FIXING THE STRATA MANAGEMENT MACHINE 05: According to Lee de Castro
or, a WA strata & property manager’s approach to the strata management dilemma …
A Quick Read
Almost everyone agrees strata management needs to change, but the harder questions about that are: What? Why? When? By whom? and How?
So, as part of the GoStrata Media series on fixing the strata management machine, WA Strata and Property Manager, Lee de Castro, shares a grounded, service-side perspective on where the industry can lift its game.
[a 6:00 minute read, with 1197 words]
In the article, Does the Strata Management Machine Need Fixing? I used a motoring analogy to ask whether the strata management machine needs fixing, and if so, to discuss what kind of fixes are needed and to outline the issues that may impact those fixes.
Now, there’s a series of articles by interesting strata stakeholders outlining how.
Here’s what WA Strata and Property Manager, Lee de Castro, shares her grounded, service-side perspective on where the industry can lift its game.
STRATA SERVICE DOESN’T LIVE IN A BUBBLE
by Lee de Castro
I want to invite readers to take a moment to examine the defensive arguments that arise when Strata is asked to improve its customer service standards. Actually listen to yourself and the excuses made.
When you consider that most strata owners typically deal with only one strata management company. It means they're not comparing your service to another strata manager—they're comparing you to everything else in their lives.
When a strata manager considers good service, the benchmark is often other strata management companies or their co-workers.
But strata owners don't think in that silo. Their expectations are shaped by experiences like:
How quickly their property manager returns calls,
How clearly their banking app presents transactions,
How well their local council responds to issues,
How easy it is to get information from a super fund or a telecoms company, and
How easy is it to book an appointment or order a product from a hairdresser or an online shop?
We are being measured against a broad and evolving standard of customer service—one where access is instant, communication is clear, and the user experience feels frictionless.
If You Were the Customer, How Would You Rate You?
Let that idea soak in for a moment.
Then ask yourself these questions:
How accessible is the information your clients need?
How quickly and clearly can someone get a response?
How easy is it for someone to trust the process?
The reality is that strata management service isn't just about compliance and accounting. It's about the strata ownership experience. And that experience is constantly being compared to every other industry.
A Foot in Both Camps: Property vs Strata Management
Before I entered the strata industry, I worked in property management.
Right now, I've temporarily stepped back into the property management world, and the contrast has never felt sharper.
In property management, the pressure is high. Losing the management of a property is easy—just one delayed email or poor experience, and an owner moves on. It's a highly competitive space, and that drives a service culture of responsiveness, accountability, and urgency.
Most property managers report to real estate sales agents—professionals who are obsessed with performance, market position, and meeting targets. That pressure trickles down. Fees are competitive, expectations are high, and responsiveness is non-negotiable.
In strata, contracts are often locked in for years. Changing strata managers is hard. There's committee turnover, procedural barriers, and general apathy. That makes it easier to retain contracts and customers, but it has also allowed complacency to creep in.
There's an unspoken belief that delayed or vague responses are just "how strata is." If someone's not on the committee, they're seen as irrelevant.
But that couldn't be further from the truth.
Every strata owner notices how they're treated. Every confusing levy notice, every ignored message, every delay in action—it adds up. And when someone finally speaks up or joins the committee with a fresh mindset, that complacency gets exposed.
Abusive communication from strata owners leads to staff turnover. So, how's the tone in your inbox?
Tech: How does it make for good old-fashioned service?
Another painful contrast between property and strata? The technology.
There's one major company that provides software for both sectors. Their property management platform is brilliant. For over a decade, it's been leading the charge—cloud-based, fast, intuitive, and designed to support high-volume portfolios with excellent service.
Their strata platform, on the other hand? Still server-based. Still clunky. And proudly stuck in the 1990s. They even promote the outdated look as a feature.
This isn't just inconvenient—it's a serious barrier to good service and customer satisfaction.
If we want to evolve beyond data entry and administrative overload, we need tools that keep up with the real world. We need automation that handles repetitive tasks, giving us the space to:
listen properly,
mediate fairly,
advise clearly, and
actually manage relationships.
Right now, strata staff are burning out. Not because the job is too hard, but because we're doing 2025's work with 2005's tools.
And it's not just on strata managers. The companies that provide services to our industry need to step up and listen. We can't keep pushing paper while the rest of the world is pushing innovation.
So What Could Good Strata Service Actually Look Like?
Here's the real question:
When we talk about good service, what are we really comparing it to?
If you want to know whether your strata management company is delivering, don't look sideways, look around.
Ask yourself:
How do you like your own service providers to work?
Where do you go for answers?
What do you expect from your bank, your hairdresser, your property manager, or your council?
And most importantly:
How long are you willing to wait for a response?
How do you feel when someone ignores you or doesn't respond to an email with the answers you need?
When you get a vague or dismissive "Karen" on the phone, is that what it's like to deal with you?
We all carry expectations shaped by our everyday lives.
So when it comes to service, your customers aren't grading you on a strata curve. They're grading you on a life curve.
The Next Step: Do or Die
It's time we stopped treating strata management as some exception to the rule of good service.
Yes, it's complex. Yes, the structures are clunky. But that's not a reason to lower the bar. If anything, it's a reason to raise it.
Start getting uncomfortable. Your job and mental health depend on it.
You're overdue in establishing new minimum standards by reducing response times in your inbox, adhering to key performance indicators (KPIs), and meeting deadlines.
"I don't have time!"
I hear it constantly: if you are already working at full capacity and can't meet higher standards, refer to the 'Sharpen the Axe or Saw' philosophy.
https://www.franklincovey.com/courses/the-7-habits/habit-7/
If you don't feel like you have time to lift your service standards, that's precisely when you need to pause and sharpen your tools.
Take a moment to build something that will save time in the long run:
Create email templates for repeat questions.
Link to ready-made explanations for complex issues,
Keep quick-reference notes for properties, such as boundaries and by laws.
If your strata management company doesn't improve its service standards, be aware that those around you have already started raising theirs. They plan to take over your customer buildings and recruit the best staff, as they are the future, and the current strata management approach will slowly but surely die.
Lee de Castro
June 17, 2025
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