As a property manager, you are wearing many hats. From finding the most suitable residents to acquiring new properties, working with property owners, and handling maintenance issues can make it challenging to find enough hours in the day to get everything done. In this article, we have outlined a few key ways you can increase efficiency for property managers in your maintenance process and have more time to focus on other essential tasks.
When speaking with property managers across the country, they often say maintenance is the most time-consuming responsibility they deal with daily. From fielding maintenance calls from residents to scheduling work with vendors, many property managers are wasting hours a day playing phone tag.
By equipping yourself with the right tools, you can get more time back in your day and increase the productivity of your maintenance team. A more efficient team leads to quicker repair times, ultimately improving resident happiness.
1: Improve Transparency in the Maintenance Process
One of the best ways to increase efficiency is to improve transparency in the maintenance process. Suppose you know where a work order is through the entire process, from resident submission to completion and invoicing. In that case, you can diminish calls from frustrated residents wondering what is happening with their maintenance request. In addition, you will no longer have work orders falling through the cracks or getting overlooked.
2: Document in Real Time
Communicating with all parties involved is one of the hardest things about property maintenance. If you cannot keep everyone in the loop, residents, vendors, and property owners will grow frustrated. Without effective communication, your team will waste time playing phone tag with residents trying to schedule work orders. Keeping all your communication in one central place allows all people involved the ability to look back on the conversation. Communicating through many channels can create confusion. Find one that works for your team and stick with it.
3: Automate the Manual Tasks
Eliminating the manual tasks in the maintenance process is one of the best ways to increase efficiency. You can create automated messaging sent to a resident when they submit a maintenance request, letting them know their request was received and that a vendor will contact them. You can also create auto-triage instructions when a specific keyword is used in a maintenance request. This can save you time and money from sending a maintenance technician to a residence to fix a simple problem that your resident can quickly solve. This automation helps you limit manual touchpoints, saving time while providing an excellent resident experience.
4: Invest in Property Maintenance Software
After handling operations for an extended period, it can be intimidating to change your process, but investing in dedicated property maintenance software is one of the best things you can do for your business. With reliable property maintenance software, you can improve communication, oversee your process, and eliminate time-consuming manual touchpoints.
One of the most time-saving aspects of using property maintenance software is your ability to reduce the number of maintenance calls you receive. Customers using our software have been able to minimize maintenance-related phone calls by up to 75%!
Some property management companies are hesitant to move to an online maintenance platform because their residents are so used to calling to submit a maintenance requests. It is important to remember that any process change will take learning and change to get everyone on board. However, if you can show your residents the benefits of an online platform and how it will make things easier, they are more likely to embrace your new process.
If you are ready to improve communication and eliminate manual tasks, schedule a demo with our team of maintenance experts!
Download the Guide to Reducing Maintenance Calls
This downloadable guide has instructions on increase efficiency for property managers by reducing maintenance calls with a few simple steps while still providing your residents with a great experience. Fill out the form below to receive the guide directly to your inbox!
