The following is the speech given by
Aisling Keenan, Director, A.K Property Services, for the launch party
of the new website on 22 April 2008
Pictured at the launch are our Main Sponsors of the event Tom Hyland, T.J. Hyland & Co. Accountants, Aisling Keenan and Seamus Philbin, T.J. Hyland & Co. Accountants
Dia dhuit, a dhaoine uaisle. Ta an-áthas orm a bheith in éineacht libh.
I am delighted to welcome you all here this evening and thank you for your support as we officially launch our new website. Thank you especially to our sponsors, T.J. Hyland & Co. Accountants, Bartley Lydon Insurances Ltd. and Noel Maher.
When we started building our website last June, I set out to create a site that was current, spontaneous, colourful and edgy, that could deliver news on all our latest developments and tell the site visitor exactly what they needed to know.
We at AK Property Services are well aware that, for the average person who has just bought an apartment or settled into a residential estate, the whole area of property management companies and property management agents can be a lot to deal with, and right from the start we set out to deliver a website that would answer all their questions as quickly and as efficiently as possible.
One novel feature of the site that we are very proud of is our use of the National Consumer Agency's very own guidelines for property management. At the end of their booklet 'Property Management Companies and You' they pose 17 questions that a client should ask any prospective management agent; questions such as whether there is an out-of-hours service for emergencies or how financial records are kept about each development.
We hit upon the idea of answering all those questions in full on the site, putting the clients mind at ease straight away, and we even threw in a few answers the National Consumer Agency hadn't thought of.
I am very pleased with other features of the site. Our new blog will enable visitors to our site to keep up with the latest developments in Property Management, which we in A.K. Property Services hope to be at the cutting edge of for many years to come.
The Client Listings allow visitors to the site to quickly and easily see the developments we manage near them, and see the nationwide spread of the company.
I am particularly pleased with the design and layout of the site - on many pages there are glowing testimonials A.K Property have recieved, as well as quotes from some of the world's best managers and thinkers which I feel really articulate the vision of A.K. Property Services. My favourite one I placed on the front page, by Edward C Simmons: The difference between failure and success, is doing a thing nearly right, and doing it exactly right.
Pictured at the launch of the new website: Aisling Keenan, Managing Director and Mairead Cosgrove, President of Network Galway.
Over the past 10 years we have expanded our company through organic growth, and we now have 102 service contractors working for us throughout the country. We, Aisling Loughrey and I, here in Oranmore are now pushing the company into a higher gear with our dedication to expansion, and we feel our new website is a real milestone in spurring on the next phase of our development.
The next 10 years of Property Management in Ireland will be quite unlike the past 10 years. There will be less contracts handed out by property developers . Instead the consumer, the property owner will seek the managing agent of their choice based on their performance in the market place and their record. A.K. Property Services Ltd. have been winning contracts on this basis over the past 10 years and this will be the key for future growth of our company.
With the impending licensing and regulation of our industry we look forward to working within an industry that has enforced standards and continued education and training. We at A.K. Property Services do not fear regulation of our industry, instead we see it as an opportunity - it sets clear standards in respect of the services that we provide, which in turn helps to build consumer confidence.
I believe that consumers are entitled to expect a high and consistent level of service from our profession and that we are entitled to compete on a level playing field. Regulation is the best way of ensuring delivery of these expectations.
Our new website is another step forward for us and we will be updating it regularly to keep it current and interactive. Last Saturday, Marian Finucane interviewed Daniel O Donnell and in a discussion about changing times one of his replies was – ‘if Jesus was around today he would have a website’. Well, he's very welcome to visit our site to get some tips on how to do it.
Speech given 22 April 2008