According to a recent survey, over 60% of property owners say that dealing with maintenance is the biggest headache involved in property management. To ease this part of the business, many have adopted a 24/7 maintenance call center solution. This type of solution solves 3 main pain points:
- Gives freedom from tenant maintenance calls, especially the ones that come in the middle of the night or at inconvenient times.
- Keeps investments protected by ensuring an emergency maintenance issue is never missed and long term property damage is effectively minimized.
- If set up properly, it can help set the business up to seamlessly scale.
There are plenty of 24/7 maintenance call center options out there, and the best one depends on your personal goals and the goals of your business. Though, for most property managers and landlords, there are a few elements that are crucial to the business:
A 24/7 Maintenance Call Center That Knows How to Troubleshoot and Screen for Emergencies.
Effective troubleshooting can save you a large chunk of your annual maintenance costs by avoiding the unnecessary dispatch of contractors, or by de-escalating emergency work orders to general work orders.
At Latchel, our US based call center is comprised of team members who all have had at least 2 years of property management experience. This ensures that there is always someone on the other end of the line who understands fully what does and what does not qualify as an emergency maintenance issue and can most effectively handle the issue from there.
Below is a chart of the potential savings involved with effective troubleshooting. At Latchel, we are able to resolve around 30% of the maintenance requests that come through over the phone. With an average invoice amount of $200 per repair and an average of 3 maintenance requests per unit per year, you’re spending an average of $600 per unit per year. If 30% of those maintenance requests could be solved via troubleshooting then you could have a savings of $180 (%30 of $600) per unit per year. So if you manage 300 units, that’s $54,000 a year in potential savings. If you manage 500 units, that number goes to $90,000.
You can download our full 20-page guide on how to troubleshoot rental maintenance issues here.
Software to Ensure All Calls and Maintenance Issues are Tracked and Recorded.
When it comes to dealing with property, having a record of every maintenance call is vital. It’s also important to keep record of the steps taken after the maintenance issue was reported by the tenant. If there are any issues or discrepancies in the work done (or not done) in the future, having a record of what exactly happened will be key. This will also assist in keeping your maintenance operations as organized and buttoned up as the property needs to be.
At Latchel, tenants are given a phone number to call or text when they have a maintenance issue. All of the calls are recorded and the steps taken after the call is finished are documented via the online portal so there is always full transparency. Below is a snapshot of how it works:
A Maintenance Call Center With Flexible Payment and Customization Options
Needs for maintenance can vary greatly depending on a variety of factors: the number of rental properties being managed, the size of the staff, etc. Some property managers have full time maintenance coordinators and systems set up wherein it only makes sense to use a pay-per-minute model, or an after-hours only type of plan. Others may be looking for a service that could replace the role of a maintenance coordinator entirely. Latchel offers each of these options.
For property managers and landlords looking for a full time maintenance coordination, we have a fit test available so you can gauge how well a service like this would work with your maintenance operations.
For inquiries into any of our other service tiers, book a demo with our team below, we’d love to talk with you about how to outsource your maintenance so you can spend more time growing your business.
