Behind every well-run property is someone who deserves a thank you

A property manager's best work is the work nobody sees. Ailo built Project Thank You to change that, with a Send thanks button for investors in the app, and three agencies show what happens when an investor can simply say thank you.

Most of what a property manager does well, nobody sees. For property managers right around Australia, keeping things running smoothly takes a great deal of work. The rent comes in, the repair gets booked, the lease is renewed, and almost none of that effort is recognised or valued by the investor whose property it protects.

Ailo's view is that this matters far beyond morale. How a property manager feels about their work shows up in how they look after an investor's property, and the investor is the one who feels the difference. The relationship between the two is what keeps them together, yet the usual channels carry problems and rarely carry appreciation.

Ailo believes the relationship-led approach is the one that works, and that it starts with property managers feeling seen, valued and thanked.

The thinking was to close the loop. A property manager does a good job. The good job is seen. It is thanked. The good work becomes visible. Ailo could have left that to chance, hoping an investor might pick up the phone on a good day. It chose to build it into the platform, so the relationship could carry good news as easily as a complaint.

The result is Project Thank You. Investors see it in the Ailo app they already use to keep across their property, as a Send thanks button, and it takes a tap rather than a form. The thanks lands in real time in the property manager's messages, with a little celebration attached, and it comes from a named investor rather than an anonymous score. It goes to everyone from the agency in that conversation, so nobody gets left out, and the property manager can open the chat it came from and reply to the investor. The agency can see the thanks coming in on a Thanks tab in its dashboard.

It is deliberately lighter than a survey. Esther Sebbens, Managing Principal at Blackshaw Belconnen, put the difference plainly. "It's much better than doing things like an NPS score," she said. Some investors are very appreciative, she said, but "nobody really has the time to write that type of stuff." Simplicity is the point. "By being able to make it so simple, then they have that opportunity, and then the person receiving it gets that."

At Ray White Canberra, Britt Smith looks after a large portfolio, and the thanks cut through the noise. "All I deal with at the moment is like negativity on from the tenants or owners," she said. So when investors began thanking her, she noticed. "You had party hats and whatnot coming through," she said. "It was nice to actually be recognised for what we do."

Her colleague Annette Thompson speaks to the invisible part of the job. With "the amount of effort that we put in behind the scenes, which is unknown to most people, it is always nice just to get that little bit of feedback and that little bit of thanks, just to show that people appreciate it." What struck her was the difference between hearing it and seeing it.

Back at Blackshaw Belconnen, the first thank-you caused a small stir. Esther's staff called out that they had got a thank you, and everyone went to have a look. "I think property managers don't get that very often," she said.

A thank-you doesn't stay with the moment it arrives. It carries into the next call, the next inspection and the next difficult email. For Esther, timing and authorship are what make it land. People, she said, "receive the gratitude more when it is in real time, and you can see that it's coming from that specific person."

A thank-you from one investor lands with one person. At Ray White Canberra, Lisa Donnellan began bringing the thanks to the team's property management meeting this month, so everyone could see them together. One property manager's reaction was, "Oh, wow, I didn't realise I got that many thanks from my owners."

Not everyone was sure it would catch on. When Project Thank You arrived at Ray White Canberra, which looks after around 3,650 properties across Canberra, Lisa was not convinced. She thought the idea was "a bit average". She didn't think many investors would do it. Since starting in August, the property managers at Ray White Canberra have received 81 thanks from investors.

What changed her mind was who the thanks came from.

Lisa recalls one property manager who said, "I didn't think that owner liked me," and then got a thanks. That is the relationship Ailo had in mind. An investor who had seemed hard to please had been paying attention all along, and now the property manager knew it. The thanks didn't just reflect a good relationship. It made it stronger, because both sides now knew where they stood.

For Lisa, the value lies in what a thank-you represents. No investor has to send one. When they do, it is a choice.

Up in North Queensland, Belle Property Townsville is newer to it. The agency looks after around 1,260 properties, and Kristie Dawes, who heads property management there, says the team is "well into month one" on Ailo. Investors there can "send their thanks directly through to their property manager".

Ailo sees recognition as part of keeping good property managers doing the job they're great at. When a property manager stays, the investor keeps the person who knows their property, their tenants and their history.

The sceptic in Canberra has come round.

The job is still the job. What has changed is what happens when an investor notices. The investor can say so in a moment, the property manager hears it from someone they know, and the team can see it. "I wouldn't say look forward to it," Britt said, "but I definitely like when I get it or when it comes through."

That was always the idea. A property manager who feels their work is seen looks after a property differently. An investor who is looked after notices, and says so. And a relationship that carries good news as well as bad is one both sides want to keep. Ailo built Project Thank You so the good work and effort behind the quiet days no longer goes unseen, and so the people doing the work can hear, every so often, that it mattered.