaking with you today. Maybe if you could just introduce yourself and your role at Fresh Property Group. Well, thank you very much for inviting me. It's lovely to talk to you. Um, I'm obviously Jane Crouch, um, COO for Fresh. I've been with Fresh, uh, for 15 years. Um, and my role, um, is the day-to-day operations ensuring excellence, um, at, uh, from a customer point of view and the client point of view. So first of all, huge congratulations. Um, you know, you have been inducted into the Hall of Fame at the Property Week Awards. I wanna just ask a bit about how does it feel to receive that industry recognition, I guess from your own perspective and also what it represents for Fresh as a business? Yeah, I mean, it was very, very humbling, um, and a great surprise. Um, so, you know, delighted really for Fresh and the business overall. Um, I think it's, um, you know, a recognition not just about me, but about all the people I've worked with at Fresh Over the last 15 years. Um, and it's about what we've been doing in the industry, really trying to kind of push the kind of envelope, I suppose, on what student accommodation should be about and what wellbeing is about, but also then realizing that into increasing our clients', uh, profitability and the worth of the assets. So, Talking a little bit, first of all, around system selection. I guess one of the questions I have is, you've been here a a long time and before adopting the student solution with Yardi, um, how did sort of your systems or system fragmentation, um, kind of hinder or, or work with kind of operations and the, and the student? I suppose you have to realize that when Fresh started, we just had about 2000 beds. So we obviously put in systems that worked at the time for the scale and the size that, you know, one is that we could afford, but also what was sensible. Um, but as we grew though, we needed to kind of bolt on more and more systems and we ended up having about 16 different systems. So, you know, in, in effect, many of our staff were having to log onto 16 different applications, so, you know, different passwords and everything like that, and they weren't integrated. And, um, you are having to pull bit of sub data from here, bits of data from there, you know, nothing really, um, kind of worked. And so we spent quite a lot of time looking for some a solution because we wanted to make sure that the system was giving us, I suppose, a single, single point of, uh, a tru, if you like, we can reduce the, the, the problems of trying to integrate the information, uh, making sure that, you know, everything worked seamlessly between each other. So we did have a look at lots of different, um, um, options out there in the market and talked to other people that were using different systems. And when we came across Yardi, um, we spent a long time kind of interrogating the system and everything like, but we felt very comfortable, um, that Yardi had a kind of end-to-end solution that we needed. So, you know, right from the website, right through to the property management side, compliance, everything like that. And it would help and support our growth, um, and our ambitions really. Um, and so the little extras, um, like with these, the resident app was really helpful. Um, we were really clear that we wanted an online booking system from mentor to end. We didn't really want to have any, um, pauses in the booking journey. Um, and Yardi kind of gave us all of that. And I suppose what really sealed the deal for us is that the Yardi kind of, I suppose, um, ethos about reinvesting. So it's that continuous growth and reinvesting and we are not having to pull Yardi along to make those differences. Yardi kind of already doing that and planning that and having, you know, future, future proofing the system, which is what we really want, we didn't wanna have something that became out of date really quickly. So, um, it took us a while to make our decision, but when we, you know, came to that quick collusion and we mobilized Yardi, we've never really looked back. When you were doing the, the selection process, um, what was kind of the point where you thought this can't just be a few incremental fixes and we need a whole sort of solution stack and, and a change? When did you realize that and what made you get to that realization? I think, um, you know, as as we grew, we had, um, you know, a growing kind of portfolio and then clients that we need to service, and it was the reporting side that became more challenging. So while in whilst individually each app might have worked really okay, um, actually pulling any data and pulling reports off was quite difficult. So it was spending more time kind of trying to like, you know, pulling everything together and, and putting into one place and then things didn't necessarily make sense or add up and things like that. So for me, it's being able to, um, have really good reports for our clients, um, have them accurate, um, and then also having the internal reporting as well. So, you know, those, it is there at our fingertips and we're not having to kind of scramble around for it. It saves so much time, um, makes us more, um, efficient in the way that we can think about what we're gonna do, what we're gonna focus on each day. Talking more Around data direction, the information you're getting outta the RD solution is for you as a leader, how is that better data or that data you are getting, helping to drive better decisions in, in your role? I mean, without data, it is really, really difficult to make a strategic, um, thinking, you know, um, and, um, thinking about what's the best way to take things forward. Um, I mean, we have to be in this market, especially at the moment, very reactive as to, um, what's going on. So we use like bookings as an example, seeing where bookings are coming from, seeing where our spend on marketing is being spent. So, you know, we can see that really, really quickly. Um, and we think, well, that segment over there is not working. We can switch that off really quickly and move to somewhere else. Um, if we need to change rates, um, we can do that really quickly, um, and we can have a look at from what's being sold as to whether, okay, those room types are really selling well, what, what do we need to do now to, you know, make sure we can sell out the building for our clients? So it's really having that data on your fingertips and you can see the trends, see, you know, what, what's working well, what's not working well. And you know, I have visibility across the whole of the UK and Ireland as to what's going on. So I know if we've got any kind of weaknesses or any kind of values going on and really, really quickly, I don't need to be there. I don't need to be in Cork or I don't need to be, you know, in Dundee. I can see that all. Uh, on the screen You mentioned, you know, having that data at your fingertips, I guess if you had to quantify the time it takes you now to access that type of data versus where you had not that unified Yeah. Kind of one solution. What, how, if you had to put a number on kind of the or time that would take, what would that be? At the moment, it's instant. Um, whereas I would have to be asking a number of people to be pulling off data from different sources, then need to have someone to kind of collate it, then have time to review it, and by the time that's all happened, it's probably update. Um, so it is kind of almost useless to me. So you know, it, you know, say it took three days a week, you know, so, you know, ask for it on Monday, get it on Friday, everything's moved on in that week. So, you know, it's almost pointless. You're looking too much far, you know, to in the, in the past. Whereas at the moment I can see something instantly, I can go on and have a look at anything I want and see it at, at here and now as it were. So yeah, That instantaneous, um, sort of, you mentioned around you can see data instantly. How important is that to your clients and how kind of a much, you know, weight or pressure is there on you guys to deliver that? So instantly I think it's become more of a, an issue. Um, we all know that there's been a challenging market in the last couple of years, um, and we need to be very responsive to what's going in on in the local market. Um, so we're sitting in Nottingham today and, um, Nottingham has been a very challenging market for everybody works in Nottingham. So you know, our clients wanna know really on a, on a day by day basis, you know, what's happening in the market, how sales are going, what are other people do, how are the people are doing, what their sales are likely to happen, and we need to sometimes respond to that. Are they doing different offers? Are they reducing rents? Are they increasing rents? And then just to kind of, you know, work with that. So, you know, it is really, really important that our clients have confidence that we've got that on hand to kind of support them and make sure that we're maximizing their, uh, you know, their return on investment. Talking a little bit around, um, you know, it's been a few years since the implementation of the system for your teams on the ground, how do you think they have sort of, you know, embraced the, the solution? What are sort of the day-to-day tools that they're using and getting the benefits from? There's numerous things. I mean, some of it I've just talked about, you know, regarding being able to make changes to rates and things like that really quickly. Um, it's about room moves have, you know, when students arrive, they might find another group of friends they wanna do a swap with, and it's just making sure those rumors happen really quickly and those are improvements that you already have been able to implement and bring forward with us. Um, I think the app has been really important, um, and you know, the app has, has grown and changed and we, we are using it more as well as we learn how to kind of get the best out of it. So we're expanding, you know, the, you know, the, the benefits of the app as well. So yeah, there's so many things. I think it just helps our teams to be able to not worry about, um, you know, all the kind of paperwork that goes on in, in property, um, but focus on the people, um, spend more time facing them, thinking about the events that they can organize, making sure that they're having an opportunity to speak to everybody that's in their building at some point in the week. It's an interesting point that Sam Scott actually mentioned in Barcelona, the class conference a while back, that Fresh is meticulous around delivering an outstanding student experience. And my question really is, is how has student IQ in particular or the resident app helped you in achieving this? Yeah, I mean, the app is, you know, really important and, you know, whilst everyone says they have an app and you know, it all works really well, I think having the app being integrated into Yardi is so, so important because it gives the students, for instance, the real time live information about their rents, their payments, um, when the next payment's due. Um, they can report all their repairs and maintenance and they can see real time as to the progress of their repairs. Um, you know, when um, someone's going to visit, when someone's gonna complete the repair, if, um, a part needs to be ordered, all of that's so visible to the residents. So they, they're really keen on that. How we've then kind of, um, expanded that is, um, you know, doing our induction on the app. So you know, when students arrive we've got a nice video that they can then watch, um, and it's got a lot of humor in it, so it really engages with the students and we sort of encourage them to kind of watch that with their parents so they know, you know, the kind of safety things based done in a very humorous way. Um, we then, um, use, um, the app to promote all our kind of events. Um, so we have regular events, you know, almost every week, um, in most locations. Um, and we can then use the kind of RSVP for certain events where we need to know numbers because of like catering or, you know, organizing, um, you know, um, support round that. Um, so that's really handy. Um, and you know, it's, we spend a lot of time on through the app as well, promoting opportunities to do wellbeing activities. Um, so you know, we'll have hints and tips about, um, study about sleeping, um, you know, all those kind of things. You know, we do step challenges, you know, there's so many things you can use the app and it's about how creative you are really, um, in using it. So I think everyone gets a lot of fun out of it. I wanted to ask a bit more around sort of, so there's plenty of wellbeing initiatives you have here and it's brilliant to see. And I think, um, again, referencing sort of Sam Scott, he mentioned around there was an uplift, um, within kind of fresh and your properties around the NPS score. Um, so that net promoter score, um, it would be great to understand that a little bit more. And what, what's driving that and maybe from a technology perspective, how has that also helped to enhance? Yeah, I mean we started mobilizing Yardi, um, during COVID, which is probably not the best time. Um, and um, along with Yardi, we were in, um, developing our BE Wellbeing program and those two programs were working side by side. Um, and with the both of those developments and, and the integration of it, our NPS score, um, from 2019 went from plus 11, um, to where we are now at plus 36. Wow. Um, and I think from the year of implementation of Yardi and our B Wellbeing program and I see those two working together, uh, you know, um, very much so, you know, we went from the plus 11, I think it was to like plus 30. Um, so there was a big, big jump, you know, from where, where we were. And that's in the context where I think students were looking for more support, more um, guidance and everyone feeling quite nervous after the, after the pandemic because then, you know, we was always issuing different guidance as to, you know, they could go to the gym or when they couldn't go to the gym, they could go in gym in pairs or they could, you know, cluster flat could go all of those things. And that kind of helped make the communication much easier. We use Yardi as well with the bulk emails and we can group emails as well. So, you know, whilst to, you know, um, we might have to communicate something to a certain block or certain, you know, floors, we're able to do that as well or certain students. So if it's like first years or second years that, you know, there was all sorts of things that we were able to do do for a ERD that made that so much easier. And so the building we're in today, um, the waterways brilliant building. Um, I noticed on the website that one of the perks of living here, you advertise the resident app. And I guess how is that utilized by students, first of all, and in the property teams and what are the benefits of it? I mean, the students, the uptake on the app is, is, is uh, absolutely almost a hundred percent because it is so easy for the students then to be able to make payments so they can see easily what rent they owe, um, make the payments, they can do it through pay by bank. Um, so it's quite easy transfer from their bank to, um, to make the rent payments. Um, it makes the visibility then for their parents as well about the transactions much clearer. They can send screenshots and I think some of our parents as well have access to the app as well. And then making the, the payments themselves, um, you know, but the students then obviously they, that's kind of very practical. They can use it for the maintenance, um, side as well. Reporting, tracking their maintenance requests, seeing when someone's gonna complete the repair. Um, and also if they're, something's gonna take a bit longer what the progress is of the repair. So parts have been ordered or something like that. But you know, what we use it mostly for is about, you know, engaging with the residents regarding their, you know, act social activities. We can also do like surveys about what things they would like to do. Um, we, um, send out like notifications around, um, hints and tips about, you know, being able to sleep better about better study. 'cause all the students are coming up to their study times now. It becomes quite anxious in the building. People wanna, you know, focus on studying. So we all spend a lot of time supporting them through that and the app is the best way to do that. So yeah, we, we really use the app to its full. I think Talking a little bit around now, I guess AI and it's, you know, it's quite hot topic in the industry and especially within residential, you know, you, you hear it everywhere now. And I guess I want to understand a bit more around what are the initiatives that Fresh is looking into where it comes to sort of the AI solution and more particularly in operations or enhancing that student experience. Yeah, I mean, we're looking at AI in so many different ways and it's really about making things a lot easier. So, you know, we have an internal ai, um, system for our staff. So, you know, they can ask, um, our ai, you know, how do I do this? Or, you know, how do I do that? So if they've gotten a policy or procedure how to do something, they can ask Polly and Polly tells them. So, um, but from, um, from a residents ex experience, um, that we're looking at, um, improving, I suppose the journey for our residents and thinking about how we can make that easier. Um, and we, we are not trying to replace people. People are so important in this business. Um, and what I think AI gives us a luxury for is that the people can spend more time actually focusing on the people rather than the kind of processes. Let AI do all the hard work behind the scenes, um, and do some of the kind of the mundane things. And, you know, providing information, navigating different routes, um, helping us, uh, collate, um, information, helping us be better at understanding all the information flow that we've got as well. So there's lots of ways that we can use ai, but you know, having people is the most important thing. It's the luxury that we need. Um, you know, you think about when you are arriving as a student, um, first year at a scheme like the waterways, whilst it's beautiful, the person that really makes the difference is the person that's smiling at you when you arrive, feeling a little nervous, feeling a little bit daunted, you know, it is that pe like the people thing, AI is really, really important, but the people are even more important. And on the role of ai, how important is it before you embrace ai, how important is it to have clean data that's feeding in there? Well, I mean, it can only, um, pull out accurate. If it's not accurate, then it's kind of useless to you, isn't there? Um, and we don't wanna misdirect people. Um, so students, when they're getting information through the AI bot, um, you know, they wanna be able to rely on that. We need to rely on that. We don't wanna be mis-selling or, uh, miscommunicating anything. So it's really, really important that the information in Yardi, um, you know, is, is clear and accurate and, and gives them the, the, the information they need to be able to make the decisions about the booking, which type room type they might want, which building they want to live in and so forth. So yeah, Yardi is really, really important to that part. And I think what's really good about Yardi is Yardi holds so much information and therefore it isn't just like one line answers. So the AI are able to give, we're able to give a little bit more about the description about the property, um, the rent levels, the rooms, there's so much there. Um, and so, you know, you can kind of help the customer, uh, really make their informed choice, you know, so when they do make their booking that they're actually really certain they've made the right decision thinking forward Or forward looking if you like. I guess two questions is what is next for you and your role at Fresh and what's next for the business? Well, you know, fresh is obviously on the trajectory of growth and you know, we are very much known about student. Um, we have been working in the BTR and co-living and I do see co-living and BTR being, you know, our area of growth as well. Um, and Yardi works as easily and as, as, as, as well in the student as it does in Cove and BTR. I think, you know, um, you know, we wanna think about how we can elevate even further the service delivery, how can we make it more streamlined? How can we be more efficient? So there's lots of things that we've got in, in the background and little different projects that we're working on really to kind of keep, make sure Fresh is seen as the leader in third parties, the third party space, but not only known for student but co-living and BTR going forward as well. And how confident are you in Yardi as a partner in helping you to kind of achieve that growth trajectory In Yardi? Um, as a platform? The reason we chose it is we knew that, you know, um, it would scale with us. Um, and you know, we're able to segment our different kind of customer journeys while still only having one login. So, um, you know, we can have a student journey, we can have a co-living journey, we can have a BTR journey and it doesn't matter whether we've got 10 properties we we're managing, um, or a hundred properties, we're able to really kind of still deliver that consistency, have that reliability, um, and be able then to still service our clients and get that information out to them, which is so important, uh, in their kind of strategic thinking about their assets and everything. So yeah, definitely very, very important and glad to be working with you. Likewise. Absolutely. Jane, thank you so much for taking the time with us today. It's been absolutely brilliant and I wish you and the Fresh property group the very best of luck and looking forward to your future endeavors. Yeah, thank you so much. Thank you.