The health of your maintenance department is evaluated in many ways. For the facility manager, the most important metric may be cost-savings or reduction in downtime. The maintenance staff may evaluate themselves based on repeat service calls or wrench time studies. However, the way tenants and clients evaluate maintenance services is usually based on response and job time.
The Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council conducted a recent survey to determine the most important aspects of customer service according to customers in various industries. 75% of survey participants reported that fast response time was the most important attribute of their customer experiences. Despite the overwhelming majority of survey participants citing this as their most important priority, studies show that only 12% of businesses make this their own priority when it comes to customer service training.
If you want to supersede competitors and make your tenants happy, maintenance request response time must be addressed. Here are just a few ways to reduce response time and create happier tenants:
Make it easy for tenants or residents to report maintenance requests.
Many maintenance problems in commercial buildings happen because the tenant either doesn’t know how to fill out a maintenance request or believes the process is too complicated. By simplifying the process, the maintenance worker can fulfill the request quickly and make the tenant happier. MaintenX uses an efficient online work order management system to ensure that all of our clients are taken care of ASAP. We ensure that all maintenance issues are reported and addressed by making the process easy for both tenant and maintenance staff alike.
Prioritize maintenance requests.
All maintenance workers understand the importance of prioritization in the field. If a client has a major plumbing leak that is flooding the office, their work must come before a renovation or minor repair. Your emergency requests should be handled first; however, non-emergent requests should also be prioritized based on certain criteria. The more adept your maintenance staff is at prioritizing their work orders, the happier your tenants and staff will be.
Always respond.
Whether you’re able to perform the request in an hour or in a week, you should always respond ASAP to update the resident and let them know when they should expect further contact. Sometimes your maintenance staff will be unable to perform the request. In these cases, contact the tenant or resident immediately to let them know to reach out to another department.
MaintenX makes it easy for businesses to report maintenance requests and have them completed efficiently. To learn more about our commercial maintenance services, contact us.
