Coyote Stories:
Paige Butler

My first memory of using Coyote is from way back in 2014, and one of the things I remember is just how grey it looked!

I’d just accepted a job at M7 Real Estate that was very aptly titled ‘Coyote Administrator’. Each day the investment team sent me details of new property introductions, and I would log those to Coyote. Amazingly, I still hold the record for the most assets ever logged to Coyote Market – over 10,000 if I remember correctly!

Whilst at M7, I developed a keen interest in the real estate industry. I’d already started to consider my career options and enrolled myself on an ‘Introduction to Property’ course to explore which areas would pique my interest. When Coyote Software launched in 2017, moving with them just seemed like the natural next step for me.

Using Coyote all day, every day at M7, I then found myself supporting professionals from across the real estate industry with their use of Coyote. When an analyst was struggling to log an asset or an administrative assistant was trying to update the login permissions for a new user – I really could put myself in their shoes and approach it from a user perspective.

Taking on the role of Product Specialist, I became the main point of contact for any questions, training or feature requests as people were getting to grips with using Coyote. With most of our releases originating from customer feedback, I’ve always found helping to turn that feedback into exciting new features a rewarding role to play.

The number of people I was responsible for supporting grew quite rapidly, and it had become clear; there had to be a simpler way to keep in contact with them all and stay on top of their queries. That’s how we came to try out a new software tool, called Intercom.

It was an exciting project for me because I felt like I helped shape something that our clients would value – I know a support system like Intercom would’ve made my job much easier when I was a Coyote user back in 2014.

Until that point, my role had mainly been supporting other users, which I enjoyed, but this was my first taste of project-based work. I learnt about implementation and testing first-hand, I engaged with other project stakeholders, and I was responsible for delivering something tangible.

Installing Intercom on Coyote allowed me, along with the rest of the team, to connect directly with those who needed our help at the exact moment they needed it. Soon after familiarising myself with the platform, I realised there was so much more potential to what we could be doing. We now use it to send push notifications to specific groups of users and curate guided tours when updating the product or its features.

As many of our clients moved to a remote way of working, we saw a surge in engagement on the Coyote platform. Some of our users were beginning to rely solely on the data in Coyote to continue doing their jobs. Inevitably, this meant we had many more support queries coming our way.

Intercom helped us stay on top of these queries more efficiently, and we had a complete audit trail of what had been picked up and by whom. Most people will understand the increased pressure and stress that comes from remote working, so anything to alleviate that was a welcome addition to my working day.

I’ve kept myself up to date on all the new features Intercom releases to ensure we continue using it to its full potential. I remember getting particularly excited when they introduced ‘Series’ to the platform – the rest of the team can vouch. It allows us to visually map out our users’ journey and send them support at the exact moment they need it.

For example, when a new user is added to the system – they automatically receive a welcome email. The first time they log in, they get prompted to follow a tour of the platform, and then a few days later, a chatbot will appear, checking in to see if they need any further support – it’s great!

I’ve recently taken on a new role and consequently moved teams within the company, the challenge of which has given me even more motivation in the remote world. Now a professional services consultant, I still support our clients – just at slightly different stages.

Whereas my previous role was all about supporting clients in their use of Coyote, we work on the customisation of their systems in professional services. As a team, we deal with the onboarding of new clients, setting up any integrations they have and build their custom reports.

There’s a lot to learn in my new role, and the tasks I’ve been working on have required me to take on a lot of technical knowledge, but – I love the challenge. Professional Services is a fantastic team to be part of, and it’s great to be involved with our clients day-to-day still.

It would be easy to think working remotely would make settling into a new role harder, but I’ve found the opposite to be true. The team has always been on hand to answer any questions and make sure I get up to speed just as quickly as I would have in the office – if not, quicker.

I know that everyone’s lockdown experience has been different. But, personally, my main fear was that the pandemic might put my personal development on hold – and thankfully, that hasn’t been the case.