How does property maintenance impact resident satisfaction? When a property is well maintained, it provides a sense of security for a property management company’s residents. This includes regular maintenance of the building and grounds, such as lawn care, snow removal, and inspections of the building’s systems. It also includes repairs and updates to the building, like replacing old appliances and windows, or adding new amenities. When a property is well maintained and work orders are completed quickly, it creates a pleasant living environment for residents, and can even add value to their experience. In turn, this can lead to higher satisfaction levels and more loyalty from residents, resulting in greater success for your property management company.
Not only do residents care about the way their home is maintained, but many residents choose to rent so they aren’t burdened with the hassles of home ownership, specifically home maintenance. If the process to submit a maintenance request is convoluted, or frustrating. Residents may begin to grow dissatisfied with their renting experience. If residents wait days or even weeks for their maintenance requests to be answered and fixed, they are likely to grow unhappy with their property manager. According to our data, maintenance issues are one of the main reasons residents choose not to renew their lease. So ensuring your maintenance process is easy for your residents is vital to the success of your property management company.
To learn more about typical maintenance services and the most common property maintenance issues, check out our ultimate guide to property maintenance.
Is there a connection between maintenance and online reviews?
Yes, there is a connection between maintenance and online reviews. Good maintenance practices can have a positive impact on the customer experience, which can lead to better online reviews and ratings. Poor maintenance, on the other hand, can lead to negative reviews and decreased customer satisfaction. According to etouchpoint.com, companies often see a ratio of three to four positive comments to every one negative review. Therefore, it is important for businesses to ensure that all maintenance practices are up to date, and that all customer needs are met in a timely manner.
In fact, according to our data, if a maintenance issue takes longer than 5.5 days to complete, you have less than a 1% chance of receiving a positive review. Even more striking, 78% of prospective residents said a property management company’s online reviews were the number one factor in choosing where to live. This means that resident reviews have a huge impact on not only resident satisfaction and retention, but your ability to attract more tenants.
How Does The Maintenance Process Impact Resident Retention?
Retaining good residents who are reliable is much cheaper than marketing and acquiring new tenants, which means it is imperative to maintain positive relationships with your current residents. The resident experience is a significant drive in whether or not someone chooses to renew their lease, and one of the biggest make or break factors of this experience is maintenance. Maintenance plays such a big role in resident retention because it makes residents feel heard and taken care of. If someone has a clogged toilet or a leak in your roof, they likely aren’t going to feel comfortable in their home. This discomfort quickly turns to anger if residents are waiting weeks for the maintenance team to fix the issues in their home.
On the other hand, if maintenance issues are solved quickly, with little disruption to their life, and by someone they trust, residents will be more inclined to renew their lease.
Schedule a demo with one of our maintenance experts to learn how a designated property maintenance software can help improve your average resident ratings and increase resident retention.
