Most people think communication is about what they are saying, however exceptional communication isn’t about what you said, it is about what the other person heard. Every single individual involved in a maintenance request should know what is happening at every step in the process and can get engaged if they need to. Should the resident call to ask what the status of their request, no matter who picks up the phone, that employee should know.
Personally, my biggest pet peeve is calling customer service and having to be transferred or put on hold because the support contact couldn’t answer my question or needed to talk to someone else on their team.
I always say, effective communication is when everyone who is involved understands the exact details. Now, my analogy may be a bit odd, but follow me. When communication is not just shared, but documented, that is effective communication. If a person onsite happened to be out unexpectedly (I have always said in the hospital and you didn’t know when they would return) would another person know exactly what to do and pick up where they left off? Would the resident need to re-explain the issue or would the new technician have to ask the resident for what is happening?
Years ago, I always trained my Property Managers to know the full position of Maintenance Tech’s, now I don’t mean how to actually fix a flapper (although, that one is a pretty easy fix) but does the property manager understand “how” things work which will lead to asking the right questions. There must be effective communication between all three parties; “Front of House” that includes Property Managers, Leasing Agents and Assistant Managers and the “Back of the House” Maintenance, which includes, Tech’s Managers, Groundskeepers.
Have the Property Manager work with the maintenance team for a solid 5 days, not just a few hours. Have them understand all aspects from work orders, to make readies etc.
Now I am not saying this is just a one way street where the “Front of the House” should be the only one responsible for understanding other positions, I fully believe that the “Back of the House” should also understand what the Front of the House is doing. Once again, I don’t think Maintenance should necessarily be able to fully jump in and post something on social media or even apply someone’s rent money, but how awesome would it be if Maintenance knew and understood how to answer the phone if they were in the office and be able to answer a prospects questions. Better yet, what if Maintenance teams were part of the Leasing Team when it comes to meetings? Why do we separate our maintenance teams for training and our leasing teams for training? Sure we can look at training from in depth to a higher level however, in order to communicate well we need to row in the same direction for the same goal. As a resident or even a prospect, fully seeing the entire team working together I would instantly feel the sense that everyone has my best interest at heart.
What if you're short staffed? We all keep hearing about short staffed communities. (It is even more imperative to have effective communication when there is less people as there is more multi-tasking happening) Believe it or not, HappyCo offers a service where multifamily maintenance tech’s with up to 25 years experience are available to answer and communicate (effectively) with your residents on each and every service request. Due to the extensive experience our tech’s have, they know the right questions to ask, to be able to work with the residents on gathering the information in detail that is needed for onsite maintenance tech’s to be able to optimize their time and quickly complete the work orders. Plus, we all know residents want to be heard when it comes to something that is needed to be fixed in their home. They want to talk to someone immediately.
The bottom line is effective communication only works when there are no corners, a complete circle, where the right hand knows what the left hand is doing. We as an industry must do better.. Without maintenance tech’s we would not have residents wanting to renew and without leasing staff we would not have created an exceptional customer experience. We need each other more than ever in 2023 and into the future! Let’s work together.