BH Management Improves Communication & Efficiency

The Challenge: Communication lacking between service teams, leasing teams and residents

When Robbie Parker, BH Management's Director of Facilities was tasked with getting to the root of dissatisfaction between service teams, residents and leasing teams, he decided it was time for some procedural updates.

After over 35 years in maintenance himself, Parker acknowledged that multifamily maintenance still involves “fixing things, correcting things and learning things,” but he also pointed out that today’s market is all about “reputation and reputation management.”

“If a customer reaches out about a problem and you can respond within five minutes with an apology and a solution, they’re probably going to remain loyal to your brand," Parker said.

Parker believed that, when it came to customer service, BH Management’s maintenance and leasing teams were at a disadvantage because they lacked a workflow platform that promotes the free flow of information between themselves and residents.

From ineffectual to proactive

“Previously, a resident would call into the leasing office, and someone who knew nothing about maintenance was taking down notes and entering what they could,” Parker said. “You might be able to read their handwriting, but sometimes you couldn’t. Their notes might not always be accurate. There was a lot of confusion, which led to a lot of backtracking to the shop to get additional parts or tools, which created inefficiencies all the way around.”

Parker wanted to provide BH’s service teams with a work-management interface that allowed them to maintain a line of real-time communication with residents—something that could help staff not only deliver maintenance updates but also express empathy and understanding.

“In the world of multifamily maintenance, the tasks and the physical work haven’t changed much over the past three decades—keeping up with the evolving demands in communication and customer service has been the challenge,” Parker said. “The ability to communicate in real-time with a resident, even if it’s just to say, ‘I got your request and I can’t get to it right now, but I can get to it this afternoon,’ is priceless if it’s used correctly.”

The Solution: SmartRent’s Work Management improves service operations—and much more

To help streamline communications and organize workflow, BH Management implemented SmartRent’s Work Management solution. At first, it was used strictly for service requests; but it worked so well, BH service teams quickly extended their use of Work Management to other operations.

“We’ve expanded SmartRent solutions into inspections, risk inspections, preventive maintenance, and now we’re getting into asset tracking,” Parker said. “We’re moving in so many different directions and making enhancements because of SmartRent.”

Parker noted that maintenance team members were quick to embrace the new technology.

“Believe it or not, we still had guys out there with flip phones!” he said. But (our team) made the transition, took up the technology, and they love it.”

The Result: SmartRent’s Work Management improves communication, reduces inefficiencies

After the initial wave of success with Work Management, BH implemented the solution across its entire portfolio.
The results? In its 330 properties across 28 states, BH reduced maintenance-task close times by an average of 30%, and its technicians completed, on average, three or more tasks per day.

Providing smart service in a crisis

When the COVID-19 health crisis emerged, BH service teams developed a weekly SMS bulletin through Work Management that allowed maintenance teams to issue notifications and updates to residents.

The success of the Work Management was immediately evident following the first two resident bulletin distributions.

Resident relations have continually improved due to advanced communications capabilities through Work Management, and the platform has created important efficiencies, as well.

“With the ability to listen to people and have that conversation through the SmartRent app, even being able to pre-diagnose things by asking simple questions, you know which tools to take with you on the job,” Parker said. “Especially [during COVID-19] and the new protocols, you didn’t want to take a full tool bag into an apartment. You only wanted to take the tools that were necessary to do the job because you had to disinfect them.”

Easy task prioritization

While BH prioritized emergency tasks during the pandemic, the Work Management platform also allowed service teams to detect the urgency in resident requests.

“With the voicemail feature, you can actually listen to the resident and learn a lot from that conversation,” Parker noted. “As a customer service point, we can hear the urgency in their voice, and their stress level. Their situation may not constitute an emergency as far as we’re concerned, but we can get back to them and offer reassurance. That functionality is priceless.”

The resident descriptions, notes and even photos available via Work Management allow BH service managers to assign maintenance tasks based on associate skill sets, which Parker said has saved time and improved the overall quality of work performed.

What SmartRent Work Management does for BH Management

Work Management makes the BH Management team’s job easier by offering the following:

• Easy communication: Team members and residents can connect seamlessly via voice, SMS, email or push notification.
• Easy-to-use workflow platform, which is available on iOS and Android for mobile and tablet devices.
• Elimination of duplicated efforts through the use of flexible virtual workspaces.
• Improved efficiencies, resulting in improved customer service, revenue collections rates and reduced payment delinquencies.
• Advanced reporting using filters and easily exportable data into third-party tools for deeper analysis

The BH Management team’s favorite product features: Resident communication, voicemail

Expectations exceeded

The ability to manage multiple areas of operation through a single platform has also lessened training time for the BH Team, according to Parker.

“Any time you throw in a platform for move-ins, a different one for accounting, ops, etc., that just means more training and more confusion,” Parker said. “Anything we can consolidate and put into one workflow platform reduces our required training and inefficiencies.”

While Parker can’t assign a monetary value to the efficiencies created through SmartRent’s solutions, he believes the greatest benefit shows up in customer service.

“How do you put a dollar value on customer service, reputation management and building your brand?” Parker asked. “What’s more important to me is those intangibles and the relationships we’re able to build with the residents through the SmartRent platform, through that communication.

“I want to lead the industry in terms of customer service, and I’m proud to work for a company that values technology. When I’m talking with other companies, I push SmartRent every chance that I have. I want the world to know about SmartRent.”