Sharon Spinelli, sales and marketing director at Robertson Homes, about creating relaxation, comfort, restfulness and satisfaction.
Sharon, can you tell us a bit about your day-to-day role as sales and marketing director of Robertson Homes?
Every day working for Robertson Homes is both exciting and diverse and that is what I genuinely love about my job.
There was huge scope for helping to develop the company when I joined and I’ve loved playing my part in implementing many of the structures required for growth which will see us reach our ambitious target of delivering 430 new homes a year by 2023 from around 100 when I started.
This year especially has been about working closely with our team, ensuring everyone feels they have good direction and they are happy, motivated and cared for.
Such a lot has happened over the past 18 months and as work is such an important part of many people’s lives it is important for me to be available and willing to listen. We are very much a people business and my focus is ensuring that people in my team feel comfortable and enjoy being part of the Robertson Homes family.
Robertson Homes is a family run business in Scotland and more recently in England, what does this bring to the brand?
From day one of joining Robertson Homes I had the trust given to me to grow the brand and implement the family beliefs which underpin the company.
Everything we do, from choosing where we build, to the design of our developments and our individual homes to the communites we help create is driven around families moving in. When we talk about families, we’re talking about everyone who is involved and becomes part of your life at that particular moment.
We don’t simply see familes as two adults and two children, it is about everyone who comes into contact with you in which your home plays a role. It can be extended relatives, your pets, your work colleagues, this is what family means to us. Everyone who is important to you and plays a part in your life.
Being in a family business really pulls your heartstrings and has formed a huge part of our marketing. Family and togetherness has been a stong feature of our campaigns over the past five years and it allows us to get the heart of what people really want from their homes very quickly.
We really focus on the emotions and excitement of what buying a new home can bring. It’s much more than bricks and mortar; it’s where memories are made; from the initial buzz of walking into a show home to the thrill of getting the keys to watching your family grow. The home is at the heart of all this and this is really what is represented in our brand.
Your website describes that ‘deliciously warm feeling when you come home to a Robertson Home’, how do you help your clients achieve that?
When I walk into one of our showhomes, I take a deep breath, relax and it always feels.. peaceful. We don’t do ostentatious and blingy with wild colours and loud designs, we’re focussed on creating an instant feeling of relaxation, of comfort, restfulness and satisfaction.
We want people to be inspired, to think what they can achieve with their homes. A huge amount of work has gone into the design of all our housetypes to maximise space and natural light. This has a huge impact on personal wellbeing and helps people to see what luxuries they can have they may not have previously considered, and we never expect customers to compromise. Our homes are futureproofed in terms of quality and high specifications. The structure and the bones of the home are in place to last a long time.
The ultimate goal is for a customer to have the perfect canvas of a home which they instantly fall in love with and can immediately begin to envisage how they will put their own individual stamp and personality on it.
It has been so refreshing to be able to have such a personal impact on creating homes that give that deliciously warm feeling. In fact, much of what you see in our showhomes is actually my personality!
Have you seen any particularly innovative interior design ideas recently?
We have really tried to take our designs a step further for those who have had to, or chosen to start working from home.
One of the most loved aspects of a Robertson Homes home, the signature Garden Room which cleverly links the outside to the inside, is normally demonstrated as a dining room or a snug but more recently we have been showing how this exceptionally versatile space can be used a work-from-home space.
We have now introduced an optional partition wall and gorgeous bespoke wood room dividers which help retain a semi-open plan feel with the kitchen/diner but with the additional separation for those who need more privacy. Not only that, because of the exceptional space in our bedrooms, we have been able to incorporate work spaces into those rooms too.
Outside space too has become an even more important, functional aspect of a family home and we are giving people fresh new ideas on how to make the best use of the much larger than average gardens we create. In our Bishopton show home, for example, we have included a stylish garden pod which can be used as both a work space and a place to esacape and relax in peace.
Do you think people will make life changing decisions around where and how they live their lives after the pandemic?
I think they already have. At Robertson, we never assume we know what people want and all of our design and development decisions are informed by genuine research with real customers.
At the start of the pandemic we commissioned a huge piece of research from our buyers and visitors. We wanted to know very quickly: How are you feeling? What are you thinking? What can we do to improve how you can live? Reassuringly, the research showed we are already covering most of the things they mentioned – they want the space, the high ceilings, the big windows and they loved the garden room and how it made them feel good. They liked the flexibility and the size of the bedrooms that give everyone private space and they loved the size and of the gardens and the generous plot sizes.
It is a point worth emphasising that Robertson’s focus on research and asking people what they want and how they feel has enabled us to be well ahead of the curve in many aspects of interior design and has created many points of difference in Robertson homes.
Will you be making design and layout changes to your developments as a consequence of the lifestyle changes people are looking to make?
We are fortunate that our product and branding already considered this need for flexibility. A number of our house types can be changed from two storey to three storey and we undertake market research at each development on how many people we think will want this extra space and flexibility, and this is not just a couple of hundred square feet afterthought. This extra floor ranges from 460 sq ft to 700 sq ft and we have shown it set up as an office, a games room, a teenage den with dressing area and desk space, even a cinema. It can also be used as a huge master suite.
Another option is a self-contained suite able to accommodate multi-generational families moving in together to share resource. I think we may well increase the number of three-storey homes going forward.
What would be your top tip or piece of advice for a nervous new home buyer?
Research. Speak to the right people and use your heart and your head. Take good advice and when you know you will know. Your heart will tell you it’s the right thing.
As long as you put the other stages in first which is your research regarding location, product and what you can afford. It is really important to know how you want to live and what everything is going to cost so you can work out what that is going to look like. Don’t over commit, and ask for help! We have so much experience within our team and the partners that we work with that there is a lot of free advice out there. Use it.
Do you offer buyers any incentives at your schemes?
We do, we offer a number of schemes to help customers. Easymove is risk free help for customers to sell their home with Robertson paying estate agent fees and home report costs. We also offer part-exchange and our own Guaranteed Move which is a hybrid of the two. Hundreds of customers have also been helped into new homes with support from Help to Buy and First Home Fund. Feedback is overwhelmingly positive about how Robertson simplified transactions for customers using both of these schemes and, even this past year, how deadlines were met and no customers were left in the lurch. If customers recommend a friend who buys they are also rewarded.
What’s in the pipeline at the moment?
Between now and the end of the year we will be opening six new show homes so planning for these is well advanced. We have three new developments in East Scotland, at Dunbar, Calderwood and Winchburgh and a fourth in the West at Newton Mearns just outside Glasgow. We are really looking forward to these and to creating the Robertson Homes experience. We are also going to town on our landscaping for these developments which is ultra-exciting!
We looked at lots of innovations over the last 12 months aimed at making the customer journey fully transparent and more exciting and these are now coming through. Buyers have their personal Home Owners Hub which stores all the relevant information about their home in one place; we introduced automated home selections so customers can make their choices at their own leisure and we now offer online reservation where buyers can reserve a plot themselves online.
Once customers reserve they get regular photo updates of the build stages of their home so they know that the roof is on or the kitchen is going in for example. Buying a home is a big decision and they should be involved and excited. We are one of the few developers who give customers a six-week notice letter and we stick to that. Everything we do is geared around Robertson Homes striving to achieve five-star developer status.
What’s coming up in the next 12 months?
There is an awful lot coming up! We will be launching six new developments, two in the North East of England, two in the North of Scotland and two in the West. We are aiming for continuous growth and recently demonstrated our commitment to the North East England region, appointing a new sales director, construction director and land director supported by other managers. We want to increase the land bank in this region and make sure everything stays true to the locale.
Just as importantly for me will be a continuation of the values which make Robertson Homes such a special company. We focus on personal feelings and human interest, in both our marketing and our interactions with customers and colleagues. There will be a big emphasis on development and training to help our people understand how important it is to keep customers informed so they understand and enjoy their journey with us. It’s not just customers. It is about caring for and doing the right thing by the people in our own team. It is part of the family ethos, we ask people from the heart, what are you thinking, how are you doing, how are you feeling? The values we hold dear will continue to drive what we do over the next 12 months and we will continue to listen to customers and our team, we take responsibility, we work professionally and we act as one team - the Robertson family. The events of the last 18 months has emphasised just how important it is to make sure everyone – both customer and staff – is listened to and looked after.
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