Last modified on June 16th, 2023
By Brittany Benz

Have you ever been unable to take a vacation, missed out on a family event, or woken up in the middle of the night because of a maintenance issue? 

If the answer is yes, you’re not alone. Maintenance is a major challenge for many property management businesses, whether you use vendors, keep things in-house, or blend the two approaches. That’s because maintenance operations affect every aspect of your business — including making or breaking resident and owner satisfaction, property values, and employee retention.

If you’re tired of letting maintenance dictate your day-to-day, keep reading to see how you can take back your and your team’s time, streamline processes, and regain control.

1.) Manage maintenance requests more easily by putting automation to work

Maintenance issues that occur off-hours, such as those that crop up in the middle of the night or on weekends, often need to be addressed immediately. However, if you’re not around or are unable to respond right away, the issue can quickly become costly or even hazardous for residents. 

A smart solution is to use systems with automation and artificial intelligence built in, so you can gather, respond to, prioritize, and dispatch support for resident maintenance requests any time, day or night. Not only are you able to increase work order processing time and improve accuracy over manual workflows, you’re also able to provide clear and fast communication to residents at the same time via automated responses and messages.

As an added bonus, using automation to track maintenance issues means you’ll also maintain visibility and gain insights into exactly what is happening for various repairs, and why.

2.) Eliminate inefficiencies by digitizing maintenance operations

Manually tracking and managing work orders or trying to connect processes across many different tools can lead to tasks being unintentionally overlooked, like an unpaid contractor invoice or a missed maintenance request from a resident. Instead, eliminate inefficiencies by moving your maintenance operations into an integrated digital system where you can manage everything in one place.

With a seamless digital experience, your team can more effectively and efficiently track the status of work orders, streamline unit turns, simplify inspections processes, and more. In addition, with more insight and visibility across your entire maintenance workflow, you can improve resident and owner communication, team member satisfaction, and business outcomes.

Tony Hillis, Maintenance Director at Total Maintenance, LLC, has seen the benefits of using technology for his organization’s maintenance operations. By using technology to manage work orders for more than 587 units, his team has been able to eliminate errors and gain more oversight than ever before. As Tony explains:

  “Having my property management software in a mobile app allows me to put in work orders in real time when I see issues in the field. We can log receipts, expenses, hours, photos, and notes for each work order. I can also look at inspections done after a tenant moves out to create the tenant damages report.” — Tony Hillis, Maintenance Director, Total Maintenance, LLC

3.) Offer self-service options for residents

Manually communicating with residents who call and leave messages about maintenance issues can take up an extraordinary amount of your team’s time and frustrate everyone involved.

Improve the entire experience by offering more efficient ways for residents to submit maintenance requests themselves, such as via an online resident portal. Making this self-serve technology available empowers residents with the ability to submit requests at their convenience. In addition, by having requests go through a digital portal, you can limit one-off phone calls and unnecessary follow-ups so maintenance can begin sooner. The extra benefit of capturing a digital record of the request and conversations also means important details and follow-up are far less likely to fall through the cracks.

Addressing maintenance operations challenges can sometimes feel like an ongoing struggle for control. But with automation, connected digital systems, and self-service resident features, you can not only eliminate inefficiencies and provide a better customer experience but also focus more time and energy on the high-value, high-impact efforts that grow your business.

To learn more about how you can improve your operations and drive revenue, download our free guide below.