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1-Nov-09 0:00 AM CST

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KEEP 'EM HAPPY: Satisfy and retain your residents by providing an efficient and effective response to maintenance requests.

One of my most vivid memories of apartment living is an ice-cold drip that rolled down my back each morning when I showered. (The air conditioning condensation overflow line in the ceiling above the shower was doing its job.) I don’t remember the move-in special I received, the view from my apartment or the quality of staff in the office. The only thing I remember is that ice-cold drip down my back when I showered- a drip that took a week to fix.

I assume the site staff didn’t think this drip was important. In the grand scheme of things, it probably wasn’t. I am confident that the property ran 50 to 60 work-order tickets per week. They had floods from broken supply lines to extract, defective appliances to replace on third floors and 20 units to get ready for move-ins. A pesky drip from a condensation line really wasn’t that important and could put on the back burner until they had time to address it. No big deal, right?

I called on a Saturday, and no one returned my call. I called on Monday, and they said it would be fixed by Tuesday. No one showed up on Tuesday, so I called on Wednesday and was told it would be Thursday. On Thursday, it would be Friday – without fail. Someone showed up on Saturday to spend two minutes blowing out the main condensation line which fixed the problem.

Wow. That was simple. Except four years later, I still remember the condensation line and how long it took to get fixed.

MAINTENANCE MATTERS

Anyone who has been in multifamily housing for any length of time knows that this sort of story is not new. Residents typically have a list of gripes concerning maintenance, some valid and some not. If they don’t, it is rare and to be commended. Ask most residents about maintenance, however, and they will cite a problem and the agony they went through to get it fixed. It doesn’t matter that the problem was from 1982 – they still carry the grievance and are more than willing to share it with anyone who will listen.

Owners and investors rely on management professionals to deal with the intricacies of resident issues. Corporate executives depend on the stewardship of regional supervisors to ensure that affairs on properties are quietly handled. And regional supervisors expect the site staff to deal with resident issues with finesse and professionalism.

If that’s the case, what exactly are we doing to help the site staff deal with this tumultuous dynamic? Do we train our staff to understand what enrages a resident when work orders are not completed? If not, how do we expect them to excel?

CONSIDER THE CUSTOMER

During my years of on-site management, I learned much about residents. A law enforcement background prompted me to pay attention to what they say, how they say it, and what they seem to mean. I offer the following for your consideration:

If you placed 100 people in a room and asked who was a better college football team – the Aggies or the Longhorns – I suspect you would probably provoke an argument (if not an outright fistfight). Democrat or Republican? More differences. Chocolate or vanilla? Paper or plastic? You would probably see further differences of opinion as well.

If you asked everyone in that same room whether they believe they are entitled to be treated with civility, common courtesy, dignity and respect, I suspect you would find a universal show of hands in agreement. Most people reasonably believe they are entitled to be treated with dignity regardless of the forum.

Place these same people in a situation where they are a patron, customer or resident, and they believe dignified treatment is specifically required. A person’s standing as a resident, for example, demands that he or she be treated with the utmost respect and dignity. After all, they are exchanging something of real value to them (their hard-earned wages) for a service that they expect to be at least as valuable as what they pay.

EMOTIONAL ELEMENTS

If we assume that this is true, then let’s consider the raw emotional reactions of residents concerning incomplete maintenance items: When the completion of a repair request is postponed, delayed, put on the back burner or otherwise forgotten, the initial reaction of the resident is a feeling of annoyance. He or she is purely annoyed by the continuation of the inconvenience. If this were the limit of his or her reaction, it would be relatively easy to remedy: Quickly fix the problem and the annoyance dissipates.

Unfortunately, annoyance quickly escalates into indignation. The resident views the timely payment of rent as an exchange for the timely repair of problems in the apartment. When repairs are ignored or delayed, it creates a perception of inequality. This perception is why we all have experienced a resident who threatens to withhold rent because of unattended work order requests. Indignation develops in direct proportion to how the resident defines “timely” repairs and regardless of legal or contractual definitions.

Annoyance and indignation are soon overshadowed by the resident becoming offended. More than a simple annoyance or a feeling of inequity, he or she perceives that the problem is not being taken seriously by the site staff, that no one is making an effort to provide assistance and that his or her value as a rent-paying resident is being minimized. This feels offensive to the resident, who now feels that he or she is not being reated with any sort of dignity. Once a resident becomes offended, problems are not easily resolved.

Under the cloud of these emotions, a resident becomes a powder keg. Most of us have seen what happens when you put this resident in front of a snippy leasing consultant, a bored assistant manager or a disingenuous manager. Fireworks, right? Try pointing out the fact that a request was not “in writing” and see where it lands you. The regional manager, the corporate office and the ownership will be summoned by the resident, who will cause as large a ruckus as possible and demand financial restitution..

BETTER MANAGEMENT, BETTER MAINTENANCE

So how do we handle these sorts of problems? The key to effectively managing residents is not a four-hour training program on crisis management, anger management or hostage negotiations. This situation is a management issue with a preventative management solution. Just as leasing, collections, delinquency, renewals and expenses need to be managed, so too does maintenance. Effective stewardship of a property includes maintenance, which means more than making certain that the property is clean and ready units are available for leasing. Effective maintenance management should include, at minimum, the following five preventative fundamentals:

1. Cooperation: When residents call, inform them that all work order requests are typically completed the same day but may take up to 48 hours to complete at the latest. Do not promise they will be completed any sooner unless you have a solid understanding of the current maintenance workload. Explain that regardless of how much we try to avoid it, work order requests sometimes get misplaced. (Yes, I am suggesting you be honest with your residents).

Ask the resident, as a courtesy, to help you out and specifically call you back should the work not be completed within 48 hours. Doing so will help you ensure that the work order gets top priority and will be completed immediately if it is missed. Most of the time work orders will be completed long before a follow-up call from a resident. In the event that a ticket is missed, however, the resident will call. This will alert you to a problem and give you the opportunity to apologize, move the ticket to the top of the list of pending work orders and remedy the problem immediately. Residents typically do not mind being part of the process and appreciate the honesty and candor.

2. Cumulative Counts: Each maintenance technician should be given a finite number of tickets to complete during the first half of the day. Before leaving for lunch, they should turn in completed tickets. If eight tickets were given to a technician at the start of the day, all eight should be reviewed before lunch. Not only does this keep completion information current, but it holds the technician accountable for the volume of work he or she is producing. The same procedure should be repeated for the second half of the day. Dropping a stack of tickets in the lap of a technician without tracking what goes out or comes back is an open invitation for a visit from a justifiably unhappy resident.

3. Completion Confirmation: Residents' work order requests should never be closed as completed based upon the word of a maintenance staff member. That’s right – the resident certifies that the work was completed, not the maintenance man. A resident signature verifying completion is very common when he or she is present at the time the work is done. A telephone call from an office staff member confirming the completion is also valid. Either way, the protocol helps avoid situations where someone thought a work order request had been completed when it was not.

4. Courtesy Communication: Any time a work order request will not be completed as planned, a courtesy communication must be made to the resident, whether by voice mail, e-mail or note taped to the door. Provide something that alerts the resident to the delay, explains why, offers an apology and indicates when the work will be completed.

When we speak of treating residents with dignity, this is an absolute must in terms of common courtesy. Have you ever waited on the cable guy to arrive between 8 a.m. and noon and he fails to show without explanation? Residents deserve the courtesy of being informed of any known or anticipated delays.

5. Kindness Call: Every completed work order request is an opportunity to facilitate resident retention. Telephone calls from staff members to your residents regarding the completion of work orders tells a tale about the community. It tells your residents that everyone is paying attention to them and that the staff is concerned that they had a problem. It demonstrates that you value them as residents and that you are genuinely concerned that they are being treated with dignity. More than resident retention parties, seasonal events, concessions or prizes, these telephone calls are the single most effective way to retain residents.

One of my core beliefs in property management is that people are our purpose, not our problem. Our work needs to be completed in a fashion that evokes pride in the service we provide and underscores the value we have for each of our residents. Including the five key elements listed above in any maintenance management program will reduce, if not eliminate, resident complaints over maintenance-related issues.

Matthew Summers is president of management for Kaplan Management Company. For more information, visit www.kapcorp.com.