Does your property manager answer the phone when you call?
Nothing is more frustrating than when you need a fast answer and can’t get through to your property manager. You have entrusted one of your greatest real estate assets to your property manager worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. At the very least, you expect your property manager to be accountable when you call and pick up and answer their phone.
In the real world, customer service can be a challenge today even getting a cup of coffee at the local coffee shop. Poor service reflects on poor training and poor management. You absolutely do not want to be suffering from poor customer service from someone you have hired to be the caretaker of your asset.
Get With The Program
It’s not too hard today to stay connected. With smart phones, you can send text, leave messages, take photos of repair issues on-the-fly and share with vendors to coordinate a plan, you can make audio files to send back and forth, and the list goes on and on. There is no excuse for having to tolerate a property manager who cannot pick up the phone and show you the common decency and respect you deserve as the landlord and property owner. You want to find a property manager who is accountable. You want someone who embraces new technology and uses it to his or her advantage.
Smart phones, tablets, and other mobile devices can send alerts, update your calendar, let you know when rent deposits have been made, and give you all kinds of information to keep you in the know at a moments notice. You should at least expect this service from your property manager. If you are not getting this service from your property management company, then maybe its time to start shopping a new one.
Count The Cost in Time, Money, and Tenant Turnover
If your property manager can’t answer the phone when you call, what do you think is happening to your residents when they call the property manager in an emergency? If you can’t get through, they probably can’t either. This lack of communication leads to a whole host of other problems you will need to deal with down the road based. There is no excuse for poor communication from a property manager you have hired.
Poor communication costs money. If you are playing phone tag with the property manager, then those missed communications between contractors and other service professionals will absolutely cost more. Nothing could be worse than missing the change order on a renovation or maintenance call only to have your contractor have to do the job twice. That 2 min. phone call could have saved you hours on your bill from an expensive professional service contractor. A good idea is to run a test. Call your property manager with the simple request. Ask for a report or something that shouldn’t take too long for the property manager to put together for you. Track how long it takes for them to get back to you. Do they get back to you at all?
Obviously, property managers get busy. I know REALTOR who has a pretty simple way to deal with this situation. We work with this REALTOR all the time, and when she is in a meeting and can’t pick up the phone, she will at least text us back to let us know she is in a meeting. Then she gives us a time where she will contact us. It’s not too hard to do in today’s world of smart phones, e-mails, text, and all of the other cloud technology at our fingertips. Your residence shouldn’t have to wait on their property manager to make repairs. And you should not have to wait for your property manager to respond to you. After all, aren’t they the ones getting paid by you?
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Warmest regards,
Brian Lucier
Belaire Property Management
Regional Property Manager
(978) 448-0669
info@belaire.co
www.belaire.co
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