As 2020 is just around the corner, we want to reflect on the past 12 months here at Realm, and look towards what the next year has in store for us.
We caught up with our Managing Director, Stephen Booth, who shares some of our team’s biggest achievements and highlights from 2019, as well our goals and plans for 2020 so far.
Q: What were the biggest achievements of the Realm team in 2019?
“Despite the challenging market conditions in Aberdeen, we have had a fantastic year of growth. We won several significant new contracts across both our fire and security services, and welcomed 6 new people into the Realm family.
“We are delighted to have won a major contract with University of Aberdeen, to supply and maintain all their firefighting equipment across their campuses. This was previously managed by a national company for over 35 years, so we are over the moon to have been selected by this fantastic organisation.
“We were also appointed by NESCOL (North East Scotland College) to maintain all their fire and security systems within all their buildings across the north east of Scotland.”
Q: What were the drivers of this success?
“Teamwork has definitely been the key to achieving our contract wins and renewals.
“Because customer experience is at the heart of everything we do, every single person at Realm plays an important role. It’s not just our sales, engineering and customer support staff that focus on our customer experience – so much happens behind the scenes too that enable people to do their jobs effectively, and ensure the business runs smoothly and efficiently. It has definitely been a team effort!
“We have also invested in new technology, to improve our customer experience even further. All of our engineers now have iPads that enable them to complete and send updates and documents instantaneously. For example, providing clients with recommendations or reports, or paperwork to sign and return. This gives our clients real-time updates, and much quicker responses, which has definitely strengthened our service offering and enabled us to win and renew contracts.”
Q: What was your personal highlight of 2019?
“Winning the University of Aberdeen contract was definitely my highlight of the year. It’s a contract that I’ve always dreamed of, as it’s such a prestigious and historic establishment in our local region. I’m very proud of the team for making this happen.
“We also moved into our new office at the beginning of the year, and because it is a granite house, there is now a very homely feel here. It has made the office feel more family-like, and made us all improve our communications with each other, which I personally feel has been a big benefit for us all.”
Q: What are you most proud of this year?
“Our team, and the new people that have joined us. We have appointed a mix of engineers and support staff across our teams, and it’s fantastic to see their fresh ideas, their energy and enthusiasm, and their willingness to learn. It’s added a new dynamic to our team!
“Training is going to be a big focus for us in 2020, and I’m excited to see everyone continue to learn and grow.”
Q: What challenges did you face in 2019, and how did you overcome them?
“The local market was challenging again this year, with many companies still struggling and some unfortunately closing their doors. This of course brings a whole host of challenges with it.
“But we have worked harder and smarter, and pulled upon different personalities in the office to keep everyone positive and motivated. There are always positives to look at, even during hard times, and ensuring we focus on what is going well and the opportunities in front of us, rather than focusing on the negatives, is something I’m really proud of.”
Q: What will 2020 look like for Realm? What are you most looking forward to?
“This year was all about strengthening our foundations – for example our team and systems – and next year will be about growth.
“Our biggest goal is always to continue to improve our customer experience, and we will be looking at more ways to do this throughout the next year.
“We will also be opening our new fire training academy, which is going to be a huge milestone for us! This will be a dedicated and modern building at our Mugiemoss Road site, that will enable us to host all of our fire safety training courses at our own premises, and increase the number of courses we offer.”
If you would like to speak with our team about your fire and security needs for 2020, please don’t hesitate to get in touch – we’d be happy to help and provide some advice. You can either email sales@realmfs.co.uk or call 01224 710014.
