May 14, 2019 · 6 min read
Laggard Property Manager at 100 Idler Lane
Chris wakes up to many emails and voicemails notifying him that there is a problem at his building. Overnight a pipe burst due to the renovation and construction they are doing in their lobby. Chris starts off his day immediately flustered.
Modern Property Manager at 100 Performance Blvd.
Jennie wakes up to a notification that overnight a pipe burst due to construction. The property management software and processes she has in place to effectively fix these problems allow her to remain calm knowing that it will be dealt with efficiently.
Chris doesn’t have access to the contacts he needs to properly handle the issue. He must wait until he arrives at the office to manage it. Additionally, he isn’t able to notify tenants of the problem in a timely manner. 
Jennie opens her mobile app to get the contact for the engineer on duty to get an update. She learns the engineer has already put in a work order in the system to fix the issue. She is also able to notify tenants through her mobile device of the problem, so they know this before they arrive at the building. 
Chris is just beginning to truly manage the issue. He calls his engineers, puts in a work order, and finally notifies tenants (although many have already arrived at the building and are unhappy about the unexpected inconvenience). 
Jennie arrives at the building and finds that they are already working on fixing the burst pipe. She feels confident because she knows who is on site and that the work will be completed by a specific time. Additioanlly, she is self-assured knowing that her tenants have already been communicated with prior to their arrival. 
Chris is flustered from the chaos the morning incident has caused. He now rushes back to his office to call all vendors and engineers to see where they stand with the work orders assigned to them. 
Now that the issue from this morning is under control, Jennie looks through the status of work orders for vendors and engineers. This allows her to proactively find any work orders that may be overdue or unfinished. 
Chris calls everyone to a meeting to ask for an updated on the morning incident. He doesn’t have much information or the data he needs to conduct this meeting efficiently and in an organized manner. He gets a few updates and writes down to–dos that he will have to follow up on via email or phone. 
Jennie has a check-in meeting with her staff to see the status of work orders associated with the morning incident. She uses her property management software to see a summary of work orders that relate to the specific incident. She then goes through the list of work orders and confirms that the information in the system is correct. 
Chris goes back to his desk to dig through work orders that have been sent via email and phone calls. He has to manually document these work orders to ensure follow up will be completed. 
Jennie uses this time to walk around and meet with tenants to help build better relationships with them. Updating them about the morning incident armed with data around any work order the tenant submitted concerning the incident. 
Chris has gone down to the lobby to check in on the progress of the incident from the morning to ensure everything is being handled properly. Now he returns to his desk to continue to field work requests and manually dispatch them by email, phone, and radio. 
After lunch, Jennie receives a notification to her mobile phone concerning an overdue work order from one of her marquee tenants. The work was scheduled to be completed within a three-hour window in the morning and has not been acknowledged yet.
First, Jennie checks in with the engineering team from her mobile device to get information about the work order. Then she goes to speak with the tenant to ensure they are not aggravated.
Chris is just finding out that there was an overdue work order that slipped past his radar this morning. Because the tenant wasn’t followed up with proactively, his marquee tenant is extremely agitated. Chris reactively calls the engineering team and has them follow up right away.
Now Chris must follow up on multiple emails from angry tenants that were affected by the issue the work order pertained to.
Jennie receives a notification to her mobile device that the work was completed. This affords Jennie time to have a face to face conversation with her main point of contact at the marquee tenant. She then checks her property management software to ensure a notification was sent to her tenant as well. 
Chris is finishing up the work order that caused chaos for his team. Now he sits down to manually summarize and report on what happened that day. He also spends this time following up on emails or other complaints he may have missed during the day. 
Jennie checks up on any lingering work the needs to be completed. She also looks at her dashboard to get an idea of which work orders for the next day are a priority to ensure there is appropriate staffing. 
Chris is just leaving work after a stressful day with a headache. 
Because Jennie has the right tools to be able to manage her property with confidence, she is able to go home at a reasonable time. She enjoys spending time with her family. 
Chris is trying to sleep but has a lot of unfinished tasks that he knows he has to follow up on tomorrow. 
Jennie gets a restful night sleeping knowing she is prepared to take on whatever is thrown her way tomorrow. Building Engines has helped hundreds of CRE properties transistion from paper based processes and legacy systems to modern property management software, enabling them to improve tenant satisfaction and operational efficiency. Find out how we can help you.
