Courtney Catanese took over the maintenance department at Real Property Management of the Triad in July of 2022. After attending the Property Meld User Summit in August of 2022, Catanese began diving into Meld Workflows to help her automate aspects of their maintenance process that were causing issues.

Catanese set up the first of their 60 Meld Workflows, which sent a message to residents after a Meld (work order) was submitted. The workflow lets the resident know their Meld has been received and will be addressed during regular business hours, helping residents know the expectations and feel valued.

Since implementing this Meld Workflow, Real Property Management of the Triad has seen 36% of residents completing a maintenance follow-up survey and resulting in an average resident satisfaction of 4 out of 5.

In addition, Real Property Management of the Triad has set up an individual workflow for each vendor. When a Meld is assigned, the resident receives a message introducing them to their vendor and that they will be reaching out to schedule maintenance.

“Our vendors were saying they were trying to contact residents to schedule, and residents wouldn’t answer calls because they didn’t know it was the vendor. The workflow gives them a name to associate with, which makes them feel more confident, and they know to look out for communication from that company and not necessarily from us.” – Courtney Catanese, Maintenance Coordinator.

Lastly, when a vendor or maintenance technician says the request is complete, a workflow is sent to the resident to confirm. As a result, the loop is closed, and billing is paused till Meld completion is confirmed.

Receiving more information from residents allows Real Property Management of the Triad to ensure they are sending the right vendor the first time, saving money on trip charges. In addition, it has helped them provide better communication with their property owners because all the information is in one place. Catanese says this has helped the owners feel more confident about the maintenance process.

“I would say we had a photo attached to 1/10 Melds a year ago. With the workflows, we receive photos for probably 8 or 9 out of 10, so it has made a huge difference.” – Courtney Catanese

Since implementing Meld Workflows, Catanese noticed they receive more information from the residents upfront, allowing them to fix the issue quicker. Since September, the average speed of repair for incoming Melds has gone down by an average of 4.46 days. This increase in repair speed has led to a more positive maintenance experience for residents. Meld Workflows has not only helped streamline their maintenance process but has given them the ability to ensure nothing falls through the cracks.