Cory Hawkes

Point2

By Leah Etling on Mar 7, 2013 in People

When it comes to pursuing the things he is passionate about, Cory Hawkes doesn’t cut any corners. Point2’s Manager of Customer Care wears his heart on his sleeve, whether he’s supporting his favorite Canadian Football League team, playing his favorite sport, or working with his top-notch team of customer care specialists.

A Point2 employee since 2007, Cory worked his way up from customer care representative to manager of the department with some of the same skills that have made him one of Saskatoon’s top curlers. He’s dedicated, committed, patient and persistent. For our American readers who find curling to be a totally foreign concept, Cory describes the sport as similar to shuffleboard – but played on sheets of ice.

“You’re shooting a rock, a 42-pound piece of granite, down a 100-plus foot sheet of ice and trying to get it to stop in the rings that are under the ice at the other end,” he explained. Sounds like a pleasant test of skill, but curling is in fact highly competitive, physically demanding, and very strategic. Curling is played by four-person teams, inspiring close bonding and camaraderie.

An avid curler since age nine, Cory plays in three leagues during the winter months and teaches more novice curlers how to improve their skills. He’s on the ice daily, and at the time of our interview, his team was holding the first place spot in each of the three leagues. They’re past club champions, meaning they bested the top teams out of 16 leagues in Saskatoon, and have also competed strongly against other top curlers from Saskatchewan.

He still has hope of taking his participation in the sport to a higher level. Curling was officially added to the sports contested at the Winter Olympic Games in 1998.

When the curling season is over, Cory channels his competitive passion into rooting for the CFL’s Saskatchewan Roughriders. He holds season tickets to the team’s home games in Regina and enjoys road tripping with his friends to show support for the Roughriders. Their memorabilia is  all over his office – and apparently decorates much of his home, too.

When it comes to his work at Point2, Cory is also a committed team player. He found the company while job hunting after graduation from the University of Saskatchewan, where he earned a degree in commerce and management.  His favorite part about his job is the people he works with.

“We have such a good team. We come to work and we work hard, and there are stressful days and stressful calls, but at the end of the day we have a good time, too. Everybody enjoys coming here on a day to day basis. That makes such a huge difference.”

Point2’s customer care team spends their time fielding calls from the real estate agents, brokers and associations who use the Point2 software platform to market real estate skills, services and inventory, as well as distribute property listings to dozens of Internet sites via syndication. Inquiries range from the basic to highly technical, requiring a team of support personnel with a broad range of knowledge and the ability to think on their feet while solving complicated problems.

“When someone calls with a problem, we’re there for them. If they need a hand-hold all the way through, we’re there for them. If they just have a quick question, we’re there for that too,” Cory said. He takes great pride when customers write in to compliment a positive experience they’ve had with Point2’s responsive customer care team. Equally exciting is hearing from clients about their marketing successes using the product.

“It’s such a useful tool for marketing, just for getting their name out there. When they enter a listing, they can syndicate it to 40-plus other websites, like New York Times, Google, Yahoo, and others. Someone will call and say: ‘We got a lead from HotPads – I didn’t even realize it was going there, but this is awesome!’”