Latchel E-Guide: Building and Benchmarking Your Emergency Maintenance Operations

WHAT’S IN THIS GUIDE?

1. Why emergency response is important.

2. How to create your plan.

3. How to measure success.

4. Specific recommendations and best practices.

5. Where to go to learn more.

EMERGENCIES ARE THE LARGEST RISK TO YOUR BUSINESS

Face it: no other aspect of your property management business carries nearly as much risk as emergency maintenance. Solving emergency maintenance issues quickly and correctly can make the difference between being a hero and being a villian in the eyes of your clients. Perform well and you saved them thousands of dollars in unnecessary damages. Miss an emergency and you can become liable for damages you were responsible for preventing.

“

Opportunity and risk come in pairs.

”

-Bangambiki Habyarimana

CONFRONT RISKS HEAD ON

Only by facing risks head on can you hope to eliminate them. Better days are ahead if you know how to plan and prepare for them. This guide will help you plan for and improve your in-house emergency operation.

THE BEST EXECUTION STARTS WITH A PLAN

Although plans never survive first contact with reality, creating a plan is the best way to organize your thinking and prepare for the unexpected. The size and scope of your plans should vary widely depending on the size and maturity of your organization.

“

Plans are worthless, but planning is essential.

”

-Dwight D. Eisenhower

Any good plan answers the following questions:

1. What is the vision?

2. What is the specific goal?

3. How will you measure success?

4. Who is responsible for what?

5. When will each element be executed?

SET THE VISION: BE THE BEST; NEVER MISS AN EMERGENCY

Why set out to do something unless you want to be the best at it? Your vision should be simple: never miss an emergency.

SET THE GOAL: RAPID RESPONSE

While the vision is a great abstract rallying cry, your goal should be more specific. Great goals are SMART:

1. Specific

2. Measurable

3. Achievable

4. Relevant

5. Timebound

For example, a SMART goal would be: “By the end of next month, we will have all emergencies diagnosed within 1 hour of receiving the initial tenant report.” Your SMART goal should be unique to your business.

What do you hope to achieve? What is your business’s SMART goal?

SET THE METRICS: MEASURE PERFORMANCE

If you’re really serious about your goals you will measure them. With every initiative you implement it is essential to know how you will measure whether it is going according to plan or if you need to adjust.

SET THE ACTION PLAN: DEFINING ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

If you’re a one-person team, this is easy: you do everything. But as soon as that team expands to two people it is critically important to clearly define who is responsible for what steps. Write out every outcome that needs to happen (e.g. buy and set up a virtual phone line) and who is responsible for them. Skipping this step will result in important steps not getting done.

SET DUE DATES

After you have defined who is responsible for what set a deadline for every single task. The best plans also clearly define the dependencies. What tasks must be complete before another one can begin? For example, you can’t configure a new phone line until you have purchased one.

SPECIFIC RECOMMENDATIONS

Now that the planning basics are out of the way, it is helpful to know what you might want to plan for. Here is an overview of what will be covered:

1. What needs to be in the process?

2. How to receive tenant requests?

3. Who should be on call?

4. What tools are available?

5. Where can I learn more?

The best businesses turn frustrating and complex processes into simple ones.

WHAT IS IN THE PROCESS?

The best in class emergency maintenance operations have the following stages:

1. Receive the tenant request.

2. Diagnose the tenant request.

3. Troubleshoot potential emergencies.

4. Dispatch the right person at the right time.

5. Provide visibility to the right people.

6. Confirm resolution.

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Our E-Guide is a lengthy one! To download the rest of this e-guide enter your e-mail in the subscription box below.

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ABOUT LATCHEL

At Latchel we take over property maintenance coordination giving property managers the time to focus on company growth.

We do this through our 3 core products:

1. Our after hours emergency service, which ensures you are never woken up in the middle of the night for a maintenance call again;

2. Our 24/7 emergency service, night or day, all day, every day, we’ve got you covered;

3. Our premium service, which is an all encompassing maintenance coordination product.

Of our 1400 tenant reviews, we boast a 4.7 out of 5 stars for tenant satisfaction. Property managers who have switched to Latchel, on average, have reduced their time spent on maintenance to only 15 mins per day for every 100 units.

We improve the maintenance experience for everyone because at Latchel, we truly believe that you cannot get better by staying the same.

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