Last modified on August 10th, 2023
By Rae Parker, Marc Frenkiel

“Presence” in property management alludes to something deeper than just physically being there for your customers. Presence is a feeling, an experience, and a way to show up in service to your residents and property owners. Thanks to advances in technology, and most importantly in AI, property management teams don’t necessarily have to be physically present at all times to invoke the feeling — and power — of presence. They can still accomplish everything that comes with being present — being responsive, accountable, and connected at all times — from virtually anywhere.

Unlock the power of presence with Smart Maintenance

If your team is still using a paper-based method for the administration and tracking of maintenance operations, your technicians may have to go back and forth between a central location — like your leasing office or maintenance area — just to access the information they need when receiving requests. This can drain your maintenance team’s time and energy. 

To counter this inefficient process, consider incorporating mobile-and-integration-optimized technology that provides your team with a single solution that does it all on one platform. With the ability to access this software from anywhere and on any device, your team can increase their efficiency from the moment a work order comes through or a resident has moved out and the unit is ready for turn. 

Smart Maintenance is designed to address your toughest maintenance challenges: responding to requests at all hours of the day, even with a limited team; satisfying frustrated residents due to slow response times; and providing instant visibility into your maintenance workflow process.

So how does it work? 

Smart Maintenance works intelligently and quickly — all within AppFolio Property Manager — no matter the time of day or night, so your team can focus on running your business. Long gone are the days of you or your residents having to fill out stacks of paperwork if something breaks. With multiple forms of communication, residents can easily submit a text message, make a quick call, or use their online resident portal to get started. From there, the request is received and the resident gets an AI-aided response within minutes to follow up and determine the urgency of the issue. Smart Maintenance’s AI capabilities can diagnose and troubleshoot the issue according to your established process and automatically create a work order to give you and your team instant visibility. If the job can be completed by your maintenance team on-site, Smart Maintenance will dispatch it without a problem or send the work order to the appropriate vendor per your clear instructions.

Here’s how Donna Smith, President of Fargo, North Dakota-based Enclave Property Management, which manages 4,500+ units, describes the technology and the benefits it provides to her team: 

“Smart Maintenance monitors all work orders that come in, day or night, to see if it’s an emergency and helps residents troubleshoot or decide any next steps to ensure the property is not being damaged or that there are no health and safety issues. Then, the system contacts our preferred vendors, a choice that we put within the system. So ultimately, Smart Maintenance can take that work order and handle the situation without contacting anyone on our team. Right now with the staffing shortage that is going on nationwide, it’s just one extra support that you can have for those team members so they aren’t working overtime every single week.”

With Smart Maintenance, you can boost your team’s efficiency and help them refocus their attention on what matters most while eliminating the stress it takes to run a successful maintenance program. For your maintenance team, this means that there is less effort needed to handle maintenance requests since everything is tracked and managed in AppFolio. For your residents, they can rest easy knowing that their property managers are present — responsive, accountable, and connected — from virtually anywhere. 

For more ideas on how you can maximize your maintenance operations and take advantage of the power of AI, download our free guide below.