By: Stacy Holden, Senior Director, Industry Principal, AppFolio Property Manager
Maintenance is a necessary part of every property management business; however, it also can be one of the most difficult and time-consuming operations to manage. From struggling to hire and retain top-tier talent to spending too much time handling requests, when your maintenance operations are not working efficiently, the consequences can trickle down into every aspect of your business. Read on to see how you can overcome common maintenance challenges and take back control with the help of new technologies and automated processes.
1. Challenge: Finding and Retaining Maintenance Talent
According to a recent survey that polled over 1,000 property management professionals, 74% of respondents listed HR, staffing, and recruitment as one of their top three challenges, with 50% listing it as their primary challenge. Maintenance issues often happen off hours or on weekends, and employees have to go to the property to handle the problem, which takes up time and leads to burnout and increased turnover.
Solution: Free Your Team to Focus on What Matters
Support your team by digitizing and automating your maintenance workflows and eliminating manual, tedious processes. When employees have everything they need in one place, there’s less confusion and they have more flexibility since they can access information from anywhere, whether they’re in the field or at the office. It also creates a better workplace culture, because they have more time to focus on what matters most to them.
2. Challenge: Lack of Visibility Into Maintenance Repairs
Businesses use separate, disjointed systems to handle maintenance repairs or even paper and pen. This makes it difficult to maintain oversight and have a full picture of your maintenance operations. When maintenance operations aren’t organized, it takes longer to get work done and also makes it harder to keep track of when a repair will be completed, which negatively impacts resident satisfaction and revenue.
Solution: Move to an Integrated System
Rather than relying on multiple tools or paper-based processes, transition to a property management platform that is integrated with all of your business processes. A fully integrated system will enable your residents to submit maintenance requests and for you to manage and track them all from one place, so you can maintain transparency, get work done faster, and provide a great resident experience.
3. Challenge: Too Much Time Spent Managing Maintenance Requests
Paper-based, manual processes make it hard to keep up with maintenance requests, resulting in things falling through the cracks and team members having less time to focus on higher-level initiatives.
Solution: Put Automated Tools to Work
Automation and artificial intelligence can help you respond instantly to requests and establish a standardized set of protocols for different types of maintenance problems. For example, features like AppFolio Smart Maintenance allow you to intelligently manage maintenance requests that come in—no matter the time of day or night—so your team can focus on running your business and have a better work/life balance.
Edith Bohorquez, vice president of operations at MPG Residential, has had great success since implementing this service. “I find AppFolio Smart Maintenance to be an extremely valuable feature in this industry,” she says. “The level of communication between maintenance technicians, managers, and tenants is what makes this so much easier.”
Property maintenance will always be necessary in property management. Yet, when you have the right tools and processes in place, it can be much easier to manage. Make good use of the insights shared above, and you can increase operational efficiency and transparency, while providing a better resident and employee experience.
Stacy Holden is the senior director, industry principal at AppFolio, a leading provider of cloud-based business software solutions in the real estate market. Stacy has over 20 years of experience in the real estate and property management industry and is an expert on how customers can leverage technology to solve some of their greatest business challenges.