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MAINTENANCE MAYHEM:
HOW TO TAKE BACK CONTROL & HINCREASE EFFICIENCY
By Brittany Benz, Appfolio
ave you or your staff ever been around or are unable to respond right away, then the unable to take a vacation, missed issue can become more costly or even hazardous out on a family event, or woken up for residents. Automation and artificial intelligence in the middle of the night because can help you respond instantly and establish a of a maintenance issue? If the standardized set of protocols for different types of answer is yes, then you’re not alone. problems, so you can get issues resolved quickly Maintenance is a major pain point for and efficiently. By using automation to collect, track,
many property management businesses, and weeks and monitor all maintenance requests, you can also
of time are often wasted due to poorly optimized maintenance operations.
Whether you use vendors, keep things in-house, or blend the two approaches, maintenance process efficiency trickles down to every aspect of your business. Resident and owner satisfaction, property values, and your own sanity can all arguably thrive or tank based on the state of your maintenance operations. If you’re tired of letting maintenance dictate your day-to-day, then maybe it’s time to streamline your processes and regain control. Read on to discover three ways you can take back your time and boost efficiency for your maintenance operations.
1.) PUT AUTOMATION TO WORK
Maintenance issues often occur off-hours in the middle of the night or on weekends, and need to be addressed immediately. However, if you’re not
reduce the amount of errors from manual processes.
For example, with AppFolio Smart Maintenance, you can intelligently manage maintenance requests that come in — no matter the time of day or night, and all in one platform. Smart Maintenance responds to service requests on your behalf, via text, phone, or online portal, according to your pre-set instructions, providing your residents and team with a great experience. The service also enables three-way communication between the vendor, resident and property manager, which expedites scheduling and repairs, and eliminates the “messenger” role your team often has to play.
Within Smart Maintenance you can create customized steps and rate the level of priority to be taken to address specific issues, such as a slow- leaking faucet as opposed to a burst pipe. This not only gives you more control into how maintenance
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78 NOVEMBER 2021 - APARTMENT MANAGEMENT MAGAZINE AMM3