Property maintenance is an incredibly complex process where repairs and follow-up can easily fall through the cracks. You can’t afford to fall behind on maintenance tasks. Why? Fast and quality repairs result in happy residents, renewing leases, and leaving great reviews.

We will cover the fundamentals of a quality follow-up process to ensure you see 5-star reviews and shed the 1-star reviews.

What defines a quality follow-up maintenance process?

A quality process is defined by two key performance indicators (KPIs): speed of repair and resident satisfaction.

Speed of repair is the time it takes to complete a repair. One of the best ways to keep residents satisfied is to fix maintenance issues quickly and effectively. According to our data, 46% of residents said that maintenance issues factored into their decision to leave.

Why is a quality follow-up maintenance process necessary? 

A quality follow-up maintenance process is essential because it directly correlates to resident retention and online reviews, resulting in money spent or saved. 

According to Investp, 88% of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations. Additionally, 72% of consumers will take action after reading a positive review. Positive reviews of your company will help attract potential residents and boost your credibility and trustworthiness.

Where is your follow-up maintenance process getting lost?

Before we dive into best practices, it’s best to take note of your current process and see where it falls short and where you can improve. Analyze your repair coordination process and ask yourself these questions:

Did the vendor or internal technician receive the order?

Are they intending on performing the repair? If so, when is the repair occurring?

Did they reach the resident?

Is it waiting on approval?

Was a time scheduled?

Is the repair complete?

Implement A Follow-up Maintenance Process Framework

A consistent process is critical to provide a quick and timely repair. Ensure your follow-up maintenance process includes the following:

1. Confirm receipt of the maintenance repair request.

Once you receive a maintenance request, it’s essential to respond promptly by acknowledging that you received the request. Don’t leave your residents concerned and worried that their request didn’t make it to you. The last thing you want is a concerned resident calling you to ensure you received their message.

2. Troubleshoot repair requests. 

Are you tired of receiving multiple repair requests about the same issue that a resident can quickly solve through troubleshooting? An example we hear often is a garbage disposal malfunction. Instead of wasting time and money sending out a vendor or technician, consider creating a template with simple instructions to troubleshoot the garbage disposal. 

3. Verify repair completion with resident no longer than 24 hours afterward.

Some companies believe waiting for the repair invoice is verification that the repair is complete. This doesn’t work since most invoices can take 2-4 weeks to receive. Negative resident experiences/frustrations won’t wait for your team to receive their invoice – they will call, and now a non-emergency becomes a staff emergency to address.

Leading and Lagging KPIs to measure in your maintenance follow-up routine:

Measure Speed of Repairs – Leading Indicator

You may already know that repair satisfaction strongly correlates to the time it takes to complete a repair. Based on our data, repairs that take longer than 7 days have a nearly 0% chance of receiving a positive review.

Establish a priority process for repairs: 

Emergencies < Immediately (water leaks, HVAC on very hot or cold days)

Medium Priority < 5 days (broken appliances, electrical issues)

Low Priority < 14 days (bathroom fans, internal door jam issues)

Don’t let any repair extend past 31 days. If it’s not going to get done, cancel it to keep the system clean.

Measure Resident Satisfaction – Lagging Indicator

This is the most important lagging indicator that determines the health of your operation. It’s essential to ensure 100% consistency by allowing all residents to voice their opinions so you can improve. We recommend you aim for at least 4/5 stars on surveys. Do not settle for 3/5 ratings. This will hurt business.

Stop wasting your time on manual maintenance follow-up:

Creating these follow-up processes only solves part of the problem. The more significant issue is having enough time to implement these processes. We get that you are busy. With software automation, you can easily streamline these processes with minimal oversight.

Changing your current maintenance process may feel time-consuming at first. But in the end, the actions you take will exponentially save hours and money when you implement a solution focused on quality repairs.

Leave bad reviews and messy maintenance in the past by streamlining your maintenance for happy residents, happier investors, and stress-free property maintenance.

Request a demo to learn how automation can streamline your maintenance follow-up process. 

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