Just 2 Minutes - Interviews by Kamil Sarji

30-Unlocking Seamless Solutions for Realtors and Clients

• Kamil Sarji • Episode 30

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Get ready for an exciting conversation with Brigid Newman from We Surv! This episode dives into how We Surv has become a go-to service provider for real estate agents and their clients. From furniture moves to estate cleanouts and handling last-minute requests, We Surv truly does it all. Whether you're a realtor looking for dependable service partners or someone in need of quick solutions, this episode covers it all! Brigid shares insights on how We Surv has streamlined operations to offer unparalleled support to the real estate industry, and how their team tackles jobs big and small with efficiency and care. Tune in and learn how We Surv can make your real estate transactions smoother than ever! 

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Kamil Sarji:

Welcome, everybody. I am Kamil Sarji, your host today of Just Two Minutes, and today I have Bridget here. Bridget, you want to tell us about yourself?

Brigid Newman:

Absolutely. Thank you so much for having me. I am Bridget Newman, Community Business Developer at Serv. I am from Cranston, Rhode Island. Uh, born and raised, uh, built my career mostly in education, um, taught English abroad. And, um, and here in, in the U. S. and, and then got into a career in workforce development. So, got really passionate about, um, creating job opportunities, especially for young people. Uh, job training, mentoring, um, I worked at, uh, an organization called Year Up here in Providence for 11 years. As a teacher and then as a fundraiser. So really got involved in that workforce development space. And then I discovered CERV and, uh, the connection for me is that CERV has a mission to elevate the next generation by meeting the needs of the community. So we, uh, hire young people, we train them in the jobs that we do. We provide a lot of guidance and growth opportunities. And at the same time, we're. Helping people in their homes. We're helping, uh, small businesses. We're helping real estate agents complete their to do list so that they can grow their businesses. So I just am really still passionate about, um, the idea that. A good job can change someone's life, um, can really help them get on the path that they want for their own lives. And having, um, a strong supportive team behind you that really believes in you is, is really what can bring someone to meet their full potential. That's what really brought me to serve and to be in the position that I'm in. And, um, my role as community business developer is to be out in the community. Tell people about Serve, what we do, how we can help them, whether they're a homeowner, a real estate agent, an interior designer, a event planner. Um, everybody needs extra hands for their projects and Serve is that partner. We help everyone tackle their to do list, uh, their, for their home, their yard, their business, their events, and, um, you know, We always bring that extra level of customer service, um, to everyone that we serve. And we really strive to be the best part of someone's day, whether it's when they make a phone call to us, that it's a pleasant experience booking the job, going through that process. We answer the phone, we want to make sure we're, uh, doing that for them efficiently. And then when our local workers, we call locals, show up to the door. They're friendly, they're reliable, they're hardworking, they're going to get the job done, and it's also going to be a really great experience for our customers or our neighbors.

Kamil Sarji:

That's awesome. Yeah. Yeah. I met you at a networking event and I thought it'd be really interesting to hear more about what you guys do and definitely help real estate agents out. And thank you for doing this interview. Just two minutes. As you know, just two minutes. I have to ask you the two minutes questions. Okay, so are you ready for the questions?

Brigid Newman:

I am ready.

Kamil Sarji:

Okay, here we go. What country did you have your greatest memories?

Brigid Newman:

Oh, wow. Costa Rica. That was the first country that I went to teach abroad. So, it was a really amazing experience to be, I went there all on my own, um, just figured it out and made friends and found a job. It was a great adventure and that kind of got me that travel bug to keep doing it more and find other jobs.

Kamil Sarji:

Cool. What about State? What's, what's State? Do you have the greatest memories?

Brigid Newman:

State? Well, aside from Rhode Island, I went to college at Penn State and that was a transformative experience as well. Just first time leaving home, made amazing friends, kind of had that quintessential college experience going to the football games and, you know, So I would probably say when I was in college at Pennsylvania.

Kamil Sarji:

Awesome. Okay. Uh, how about, all right, let's say, uh, this country was communist and everybody makes the same amount of money doing any job, what job would you do?

Brigid Newman:

I would be doing this job. Yeah.

Kamil Sarji:

Yeah.

Brigid Newman:

Okay. I can honestly say that.

Kamil Sarji:

Who's your favorite mythical creature?

Brigid Newman:

Pegasus. Okay.

Kamil Sarji:

Uh, what's your

Brigid Newman:

favorite dish? I love to eat. I love to cook. That's a very hard question.

Kamil Sarji:

Hmm. Pick one dish that you.

Brigid Newman:

Dumplings.

Kamil Sarji:

Okay. Dumplings. Who would you serve the dumplings to in the world as like world leaders? Who would you choose? Oh, who would you choose as a. To serve that dumpling to.

Brigid Newman:

A world leader? They have to be alive? Nelson Mandela.

Kamil Sarji:

Alright, awesome. You think he'd like that?

Brigid Newman:

Yeah.

Kamil Sarji:

Yeah?

Brigid Newman:

I think he's a pretty worldly guy. Or was a worldly guy.

Kamil Sarji:

I don't think he's I'm, I'm, I'm gonna guess he probably never had dumplings in his life. You think? Yeah. Okay. Uh I have to check that out. But anyways, enough of me and silly questions. Uh, let's talk about ServeU. First thing, how did you guys come up with ServeU? That name.

Brigid Newman:

Serve?

Kamil Sarji:

Yeah, Serve.

Brigid Newman:

So, previously the company was called Rent Sons. And our founder and CEO, Patrick Brown, uh, started the company. He's from Little Compton, started it as a way to pay for college, uh, going around to his neighbors and saying, what do you need me to do around the house? I can paint. I can read your garden. I can fix things here and there. Move some boxes, really anything that you needed. Um, and so that was kind of the original concept, right? All the things that you want your sons to do, but maybe they're not doing it or they're not around anymore because they've, they've gotten older and moved away and had their own families. Um, and so about three years ago, the company rebranded to SERV and SERV is an acronym for. Serving unconditionally with recognizable values.

Kamil Sarji:

Oh, okay. So it has a, it has a meaning. And

Brigid Newman:

so the idea is to, um, bring those values, uh, to the forefront of the name and the brand and to elevate it a bit, um, to showcase that at the heart of the business is really the, just love for helping people.

Kamil Sarji:

And I, I didn't know that you had, I mean, that's how you had get your, Is, uh, you know, the, the programs that you have to, to hire, uh, more.

Brigid Newman:

So we have some great recruitment partnerships. We go to schools, churches, job training programs, and we really try to find, uh, value aligned organizations where we can recruit directly from. And like I said, we just want people who, you know, we'll ask them, Hey, do you like helping people? Yeah. Okay. You're on the team. Um, we can teach you everything else, but those characteristics are the most important thing that we're looking for.

Kamil Sarji:

Cool. Um, so for a real estate agent, as you know, we have so many things that we do. Um, but you guys help with taking away a lot of those A lot of those tasks that we have to do. So what are the top like five things that, uh, how you help agents?

Brigid Newman:

Absolutely. So we are a one stop shop for agents and their clients, especially for listing prep. So all of those big and small punch list items that come up when you're getting a property ready for photos for open house to, to get on the market. So top jobs that we do. Do for agents, junk removal, moving, so we are a full scale moving company, so we can do a full house move, as well as some of the curb appeal projects, like power washing, painting, yard work, so trimming the hedges. Leaves. Wow. Window washing. Um, and then I would say odd jobs, and that really encompasses anything that, um, that needs to be done, small repairs, um, anything that needs to be done to pass an inspection. So a good example is, uh, I've had an agent call and say they just needed a railing installed from the basement to the bulkhead. Okay.

Kamil Sarji:

To pass

Brigid Newman:

the inspection. Okay. The inspection's in two days. Can you send someone over to do that? Um, so a really important job that's necessary to move the sale forward, but it's small. So it can be challenging to get larger companies to come out and do those, do those jobs. So we provide a really efficient process. To have the, to-do list the client and the agents kind of create this list together.

Kamil Sarji:

Yeah.

Brigid Newman:

And then we can go over and get it all done, um, in a day or so. And then we can also, you know, move the client, get them settled into their new home and, and help them out with painting a room or pulling up a rug. All the things that people need when they are in the new home and they wanna make it their own.

Kamil Sarji:

Wow. Um, yeah. Peeling paint is a huge thing too. The railing, uh, for FHA. Um, making sure those, those things are, are done right. Um, that's, that's great. Like what, how long does it, like, how much heads up do you need? Because to us, it's like, Oh my gosh, I need this done. I just found out about it and I need it done like tomorrow. Absolutely.

Brigid Newman:

So we do have a membership for realtors and it's specifically designed to help them and their clients through this process. And as a realtor member, we provide a two day turnaround, uh, for, for jobs like that, sometimes even faster because there can be emergency situations where we'll get a call and say, Help, the garage is full of stuff, and we have a show in tomorrow, and the cellar didn't clean it out, so can you send a truck over? Um, so we do, you know, have those things come up, but you know, two, three day turnaround is pretty standard for our members. Anybody can book a job and then we usually book about a week or two, depending on the season. Um, so it's definitely a benefit a great benefit to be a member to get that priority booking.

Kamil Sarji:

Interesting. Okay. Let's talk about the someone selling a house and the buyers, agents walking around on a final walkthrough and they're like, Oh my gosh, this. You didn't move all your stuff out. It's all like trash in here. They'd call you and you guys would get that stuff out. Absolutely. And then they'd bill the seller for not taking care of the.

Brigid Newman:

Absolutely. Yep. We can bring trucks, we can haul it away.

Kamil Sarji:

With this membership package, it's a monthly. For

Brigid Newman:

Realtors, it's an annual membership. It's 3. 99 for the year. And that also includes a 10 percent discount on all services. For the agent. Okay. So if you were a member, you would get 10 percent off anything that you needed at your home, at your office, any of those projects, and then you pass it on to your clients as well. So when they call, they just say, Kamil is my agent. He's a member. We will automatically apply, apply that discount to the job. Um, and then it also includes unlimited gift of help cards. These are 100 and the agent can give them to their clients as a closing gift. Many of them use it in that way because. You know, everyone's getting a closing gift, but this is unique. People don't need more stuff when they move into a new home. They need help. So that's an added value as an agent that you can provide to your clients. So to sum it up, the Realtor membership includes priority booking, two day turnaround, the 10 percent discount, and then the unlimited hundred dollar gift cards.

Kamil Sarji:

Wow. Unlimited. But you can't combine like all of them, all the, I have 1, 000 worth of, okay.

Brigid Newman:

Right. So it's one gift card per client. Um, but it's a, yeah, they can also use it for moving. So that's another way that clients will use them. So they can use it at any point in the process. They could use the gift card for any listing prep that we do. They can use it for moving or you can give it to them at the end. It's really however the agent wants to use that benefit.

Kamil Sarji:

Have you found any, while you're like cleaning out stuff, getting stuff, getting rid of stuff, have you ever found anything? Crazy, like a snake or something that, uh,

Brigid Newman:

I do believe, not myself personally, but I have heard stories, uh, from our locals in the field of finding dead animals and all sorts of things, but Why wouldn't they

Kamil Sarji:

know there's a dead animal? I mean, they're

Brigid Newman:

professionals and they handle it. Um, but yeah, you just, especially a junk removal, you kind of never know. What you're going to find, but on the flip side, sometimes people have really cool stuff and they say, Hey, if you guys like anything, feel free to take it. So you never know.

Kamil Sarji:

Wow. Cool. Yeah. I just, I wondered, like, I mean, aside from like dead bodies, like that's another. That's another issue, but, uh, what, you found good bodies?

Brigid Newman:

Not that I know, not that I

Kamil Sarji:

know. I mean, you have to call it in, but that's like, it's a crazy story.

Brigid Newman:

Well, it is interesting because being in the home services, it is, you're walking into someone's intimate space, right? So, we say it's more than an odd job, that you really create personal connections with people, you bond over these projects. If we're cleaning out a home that say an elderly couple has been in for 50, 60 years, that's a hugely emotional project to be undertaking. And we work side by side with families in those situations. And I'm sure agents have that similar experience, right? Like It's a very big decision to move out of a family home. Um, and it can be, um, heavy. And so we really, um, train our team to be emotionally responsive in those situations and to be, um, kind and patient because you never know, you know, what memory is going to come up when people are going through. Yeah,

Kamil Sarji:

it's, uh, it's even worse when the parents, uh, the last of them pass away and then the kids have to sell the house. Oh my gosh, that's emotional too. Cause this is where they grew up and, you know, seeing someone else come in. And yeah, so that's very sensitive, but yeah, that's, that's great that you guys keep that in mind. Yeah. I was, I was going to say like the body thing, like, uh, I think there was a story once where the skies. Mom passed away. He didn't want to like bury her. So he kept her in the house and like wrapped her up and it was nice.

Brigid Newman:

hopefully we don't encounter any of those situations. We don't want to be on the news for a story like that.

Kamil Sarji:

Yeah. Humans are special. Like, uh, You know, it's, uh, yeah, I don't know. We haven't evolved to the next level yet where we're like, we're all like smart and like staying low, you

Brigid Newman:

know, everybody's

Kamil Sarji:

different. How do you promote yourselves? How, How do you get the word out to realtors that you do this type of thing? Cause you do everything that is like a lifesaver and you make us look great. You know, we have an awesome team behind us. How do you reach out? Yeah.

Brigid Newman:

So one great way to get the word out is to do a presentation. At a brokerage, uh, most, uh, agencies have monthly meetings. So I will come and do a presentation, tell all the agents about our services, hopefully get some agents signed up as a member. That's one great way networking, like how I, how I met you. There's a lot of agents at various networking events. So I always try to find them and make sure that they know. Who we are. And it's very exciting when I meet somebody new and they're like, Oh yeah, I refer you to clients all the time. I use you all the time. Of course, in a business like this, it's very much word of mouth. So, and then fostering those relationships with the agents that use us regularly. And our members and are very happy with the service, making sure that I'm checking in with them, asking them if there's other agents that I should be talking to and, you know, having those one on one conversations and just, you know, continuing to do great work so that agents will refer us to other agents. Um, especially within agencies, I understand that a lot of times when these situations come up, people are calling each other, they're texting each other. Do you have a guy who does this? Do you have a guy who does that? And what I like to say is we're the guy, you know, in Rhode Island, you say, You got to know a guy. We're the guy for everything. And so just, you know, continuing to build that brand and that reputation within the real estate industry.

Kamil Sarji:

Awesome. Yeah. Yeah. When I first met you, I was like, you know, putting two and two together. I'm like, wow, this is awesome. Where do you guys serve? Where's the serve serve?

Brigid Newman:

We serve all of Rhode Island and neighboring Mass in Connecticut.

Kamil Sarji:

You're there helping the homeowner, the new homeowner, or someone who, uh, sold or do those people end up reaching back out and asking for things to do and to grow, repeat customer? Absolutely.

Brigid Newman:

Yep. And that's, that's really the idea around this membership with the agents is that it also is a way for us to reach out to new neighbors, call our customers neighbors, new neighbors, uh, because. They are introduced to our services by their agent. And then once they're in their new home, they realize we have lots of stuff to do that company that moved us or that, you know, they were so great. Let's call them again. They can come and clean up our leaves and clean our gutters and power wash the house and paint the deck. Yep. So that does happen

Kamil Sarji:

a lot. Have you had a situation where someone came in and they're like, Oh yeah, I need all this stuff taken out and you guys take it out. And then the owner of all that stuff is like, Wait, what are you guys doing? There's all my stuff, like, who said you can take this, huh?

Brigid Newman:

There sometimes can be some, you know, dispute over where things are going. Um, I think that's where our customer service really comes on the front end. We are very, very clear about what the expectations are of a job are from the beginning. So we really try to get as many details as possible. What exactly are the items? Where are they going? Uh, when we get to the job site, who is the point of contact? Who's in charge? Because we try to avoid those situations as much as possible. You don't want, you know, one homeowner, a homeowner saying something and an agent is saying something else. And if that does arise, we would just sit, pause. Okay, let's, let's, you know, take a moment. Let's call the office, review the work order. And Uh, make a plan to move forward to make sure that this project is successful.

Kamil Sarji:

Okay. I mean, like, if you think of it, what if a landlord's trying to evict someone and they're like, uh, oh yeah, I need this place emptied out cause I'm going to be renting it and they have the key. They open a door, wipe everything out. Tenant comes back from work and it's empty and they're like, what happened? And he's like, I don't know.

Brigid Newman:

Mm hmm. Well, that is definitely a sticky situation, so that's why we try to have kind of one, one person that we're working with and try not to get involved in, in any of the drama that's going on with a renter and a landlord. And we, we do really encourage the, you know, the homeowner to be there when we're doing a project, because that helps, you Just keep that open line of communication. It helps with the expectation so that they're, they are present, um, to make sure that it's, if you know, a renter would have come back or something like that,

Kamil Sarji:

but

Brigid Newman:

we're not putting our team in a position where they have to

Kamil Sarji:

deal with a dangerous situation. Yeah. So has that happened where they were in a dangerous situation? Not

Brigid Newman:

that I

Kamil Sarji:

know of.

Brigid Newman:

Okay. I know. Yeah. I mean, we have great, we have great neighbors. that we've formed long lasting relationships with. And even when we have new neighbors, we have very few disputes. Uh, we also have a membership for homeowners. So, um, that starts at one 20 a month and that's for two hours of labor. Again, they can just give us their to do list and we can come over and do that regular maintenance that they need right now. For example, it's a lot of. Cleaning up leaves, gutters, window washing, coming up in December, we'll be putting up holiday lights, uh, wood stacking. So, you know, a lot of those seasonal jobs, but also, you know, interior painting and those, those minor repairs. And so, for a lot of homeowners, it's a great solution to, um, have that monthly. Membership plan. And so we're always trying to grow our membership because then we get, we have those repeat customers, we build rapport with them. We understand what their expectations are on the job. We understand what their needs are. They understand how our company works. And that's, um, that's a great way for us to, to work with our neighbors.

Kamil Sarji:

Um, do you, like, is, is Realtors like your target market? Like you're, you're focusing more on Realtors and working with Realtors or? I would

Brigid Newman:

say one of them in terms of the, our B2B partnerships, Realtors is definitely in the top as far as homeowners. Our target market is majority are seniors aging in place. Uh, so those older homeowners who want to stay in their home and they just physically, you know, cannot, uh, maintain the home anymore. And so that's also really aligned with our mission, right. To serve the community, um, to allow them to stay safely and comfortably in their home. And we come over and take care of all the things that they need done around the house. Um, but also busy working parents. Okay. They have lots going on and they don't necessarily want to spend their weekends. Doing home and yard projects. They want to go out and spend quality time with their family. They want to be able to travel. Um, and so outsourcing that to do list to us allows them to have that gift of time back where they can be doing things that they want to do and we can take care of everything else.

Kamil Sarji:

Okay. So realtors and then next is like homeowners. Yep. Specifically like kids. Whose parents are elderly, those are the ones who can refer. Yes,

Brigid Newman:

absolutely. Um, and then as far as other business partnerships, interior designers, so we can help them with moving furniture in and out, hang, uh, art, hang mirrors, you know, touching up walls. Things like that. Uh, event planners. So we also do event assistance. So setup, breakdown, trash removal, parking. So everything from a backyard wedding or a house party to a private party to PVD Fest. We do all the trash removal for that. So large public events as well.

Kamil Sarji:

Wow. That's really cool. Yeah. I love PVD Fest.

Brigid Newman:

Yeah. Yeah. So that's a great way for us to get out in the community. And I think what's really great about the job for locals is that they get so much variety, right? They could be today doing a full day of moving, you know, an eight hour move. And then tomorrow they're doing parking at Rhode Island Night Market. And then the next day they're painting. So they get to work with different teammates. They get to do different jobs, build their skillset in a variety of ways. See different parts of the state. I mean, we move the furniture in the Newport mansions very regularly. Um, if they're setting up for, to film the Gilded Age, uh, we'll move the furniture. It's all big on you

Kamil Sarji:

guys. You're like everywhere.

Brigid Newman:

Yeah. Yeah. So we have a team of anywhere between 50 and 70, depending on the season. And so, yeah, we're, we're doing all sorts of interesting jobs.

Kamil Sarji:

Organizational structure of Everything like, um, obviously you have the CEO.

Brigid Newman:

Yep. So we have, um, our headquarters is in Newport. So we have a, an office there. So we have our CEO, we have a general manager, um, a community manager who oversees kind of the day to day operations and locals. Uh, we have some anywhere between two and five people in the call center, um, depending on the, on the season. So they're, uh, booking jobs and scheduling doing S we have a, we have a full time estimator. So he goes out and does our in person estimates, um, and works with our customers in that way. And then, um, I am doing our business development. So, um, and then we also have, um, marketing. Yep. So we do a lot of print marketing email. Um, but a lot of it is that is word of mouth, organic.

Kamil Sarji:

Referrals. Awesome.

Brigid Newman:

Yeah.

Kamil Sarji:

So I call you guys, what happens?

Brigid Newman:

So if it's on business hours, Monday through Saturday, somebody will answer the phone. How can we serve you today?

Kamil Sarji:

I need, uh, someone's moving. They need everything cleared out of this house they're moving to.

Brigid Newman:

Yep. And so then we would just ask a variety of questions around the scope of the job. You know, where is it? Is it a full house move? How many bedrooms? You know, get a, get a sense of the job and so that we can do the estimate. We may send someone out to do an in person estimate so we can make sure that that's accurate. Um, get a preferred date of service and that same day or the next day, we would send you that estimate and then you would decide if you wanted to approve it and then we would go ahead and schedule it for you.

Kamil Sarji:

And

Brigid Newman:

that can all be done over the phone.

Kamil Sarji:

What if it's an emergency situation? I don't care, I trust the Quo, just come, come out and I need someone because everybody else canceled on me.

Brigid Newman:

We would still send you an estimate because that is, you know, the agreement and we want to make sure that there's no

Kamil Sarji:

Without seeing it, you can send estimate?

Brigid Newman:

Depends on the job. Okay. Yeah. So some jobs we can estimate over the phone and some jobs we send out an in person estimator. But we definitely want to make sure on the front end that we're being as accurate as possible and that there's a very clear understanding between us and you about what the scope and the expectations of the job are. We don't, we want to get that done for you as efficiently as possible. We also want to make sure that everything is very clear on the front end to avoid any challenges when, once the job. So, you know, we can get an estimate done pretty quickly, um, a day or two, and then send that over to you, and we'll say, you know, do you need trucks? Do you, you know, where, where do you want everything taken? So, getting all those details in place first, and then we'll estimate how many locals that we need, how many hours we think it will take, um, if there's any additional, um, materials or vehicles that we need, and we'll put that all together for you.

Kamil Sarji:

So move everything in while we're moving. We realized one of the doors is broken. Um, can you guys take care of that? Um, that'll be an additional thing. Decide on the price

Brigid Newman:

in there. And then, yeah. So then if that were the case, you would just call the office and say, Hey, I'd like to add on this job, um, there may or may not be someone in the office. On the job that can do it. Okay. So we do have some very skilled handymen on our team, um, who are just those types of guys who can figure out how to fix anything, um, if they're there and they have their tools, Yeah, we could do it. Um, if not, we would figure out another time to send, we want to make sure we're sending the right person with the right skills and the materials and tools that they need, and then they'd come back and fix that for you.

Kamil Sarji:

Awesome. Wow. Thank you so much for stopping by and explaining everything. Yeah. You guys are definitely. Someone, a realtor, needs to have it in their team.

Brigid Newman:

Yes,

Kamil Sarji:

absolutely. So how can people find you? How can people find Serve?

Brigid Newman:

Yeah. Uh, so our website is we serve w e s u r v. com. And our number is 4 0 1 3 3 7 8 8 1 3. That's to book a job. And my information is also there. So if realtors want to get in touch with me directly about their realtor membership, I can, um, be reached at Brigid, B R I G I D dot N at we serve. com.

Kamil Sarji:

All right. You guys have a Tik Tok also, you do dances.

Brigid Newman:

We're not there yet. We're not on Tik Tok. We are on Instagram. We're on Facebook. Um, So that's, that's a good place to find

Kamil Sarji:

that as well. Awesome. All right. Thank you very much. so much. It was a pleasure.

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