Client Spotlight: Right Look providing the right stuff in property maintenance

Imagine buying your dream home on Bribie Island where you’re planning to retire, only to find out the patio leaks so badly it renders it completely unusable.

This was the unfortunate experience of a couple who called Ross O’Halloran from Right Look Property Maintenance for help recently.

“We re-roofed the patio and transformed it for the owners, so they can now look out onto the canal and take full advantage of their views,” Ross says.

With over 30 years’ experience as a licensed builder under his tool belt, Ross chose to take a step back and construct a new life for himself, starting Right Look Property Maintenance in 2017.

“I’ve been a builder for most of my life, and I was doing a lot of big multi-residence projects,” he reflects. “It was a highly stressful job, and was probably killing me.”

Right Look has grown quickly as a successful franchise model with 12 locations, 10 of which are located between the Sunshine Coast and the Gold Coast in Queensland.

Now as the owner of his own business, Ross says that he loves to not just help his customers, but also takes pride in his role supporting his franchisees. Ross says he really enjoys seeing them transform their lifestyles by building their own successful property maintenance business.

Every Right Look franchisee offers a variety of maintenance services, with rental property maintenance and handyman services acting as their core offering.

Over the past 12 to 18 months, Ross has noticed a large increase in poor quality competition entering the market, reporting that he’s been brought in to remedy a number of substandard jobs. But rather than seeing this trend as a threat, Ross instead offers it as a cautionary tale to property owners, advising them to check that the tradespeople and handymen working on their properties have the correct qualifications and are properly insured.

“People just start up on their own, go out and do work that isn’t up to scratch and we get brought in to fix it.”

He says, “our franchise group guarantees our work and we have layers of backup for our franchisees in the event that something goes wrong, we can make sure everything is sorted out.”

And while the next five years have a lot in store for Right Look, with planned expansions to grow the business further across Australia, Ross is very committed to supporting all of his existing franchisees. Ross remains very involved with the business operating the original franchise himself. Which is why Ezidebit’s automation and notification features are of utmost importance in running Right Look, helping him save on time and money.

Right Look have been using Ezidebit’s direct debit payment solution from day one and use it to collect weekly royalties from franchisees. Ross describes his experience with Ezidebit in one word: “Easy.”

While business owners find the notifications useful for keeping aged receivables low, Ross uses the notification system to help him support his franchisees.

“If I get a message on Monday morning that a franchisee payment hasn’t come through, instead of having to wait a week or two to find out, I can ring them up straight away. Typically if they miss a payment - which is pretty rare - it means they may need some help,” he says. “That’s the signal right there. If they say they need more work, then we can run some advertising straight away to get them the work they need.”

Ross also finds the ability to modify his payment schedules important for the business, outlining a recent occurrence where a franchisee needed to go overseas due to a family emergency, prompting Ross to quickly modify the franchisee’s payment schedule to allow them greater flexibility in their time of need.

“We just suspended their payments for a few weeks. So for things like that, you can do it all online. it’s really easy to do and the portal is pretty easy to navigate.”

Above all, his favourite feature is the notifications, as they allow him to operate the business effectively without the uncertainty surrounding cash flow.

“When I see that notice every week, I know there’s money in the account,” he says. “That’s the ease of things with Ezidebit, if the email didn’t come, I’d panic. It’s very reliable.”

To find out how Ezidebit can help your business, get in touch with one of our payment experts today.

Right Look Property Maintenance

Right Look Property Maintenance has 12 locations across the eastern coast of Australia, 10 of which are located in South East Queensland. Their fully trained and insured operators provide property maintenance and general handyman services, right up to larger renovations. Visit rightlookpropertymaintenance.com.au or call 1300 074 448.