Written by Natalie Schultz
After 7 years in the property management industry, I have moved over to the other side, or rather, I’ve become a vendor serving the very clientele I used to be. I now serve as a Business Development Representative at ServusConnect, a fully digital maintenance and service software that integrates with major PMS systems and helps multi-family maintenance operations perform at their best.
And I absolutely love it! I’ve learned so much in the past few weeks as I dove into the features and functionality of this super cool software and discovered things I didn’t know I could have even used as a property manager at my previous company! That’s why I wanted to put together this list of 5 things I wish I’d known about property maintenance software when I worked as a property manager.
1. Digital Maintenance can be flexible and customizable
Before, I thought that digital maintenance apps meant that we had to change how we operated our maintenance department and retrain our people in order to start using new software. I was wrong! With digital solutions like ServusConnect, property managers can easily create workflows that work with their current process and the vendors and office team are kept in the loop from start to finish! This goes for service requests, inspections, make-readys and so much more!
2. Resident Communication could have been so much better!
Has everyone else noticed the higher standards and higher expectations from residents in the past few years? Since 2020, remote work has clearly skyrocketed, meaning that your home is more important than ever. This also means that Wi-Fi, AC, water, and all the other day to day items must be running smoothly 24/7. With rents increasing and residents taking their homes more seriously than ever, there is a significantly higher standard when it comes to communication, engagement and feedback during and after a work order is completed.
Since joining ServusConnect, I am blown away by the level of engagement that their app offers to residents, with easy email and text communication to residents during each project, along with a simple way to review the service request (provided they say they are happy with the completion!). These incredible features have DOUBLED some of their customers’ online reviews and could greatly improve a property.
3. You CAN have all the data you need at your fingertips!
When it comes to the maintenance data you pull from your PMS system, we all know the frustration of getting slow data or misinformation based on a complex paper trail from vendors and others during a work order. This lack of property information left me in a tough situation, making uninformed and slow decisions without the right details at my fingertips.
I had no idea how amazing business analytics and reporting could be!!! By integrating your PMS system with ServusConnect, you can now get thousands of cool insights! Not only can you drill into the details around each technician and vendor, you can see their performance, resident feedback, speed to completion and so much more! (You can directly message residents, ensure the quality of work being done is satisfactory; the amount of resident engagement features ServusConnect has is HUGE!)
4. The right digital solution can eliminate paperwork!
Ugh, inspection paperwork, am I right?? I’ve found that most people we speak to don’t realize that ServusConnect also offers full digital inspection software! This means that not only do you get the basic inspection checklists and the app you need to properly eliminate paperwork, but you also can now do full digital annual inspections, move in and move outs, common area, and safety, plus so much more! I can’t believe how many trees we save every year for our clients (86 trees and nearly a million pieces of paper were saved last year!)
5. Onboarding maintenance software takes weeks, not months!
Scared of software rollouts? I was too! Our team was always hesitant when it came to any new software rollout, worried that service team adoption would be abysmal, and sure that the software company would fail at properly training our people or only focus on the leadership, leaving vendors and field service providers in the dark.
With ServusConnect, their onboarding and training process is the opposite! Within a few weeks, we see companies not only onboard entire properties, but also train up the entire team as well as offer regular office hours to ensure any questions are answered and any new technicians are quickly set up with the mobile app and train by the ServusConnect team. It’s amazing and easy!!
Let’s talk!
I’m still new to the multi-family maintenance technology space, but I am so excited to begin sharing my experiences with my fellow property teams. I hope that what I’ve learned will help demystify maintenance technology for you as well!
