Making life easier with tech

Sally Hamilton: Hi, and welcome to The Realtime 5. This is where we sit down with industry leaders, business owners, and of course, customers of ours at Realtime.

My name's Sally Hamilton, GM of Customer, and today I'm here with one of our customers, Kathy Stolinksi, director of Adcock Conveyancing Solutions.

Welcome, Kathy.

Kathy Stolinksi: Thank you.

Sally: Now, I've known Kathy, uh, for several years now. We worked together at PEXA.

Kathy: Mm-hmm.

Sally: Kathy was one of our member advisory committee members, and now I have the pleasure of calling her our customer at Realtime. So of course, it was obvious for me to come out and see Kathy to ask a couple of questions around her personal business achievements, in terms of what she's focusing on now, uh, industry, and of course, the transition to Realtime.

So Kathy, let's start on a personal note. What are some of the things that you do as a business leader, uh, in terms of brand and reputation, which you've built up a great one here in Adelaide, South Australia, um, that you've found really drive that positive perception, uh, in the industry?

Kathy: Uh, so consistent communication, so regular and clear, um, communication with our clients to build trust.

Sally: Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

Kathy: Um, client-centric service, so prioritising, uh, customer service and responsiveness.

Sally: Mm-hmm.

Kathy: Um, transparent pricing, that's key, is, um, clear upfront costs to avoid surprises, um, and that helps build our credibility. Um, thought leadership, so we do regular social media posts. Um, so publishing articles, commentary on conveyancing trends, um, to showcase our expertise.

Sally: Yep.

Kathy: Um, and staff training. A big, um—

Sally: Mm, invest in your people.

Kathy: Mm-hmm. Invest in your people, um, you know, professional development, um, to maintain high service and standards.

Sally: Yeah, definitely. And you can see it here in your fantastic staff at Adcock, so well done on that and supporting their development.

Now let's zoom out to the industry at large.

Kathy: Yeah.

Sally: Um, what's your take on the property and conveyancing landscape of South Australia as it stands right now?

Kathy: So we have a very strong property market here in South Australia.

Sally: Mm-hmm.

Kathy: Um, so we've had continuous growth here in SA. Um, and Adelaide's leading the nation, so we've had a 10.77% annual increase in our medium, um, dwelling prices over the last year.

Sally: Huge.

Kathy: Yeah. So, um, yeah, South Australia, who would have thought?

Sally: No, and I don't think there's anyone that we talk to in Adelaide/South Australia that is not run off their feet busy. It's just, it's amazing times for the conveyancing industry here, for sure.

Kathy: Um, the other area is affordability pressures. So there's been a rapid rise in property prices, um, which has led to scarcity in affordable housing. Um, so that's a big issue around the country.

Sally: Yeah. Nationwide, for sure. You made the move to Realtime over 12 months ago now, so you're one of our early adopters here in South Australia. Um, what initially motivated you to, to explore us?

Kathy: So we were looking to streamline our processes.

Sally: Mm-hmm.

Kathy: Um, and looking for a system that would grow with us, um, and better meet our needs, um—

Sally: Yeah.

Kathy: —and enhance our efficiencies, our accuracy, um, and our client experience.

Sally: Mm-hmm.

Kathy: Um, and we needed a solution that would keep up with the cr— increasing demand, um, for faster, more transparent services.

Sally: Yep. And since coming on board, it's probably been a huge 12 months generally.

Kathy: Mm-hmm.

Sally: Um, but, you know, lots of learnings on, along the way, specifically to Realtime.

What have been the biggest benefits, though, that you've felt in your business since using Realtime, and are there any efficiencies or unexpected wins that were unexpected, that you didn't r— that you didn't think you were going to experience?

Kathy: Um, so we were impressed with the platform overall. Um, but the support that we've had from the Realtime team.

Sally: Mm-hmm.

Kathy: Yeah. The fact that we've got staff on the ground here in South Australia, um, was number one for us.

Sally: Mm-hmm.

Kathy: Um, and we've got the support, and Renee and Jess came in, um, and helped us on board, uh, get all our matters on, so we had no downtime. Uh, the training, um, in-house has been seamless, fantastic. So the transition was super easy.

The other benefit is, um, data security.

Sally: Mm-hmm.

Kathy: You know, we use multi-factor authentication for everything.

Sally: Yeah.

Kathy: Uh, but yeah, the security around the system, the easy integration with PEXA and all our business partners has just made it so easy. Um, and we just went through our first trust account audit, um—

Sally: Mm-hmm.

Kathy: —and our auditors were very impressed with the system.

Sally: Excellent. Gotta keep the trust account auditors happy.

Kathy: Yeah, that's it. That's probably one of the easiest audits I've had to do.

Sally: Oh, fantastic. Yay. Very good to hear. And it's just another pressure that you don't need to have on your desk if the—

Kathy: Mm-hmm.

Sally: —you know, if the auditor's unhappy.

Kathy: Yeah.

Sally: Um, and I suppose just back to personally, from one leader, um, to I'm sure there's leaders out there watching this, what advice would you give to other business owners who are hesitant to make the change, particularly when it comes to any form of digital transformation in their business?

Kathy: Um, invest in your future.

Sally: Mm-hmm.

Kathy: So, um, enhan— embrace technology.

Sally: Yeah.

Kathy: So in order to keep moving forward, to be seen as a leader in your profession, um, you have to embrace it.

Sally: Yeah.

Kathy: So it's constantly evolving. There are threats out there, um, constantly challenging us. So adopt it, make your life easier.

Sally: Mm-hmm. Excellent. Thank you so much, Kathy.

Well, that's our five and five wrapped for today with Adcock and Kathy. So thank you so much for your time again.

Kathy: Thank you.

Sally: And really appreciate, um, you sharing some of those insights personally, and of course, with the transition to Realtime.

Kathy: Fabulous. Thank you.