What Is an Operations Coordinator?

The operations team serves as AptAmigo’s backbone, managing the company’s B2B partnerships and ensuring that clients experience a smooth day of tours during their apartment hunt. Although clients can’t see what happens behind the scenes of their AptAmigo apartment search, a lot of hard work on the back end goes into making the process run seamlessly and appear effortless on the front end. 

At the heart of this effort, lies our diligent team of Operations (Ops) Coordinators, without whom the company simply couldn’t function. If you’re interested in exploring the role of Ops Coordinator, learn more about what they do, what skills they need, and how to apply here.

Related: What Skills Do Touring Agents Learn on the Job?

What Is an Ops Coordinator?

According to Regional Operations Manager Kellie Koren,

 “An Operations Coordinator is a collaborative, curious, and encouraging team player. As a team, we are in constant communication. It is vital to the team to keep a positive, can-do attitude and a willingness to adapt to any situation. We are the people behind the curtain continuing to give our clients the white glove service they deserve.” 

Essentially, Ops Coordinators help our clients behind the scenes by scheduling and managing their tours as well as building and maintaining relationships with staff at our partner buildings. They function as facilitators, taking over the logistics and planning that goes into creating a tour day itinerary so that our Apartment Locators can focus on their one-on-one interactions with clients. By handling our B2B connections, they often hear first about rent deals, price changes, and availability at popular and competitive apartment complexes, giving our locators and clients an edge as they navigate their apartment searches.

What Does an Operations Coordinator Do?

Ops Coordinators perform a variety of roles, but their primary responsibilities include the following: 

• Their biggest task is to coordinate efficient property tours for our apartment-hunting clients. However, don’t be fooled; this task is easier said than done. Scheduling a day of apartment tours requires optimizing a route to avoid trips back and forth across the city through traffic (not to mention major events, such as festivals, parades, and sporting events), all while juggling the limited availability for tours at some buildings on top of communicating with busy leasing staff, who can’t always pick up their phones.
• Ops Coordinators converse with our building partners on a daily basis, whether to schedule tours, obtain current rent prices and confirm availability, or help establish new relationships altogether. Thus, they build and maintain strong relationships with our building partners, a perpetual priority during every single interaction with them. 
• In addition to the B2B side of the job, Ops Coordinators work closely with our in-house Apartment Locators, who help clients throughout the entire apartment search process, much like how a traditional real estate agent aids people in buying a house. Our locators rely on Ops Coordinators to put together the best itinerary possible and provide any necessary support on the day of the tours. As a result, Ops Coordinators must maintain friendly and transparent communication with Apartment Locators throughout this stage of the search. Likewise, when a Touring Agent guides a client through their itinerary, Ops Coordinators must interact with them as needed that day.
• Because multiple agents will send one or more clients out on tours on the same day, a good Ops Coordinator can multitask, handling emergencies, answering questions about buildings, and making last-minute schedule changes for multiple clients at once. 
• While managing all of these tasks, Ops Coordinators must keep a “Yes, and” attitude in order to create the smoothest and most positive experience they can for our clients. Tim Gunn’s “make it work” motto on Project Runway is a good one to adopt here. 

What Skills Does an Operations Coordinator Need?

If you want to become an Ops Coordinator, naturally, you’ll want to know which professional skills to prioritize in your preparation, on your resume, and in your interviews. Here’s a list of the skills you’ll want to develop:

• Think globally, not locally: Our team needs people who can handle many puzzle pieces at once, fitting them together in the way that makes the most logical sense. Keeping the big picture always in view allows a Coordinator to better evaluate situations from different perspectives, consider multiple solutions to a problem, and think three steps ahead. For example, when an agent needs to schedule tours for two clients in one day, and both clients have the same building on their list, an Ops Coordinator knows to make that building the last one on the first client’s schedule and the first one on the second client’s schedule so that the agent only needs to travel to that building once that day.
• Excellent communication: Since our team interfaces with our business partners constantly and leans on each other internally for support, our coordinators need strong interpersonal skills in both verbal and written forms of communication. A successful communicator in this position will over explain and maintain a positive relationship with all team members in ops and sales.
• Know when to come ask for help: Building the knowledge base required to excel at this job takes time. Our team possesses a wealth of experience and wants to share our knowledge with you because when one person succeeds, the entire team does.
• Organization & planning: You will spend your days scheduling, optimizing routes, and dealing with issues on the spot as they arise. Organizing and planning are the job.
• Be a people-person: As the main point of contact between our company and our business partners, you will interface with people all the time. You serve as the face of the company in our B2B relationships, meaning that you must leave a positive impression no matter the situation.

How to Become an Ops Coordinator

Still interested? Great! To continue exploring this career path, start with the following suggestions:

• While this article provides loads of information about the role, you should also study any job ads you plan to pursue to learn more about the requirements. If any questions arise, don’t hesitate to reach out. (Remember that part about knowing when to ask?)
• Carefully note which skills listed above fall under your list of strengths and which ones you could improve on. Create a plan for how to develop and then demonstrate those skills in your application.
• Many of our Ops Coordinators started out as part-time Touring Agents (TA). To gain experience, develop the necessary skills, and get your foot in the real estate door, consider applying to become a TA first. 
• Although not strictly required, a bachelor’s degree in a relevant discipline will help you to create a stronger resume.

Related: A Day in the Life of a Touring Agent

Ready to Join the Team?

To apply to become an Ops Coordinator at AptAmigo, explore our job board for open positions. Openings pop up regularly, so if you don’t see what you’re looking for today, check back in the coming months. In the meantime, reach out to our team with any questions.