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In this article, we have identified 10 common property maintenance issues property management companies see, and more importantly, how to overcome these challenges in your own organization. Property maintenance is a historically under-optimized facet of property management. It affects resident satisfaction, investor churn, and the bottom line of your business. 

What is the meaning of Property Maintenance?

Property maintenance is the cornerstone of successful property management, serving as the bedrock upon which resident satisfaction, asset value, and operational efficiency are built. Within the dynamic landscape of property management, the significance of effective maintenance cannot be overstated. From ensuring the safety and comfort of residents to safeguarding the long-term viability of the property, proactive maintenance practices are integral to achieving the goals of a property management company. Property maintenance matters to property management companies, exploring its multifaceted impact on both short-term operations and long-term strategic objectives. Download our guide to overcoming the most common maintenance challenges

10 Most Common Maintenance Challenges

#1. Resident Reviews: Not Paying Attention to the Issues 

Neglecting resident reviews can be detrimental for a property management company on several fronts. Firstly, resident reviews serve as invaluable feedback channels, offering firsthand insights into: 

• Resident experiences
• Satisfaction levels
•  Areas for improvement. 

Ignoring these reviews means missing out on crucial opportunities to address concerns, enhance service quality, and foster positive resident relations. Candidly, online reviews wield significant influence over prospective residents’ decisions.  Disregarding negative reviews can tarnish the company’s reputation, leading to decreased occupancy rates and difficulty in attracting new residents. Actively engage with resident reviews to demonstrate their commitment to responsiveness, and accountability ultimately bolstering competitive edge and long-term success.

#2. Repair Speed: Thinking It Doesn’t Matter 

Property management companies should monitor their repair speeds for several compelling reasons. Timely repairs are essential for maintaining resident satisfaction and retention. By streamlining repair workflows and optimizing resource allocation, property management companies can enhance operational efficiency and reduce costs.  Additionally, tracking repair speeds facilitates compliance with legal obligations and industry standards regarding property maintenance timelines. Failure to meet these standards can result in penalties, lawsuits, and reputational damage. 

#3. Tracking Maintenance KPIs: Don’t Miss Monitoring this Issue

Property management companies must track property maintenance Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for several reasons. First, monitoring KPIs provides valuable insights into the effectiveness and efficiency of maintenance operations. Identify areas of improvement to enhance customer service, such as:

• Response times
• Resolution times
• Completion rates

Second, property maintenance KPIs enable companies to measure resident satisfaction and identify trends or patterns in maintenance requests. By analyzing data on recurring issues or high-priority repairs, companies can proactively address underlying problems, mitigate future issues, and enhance overall resident experience. Tracking maintenance KPIs allows property management companies to optimize resource allocation and budgeting. By identifying areas of high demand or frequent repairs, companies can: 

• allocate resources more effectively
• prioritize critical tasks, 
• budget accordingly, ultimately 
• maximize operational efficiency

#4. Communication: Poor engagement with Stakeholders

Property management companies prioritize effective communication with stakeholders regarding maintenance issues for several crucial reasons. 

1. Foster trust and transparency between the property management company and stakeholders, including property owners, residents, and vendors. By keeping stakeholders informed about maintenance issues, updates, and resolutions, companies demonstrate their commitment to accountability and responsiveness, enhancing overall satisfaction and trust.
2. Proper communication helps manage expectations and minimize misunderstandings. By providing accurate information about maintenance timelines, procedures, and potential disruptions, companies can mitigate frustration and dissatisfaction among residents and property owners.
3. Proactive communication regarding maintenance issues allows property management companies to address concerns promptly, before they escalate into more significant problems. Notifying stakeholders of maintenance issues and progress updates, companies can prevent potential conflicts, reduce the risk of property damage, and maintain the overall quality of the property.

Good communication enhances teamwork and problem-solving. When PMCs encourage open dialogue, they can gather input, tackle issues, and coordinate with property owners, residents, and vendors to resolve maintenance problems quickly and minimize disruptions.

#5. Maintenance Staff: Not properly maximizing the team

Several negative consequences may arise if PMCs fail in staffing efficiency: Decreased Resident Satisfaction: Insufficient staffing levels or ineffective utilization of maintenance personnel can lead to delays in addressing maintenance requests. This can result in resident dissatisfaction due to prolonged wait times for repairs, potentially leading to increased rental turnover and difficulty in attracting new residents.  Escalating Maintenance Costs: Inefficient use of maintenance staff may result in higher labor costs due to overtime payments, subcontractor expenses, or inefficiencies in task completion. Property Deterioration: Neglected maintenance tasks or delayed repairs can exacerbate property deterioration and reduce asset value over time. This can lead to higher expenses for major repairs or renovations in the future and negatively impact the property’s marketability. Damage to Reputation: Poor maintenance practices can tarnish the company’s reputation and brand image, leading to negative reviews, decreased retention, and difficulty in attracting new clients. Loss of Competitive Advantage: Property management companies that do not maximize their maintenance staff may struggle to compete effectively in the market. Competitors who prioritize efficient maintenance operations can offer better service quality, attract more clients, and gain a competitive edge.

#6. Being Reactive: Not Implementing Preventative Maintenance Programs

Property managers who neglect to establish preventative maintenance programs may see: Increased Risks of Breakdowns: Without regular maintenance, properties are more prone to unexpected breakdowns and failures in critical systems such as plumbing, HVAC, or electrical.  Decreased Property Value: Deferred maintenance can lead to a decline in property value over time.  Higher Costs: Reactive maintenance tends to be more expensive than preventative maintenance.  Long-Term Sustainability: Preventative maintenance programs help extend the lifespan of building systems and components, reducing the need for premature replacements.  In summary, property managers who do not establish preventative maintenance programs risk increased costs and decreased property value and compromise resident satisfaction, legal compliance, and long-term sustainability.

#7. Human Error: Spreadsheets to Track Turnovers: 

Property managers can benefit significantly from using maintenance software to track rental turnovers instead of relying solely on spreadsheets for several reasons: Improved Efficiency with Automation: Maintenance software automates many aspects of the turnover process, such as scheduling tasks, sending reminders, and generating reports. This streamlines operations, saves time, and reduces the likelihood of errors compared to manually updating spreadsheets. Data Management: Maintenance software provides a centralized platform for managing all turnover-related information, including work orders, vendor contacts, inspection reports, and maintenance histories.  Task Prioritization: Maintenance software often includes features for prioritizing tasks and assigning them to specific team members or vendors. This ensures that critical turnover activities, such as cleaning, repairs, and inspections, are completed promptly and efficiently. Integrations: Many maintenance software solutions integrate with other property management systems, such as accounting software, resident  portals, and maintenance request platforms. This integration facilitates seamless data sharing and workflow automation across multiple aspects of property management. Data Analysis: Maintenance software often includes reporting and analytics capabilities that allow property managers to analyze turnover trends, identify areas for improvement, and make data-driven decisions to optimize turnover processes and reduce vacancy periods.

#8. Manual Tasks Waste Time: Automate the Maintenance Process

Failing to automate the maintenance process can be a significant mistake for property managers. Manual maintenance processes are often time-consuming and prone to errors, leading to inefficiency and increased operational costs.  Automation facilitates better communication by providing centralized platforms for submitting requests, sending notifications, and documenting interactions, ultimately improving satisfaction. Additionally, manual processes increase the risk of overlooking critical compliance measures, leading to legal liabilities, fines, or safety hazards. Automated maintenance processes enable faster response times, proactive planning, and better communication, resulting in improved satisfaction levels and retention rates. 

#9. Social Media Engagement

Why should property management companies be engaged on social media?

• Provides an excellent opportunity for companies to increase their visibility and reach a broader audience. Property management companies can showcase their services, share valuable content, and connect with potential clients and renters.
• Allows property management companies to build and nurture relationships with their audience. This engagement fosters trust and credibility, which are essential for attracting and retaining clients.
• Offers valuable opportunities for marketing and advertising by using targeted advertising features on platforms like Facebook and Instagram to reach specific demographics and geographic location.

Overall, by being engaged on social media, property management companies can enhance their visibility, build relationships, showcase their expertise, stay informed, and leverage marketing opportunities.

#10. Failing to Specialize in Maintenance: Invest in dedicated property maintenance software

Failing to invest in dedicated property maintenance software can cause many issues in your process. For one, maintenance requests get lost in a sea of tasks. Without a designated property maintenance software work orders get lost, repair speeds are left to chance, and accurate maintenance data is non-existent.  Not using dedicated property maintenance software can lead to several consequences:

3. Inefficiency: Without specialized software, property maintenance tasks often rely on manual processes, spreadsheets, or basic software tools. This can lead to inefficiencies in scheduling, tracking, and managing maintenance tasks, resulting in wasted time and resources.
4. Poor Organization: Managing maintenance requests, work orders, vendor information, and property documentation manually can lead to disorganization. This can result in missed tasks, delayed repairs, and difficulty in accessing critical information when needed.
5. Communication Issues: Without dedicated software, communication between property managers, maintenance staff, residents, and vendors may be fragmented. This can lead to misunderstandings, delays in response times, and an overall lack of transparency in the maintenance process.
6.  Reduced resident satisfaction: Inadequate maintenance management can negatively impact resident satisfaction. Delayed repairs, lack of communication, and disorganized processes can lead to tenant frustration, complaints, and even increased turnover.

In summary, not using dedicated property maintenance software can result in inefficiency, disorganization, communication issues, compliance risks, reduced resident satisfaction, decreased property value, and missed opportunities for improvement. Investing in specialized software can help streamline maintenance operations, improve communication, and enhance overall property management efficiency. Download our guide to tackle these top 10 common maintenance issues to prevent them  in your maintenance process. Or book a demo with our team to see how Property Meld can help you solve these challenges. 

The post 10 Most Common Property Maintenance Issues and How to Prevent Them appeared first on Property Meld.

If you’ve ever asked yourself, how do I know when I have to add more people to my maintenance team? You’re not alone. Striking the right balance of team members to complete work efficiently without wasting resources is tricky. Without maintenance analytics to show you the light, it’s nearly impossible.

Property Meld’s Insights Pro Dashboard now offers a Coordinator Performance tab, enabling property managers to measure individual performance and optimize their maintenance teams efficiently.

Empower Your Maintenance Coordinators with Data

Larry, your maintenance coordinator, is struggling. His backlog is growing, and repairs are taking longer than he would like. Larry doesn’t have the data needed to help him identify where issues are occurring, so he feels stuck.

With Coordinator Performance Metrics, Larry and the rest of your team can see how they are performing and make strategic improvements based on data.

How Maintenance Coordinators Can Improve Communication

In the engagement section of Coordinator Metrics, you can track how much work your coordinators can handle while upholding a solid level of customer service—track Melds (work orders)  coordinated by each team member and their resident satisfaction scores. Additionally, ensure your coordinators deliver the right amount of communication by tracking the number of chats sent and received by each coordinator.

Improving Maintenance Scheduling Across Coordinators 

View all Melds scheduled by a particular coordinator and their statuses. These metrics allow you to see a breakdown of all open Melds and determine how long they have been available. View individual cycle times for all coordinators to see where bottlenecks may occur. Larry can use this data to determine if he is sending too much work to a particular vendor and which vendors complete work the fastest.

Gain Understanding into Staffing Challenges

One of the most common challenges in property management is determining how many coordinators you need to manage maintenance successfully. With our new Coordinator Performance Metrics, you can view all the units assigned to a particular coordinator and the number of work orders they have coordinated. These metrics can help you better understand your team’s capacity, especially if you manage properties in different locations or property classes, as maintenance demands will vary.

These metrics allow you to determine who is operating efficiently, how much they’re spending, and if they have too much volume or not enough.

You Can’t Move What You Can’t Measure

Property Meld’s Coordinator Performance Metrics empowers property management companies to make strategic improvements to see how much time is spent on coordination, if the maintenance backlog is increasing or improving, and to see the overall performance of your coordination team.

Armed with this robust data, your coordinators will no longer feel in the dark. They can make strategic changes to their process to increase efficiency and track improvements over time.

Contact us to see how you gain access to these industry-changing metrics. 

The post Empowering Maintenance Coordinators With Performance Based Metrics appeared first on Property Meld.

1. Faster Repairs:

Reactive maintenance processes often result in delayed repair speeds for residents. Without segmented cycle time tracking, identifying bottlenecks becomes challenging. However, specialized maintenance software allows for detailed monitoring of repair speed, scheduling efficiency, and work order management. Analyzing property maintenance data at a granular level facilitates the identification of inefficiencies and enables proactive improvement measures.

2. Predictable Maintenance Costs:

Predictable Maintenance Net Operating Income (NOI) is crucial for establishing trust with property investors. Failing to track maintenance metrics leads to a reactive maintenance approach, resulting in unexpected maintenance emergencies and increased costs. Property Meld offers comprehensive tracking of maintenance spending, allowing property managers to monitor expenses per unit, average spending per work order, and trends over time. This data empowers proactive cost management and helps prevent budget overruns.

3. Improved Resident and Owner Satisfaction:

Proactively addressing maintenance issues enhances trust and satisfaction among residents and property owners. A reactive maintenance process can strain these relationships due to prolonged repair times and increased emergency maintenance incidents. By monitoring resident satisfaction and maintenance spending, property managers can identify areas for improvement and implement predictive maintenance strategies. This not only fosters positive relationships but also reduces owner churn and maintains a stable income stream.

Schedule a demo with our team to discover how Property Meld revolutionizes maintenance management by providing insights into essential metrics and transforming your approach to property maintenance.

The post What Will Happen If you Don’t Track Maintenance Data? appeared first on Property Meld.

Property maintenance benchmarks measure the efficiency of property maintenance processes. These benchmarks serve as vital reference points, aiding property managers, owners, or maintenance coordinators in gauging the effectiveness of their operations. By tracking these benchmarks, a maintenance standard is established while simultaneously identifying areas for improvement.

Benchmarking is the process of harnessing data to establish a baseline level of performance. Determining industry standards for maintenance helps you compare how your organization is performing against others in the business. The difficulty of tracking maintenance benchmarks is gathering accurate, up-to-date maintenance data. Property management companies still relying on paper-based systems find it increasingly difficult to access objective, real-time property maintenance metrics.

How Can Maintenance Benchmarks Help Your Business?

Property maintenance benchmarks are essential to a successful property management company. Maintenance is one of the most unpredictable aspects of property management. Still, property management companies that can get more predictive with maintenance can retain owners and residents and lower maintenance costs.

The only way to improve the maintenance process is to identify where your strategy is inefficient. Without metrics illuminating those inefficiencies, property managers are left making assumptions about their approach that often don’t yield the right results. Property maintenance benchmarks show how others in your industry are performing. This data helps ensure your maintenance practices meet industry standards.

10 Reasons Why You Should Track Maintenance Benchmarks

Property maintenance benchmarks can offer several significant benefits to your property management company, helping you streamline operations, enhance efficiency, and improve overall performance.

Here’s how property maintenance benchmarks can be advantageous for your business:

1: Efficiency Improvement: Benchmarks highlight shortcomings and bottlenecks in your maintenance processes. This insight enables you to make targeted improvements, streamline workflows, and optimize resource allocation, ultimately leading to cost savings and enhanced productivity.

2: Goal Setting: Property maintenance benchmarks can serve as targets or goals for your business to strive towards. They provide a tangible, measurable framework for setting performance objectives and tracking progress.

3: Decision Making: Data-driven benchmarks offer valuable insights for making informed decisions. Whether allocating resources, prioritizing maintenance tasks, or implementing process changes, standards provide a solid foundation for strategic decision-making.

4: Quality Assurance: By adhering to property maintenance benchmarks, you ensure consistent and high-quality maintenance standards across your properties. This will improve resident satisfaction, reduce resident turnover, and enhance reputation.

5: Resident Satisfaction: Well-maintained properties contribute to higher resident satisfaction. Meeting or exceeding benchmarked standards will lead to happier residents who are more likely to renew leases and recommend your properties to others.

6: Resource Allocation: Benchmarks aid in optimizing the allocation of resources such as labor, materials, and budget. You can allocate resources where they are most needed and adjust your strategies based on benchmark performance.

7: Competitive Advantage: Implementing effective property maintenance practices based on benchmarks can give your business a competitive edge. Consistently well-maintained properties are more attractive to residents and potential buyers, setting your business apart in the market.

8: Long-Term Planning: Property maintenance benchmarks can guide long-term planning and capital expenditure decisions. By identifying areas that require substantial improvements, you can allocate resources strategically for major renovations or upgrades.

9: Accountability and Transparency: Benchmarks create a sense of responsibility within your maintenance teams and vendors. Clear standards help everyone understand expectations and contribute to a culture of transparency.

10: Continuous Improvement: Regular benchmarking fosters a culture of continuous improvement within your organization. As you track progress and adjust, you can raise the bar over time and consistently enhance your property maintenance practices.

In essence, property maintenance benchmarks provide a roadmap for achieving operational excellence, optimizing resources, and delivering superior property management services, all of which contribute to your business’s overall success and growth.

What Will Happen If You Don’t Track Benchmarks?

In an increasingly data-driven industry, paying attention to property maintenance benchmarks is crucial to stand out against competitors. Failing to track and pay attention to property maintenance benchmarks can cause adverse effects across your organization.

1: Resident Dissatisfaction and Increased Turnover

Second only to rent increases, maintenance issues are the top reason a resident leaves a property. If you aren’t tracking how your maintenance team performs against others in your industry, you may lose residents to other property management companies with a more efficient workflow. In addition, a negative maintenance experience directly correlates to poor online reviews. If your residents are unhappy and leave negative thoughts about your business, you will find it challenging to retain and attract new residents.

2: Owner Churn

Property Owners and investors hire a property manager because they want someone to take care of their properties while keeping costs to a minimum. If you spend too much on maintenance or have an inefficient maintenance team, your owners will grow dissatisfied with your work. Keeping track of maintenance benchmarks can help determine if you are in line with your competitors. Sharing this information with property owners is a great way to build trust and show transparency.

3: Losing Out to Your Competitors

There are over 296,000 property management companies in the US, so providing an experience that outrivals your competitors is crucial. This is especially true when it comes to maintenance. A streamlined, efficient maintenance process is the best way to retain residents and owners and showcase how your company stands out in your area. Tracking maintenance benchmarks allows you to see how others in your area are doing and ensure your team meets industry standards.

If you are interested in learning more about how Property Meld can help you track and compare your maintenance process to industry standards, schedule a demo with our team of maintenance advisors.

In the meantime, fill out the form to download our World Class Maintenance Benchmarks, containing key maintenance data points allowing you to see how the rest of the industry is performing. 

The post A Simple guide to Property Maintenance Benchmarking appeared first on Property Meld.

Regularly tracking and evaluating industry maintenance benchmarks can help property management companies make data-driven decisions to improve property management, reduce costs, enhance resident satisfaction, and see how they compare against their competitors.

According to IBISWorld, there are over 296,000 property management businesses in the United States. This means the competition is fierce and if property management companies are falling short with the industry, they will lose owners and residents to their competitors. Analyzing property maintenance benchmark data regularly is a great way to ensure your company is on track with others in your region.

Historically, the challenge in monitoring maintenance benchmarks has been the unavailability of relevant data.. With Property Meld Insights Pro, you can leverage an immense amount of maintenance data collection to provide world class, average, and mediocre, benchmarks for a variety of maintenance metrics. Property managers can view benchmark data by region to compare their metrics to their direct competitors.

What are Important Property Maintenance Benchmarks?

Property management companies have many different metrics they can track to determine the success of their maintenance process. Depending on your goals there may be specific metrics you want to pay closer attention to. The below list includes some of the most important metrics property management companies should be paying attention to.

Speed of Repair:

Measures how long a repair takes to complete from resident submission to invoicing. Property Meld data shows a world class speed of repair is 2.7 days.

Speed to Schedule:

Speed to schedule is the measure of how long it takes for a repair to be scheduled after it has been assigned to a vendor or technician. This is a measure of how effectively your team communicates and if you have any issues with scheduling efficiency. You should be scheduling work orders within hours, not days.

Speed to Assign:

This measures how long it takes for a work order to be assigned to a vendor or technician after it is submitted. Customers using Property Meld have a speed to assign of 0 because  our customers have set up automation to instantly assign work to the proper vendor or tech.

Technician Response Time:

Measures the speed at which technicians reply to messages from residents, maintenance coordinators, or the property manager. Tracking this metric helps identify if you have any communication issues.

Vendor Response Time:

Measure the speed at which your vendors reply to messages. This is a great way to track how your vendors are communicating and helps you identify your best vendors, or ones that may not be meeting your standards.

Average Vendor Invoice Costs:

The typical or standard amount a vendor charges for their services or supplies related to property upkeep and maintenance. This information can be useful for budgeting purposes, comparing quotes from different vendors, and identifying any significant deviations from the standard rates. Keep in mind this may vary based on the time of year, location, and the type of work being done.

Average Resident Satisfaction:

Average resident satisfaction measures how satisfied residents are with the maintenance work being done. This metric is extremely important because unhappy residents are more likely to move out. If your competitors have higher rates of resident satisfaction you may be losing residents to them.

Technician Utilization Rate:

Technician utilization rate is a comparison of how much work hours a technician logs, compared to their total hours. For example, if a technician works a 40 hour week and logs 32 hours of work, their utilization rate is 80%. This metric helps you measure the productivity of your internal technicians.

Owner Approval Response Time:

Many property management companies request owner approval for maintenance costs over a certain threshold. However, waiting on owner approval can slow down the repair process. Tracking this metric helps you determine if you have effective communication with your owners and investors.

Why is Benchmark Data Important?

Property maintenance benchmark data is important for several reasons:

1: Cost Analysis and Budgeting:

Benchmark data allows property owners, managers, and stakeholders to compare their property maintenance costs against industry standards or similar properties. It helps them identify areas where costs may be higher than average and make informed decisions about budget allocation and cost-saving measures.

2: Performance Evaluation:

By comparing maintenance metrics to industry benchmarks, property managers can assess the efficiency and effectiveness of their maintenance operations. They can identify areas that require improvement and set performance targets to enhance the overall maintenance experience.

3: Vendor Evaluation:

Benchmark data enables property owners and managers to evaluate the performance of their vendors. They can determine if the costs charged by vendors align with industry averages and if the level of service provided meets or exceeds expectations.

4: Identifying Opportunities for Efficiency:

Benchmarking allows property managers to identify opportunities for operational efficiency. They can learn from best practices in the industry, adopt innovative maintenance techniques, and streamline processes to reduce costs and improve service quality.

5: Data-Driven Decision Making:

Monitoring benchmark data enables data-driven decision-making in property maintenance. It helps avoid making decisions based on assumptions and ensures that choices are based on real data and industry standards.

6: Trend Identification:

Analyzing benchmark data over time can reveal trends in property maintenance costs, service quality, and industry standards. This information is valuable for long-term strategic planning and forecasting.

7: Performance Incentives:

In some cases, property maintenance benchmark data can be used to create performance incentive programs for maintenance staff or vendors. By setting goals based on industry benchmarks, managers can reward outstanding performance and motivate their maintenance team members to excel.

Overall, property maintenance benchmark data serves as a valuable tool for property managers to optimize maintenance operations, control costs, improve service quality, and enhance overall property management efficiency. It empowers them to make informed decisions that positively impact the property’s value, resident satisfaction, and the return on investment (ROI). It also helps property managers make a case to their property owners to back up their buying decisions with facts.

How Can You Measure Your Efficiency?

Some of the top property management companies can measure their maintenance efficiency by implementing various performance metrics and tracking key indicators. Here are some methods they can use:

1: Response Time:

Measure the time it takes for maintenance requests to be addressed and completed. Shorter response times indicate more efficient maintenance operations.

2: Repair Speed:

Track the time it takes to resolve maintenance issues from the moment they are reported to the point of completion. As we mentioned above, a world class repair speed is considered 2.7 days.

3: Number of Trips per work order:

Monitor the percentage of maintenance issues that are resolved on the first visit by maintenance staff. If your maintenance team is making multiple trips to resolve one maintenance issue, you are losing money and repair speeds will increase.

4: Preventive vs. Reactive Maintenance:

Measure the ratio of preventive maintenance tasks (scheduled maintenance to prevent issues) to reactive maintenance tasks (addressing issues after they occur). A higher percentage of preventive maintenance suggests a proactive and efficient approach.

5: Work Order Backlog:

Track the number of open work orders at any given time. A low backlog indicates efficient workflow management and timely task completion.

6: Resident Satisfaction:

Conduct regular resident surveys to gauge satisfaction with maintenance services. Higher resident satisfaction scores indicate efficient and satisfactory maintenance support.

7: Jobs per Day:

Measure the number of maintenance tasks or work orders completed per maintenance staff member on a daily basis. Higher productivity levels signal greater efficiency.

8: Vendor Performance:

Evaluate the performance of external vendors or contractors who provide maintenance services. Assess factors such as response times, resolution times, and customer feedback to ensure efficient vendor partnerships.

9: Cost per Work Order:

Calculate the average cost of completing a single maintenance work order. Tracking this metric over time helps identify cost trends and inefficiencies.

Efficient maintenance operations not only helps you improve your bottom line, but has a direct impact on your resident and owner churn.

How is Benchmark Data Calculated?

Using the data we have captured over the last 8 years from leading property managers in our platform, we have identified industry trends and created world class, average, and mediocre benchmarks for a variety of key areas. Customers on our platform have the ability to see their maintenance on an incredibly granular level to identify where inefficiencies are occurring. Customers can compare their data to others in their region to see how they stack up against their competitors utilizing Insights Pro.

If you are interested in learning more about how Property Meld can help you track and compare your maintenance data to industry standards, schedule a demo with our team of maintenance advisors. 

In the meantime, fill out the form to download our World Class Maintenance Benchmarks, containing key maintenance data points allowing you to see how the rest of the industry is performing.

Download World Class Maintenance Benchmarks

The post Property Maintenance Benchmarks to Monitor Efficiency appeared first on Property Meld.

1- Speed of Repair Will Increase

Numerous property managers currently monitor their repair speed either through manual methods or with the help of maintenance software. Nevertheless, the majority of these approaches lack the capability for property managers or maintenance coordinators to analyze each phase of the repair process and identify areas of inefficiency within their operations. With over 6,000 work orders in our platform completed each day, Property Meld data determines a world-class repair speed of just 2.7 days. If on average it takes your team a day to schedule work orders to a vendor, there is no way you will be able to reach those world-class benchmarks. To achieve proper scheduling efficiency, you must assign work orders in minutes, schedule them in hours, and complete the repair in days. Failing to do this will lead to longer-than-average repair speeds. From your overall speed of repair to assign to schedule and schedule to completion, you can view key metrics in real-time with Insights by Property Meld. This granular reporting allows you to determine which part of your process is inefficient and make strategic changes to improve speed. Without this visibility, you are left guessing and making changes that may not be tackling the root of the problem.

2- Maintenance Costs are Unpredictable 

One of the most significant pain points surrounding maintenance is the cost due to its unpredictability. Insights allows you to track your average maintenance spend per unit and compare your costs to historical time frames to see how prices have decreased or increased. This allows you to find trends to identify what time of year maintenance is more costly. Having this insight can help improve your bottom line by scheduling maintenance when repair costs are lower and avoid expensive maintenance emergencies. Keeping your maintenance spend low is imperative to the success of your organization. Property managers who fail to track this metric may lose owners due to costly owner statements. In addition, this visibility into spend allows you to be predictable. Establishing effective communication with property owners prior to them encountering costly maintenance expenses on their owner statements is the most effective approach to fostering strong and enduring relationships.

3- Residents and Owners Grow Dissatisfied 

As we mentioned, without visibility into your maintenance process, property managers cannot analyze their process and determine where issues occur. But what are the consequences of this? First, being unable to track the maintenance process from start to finish can lead to increased backlogged work orders and a high repair speed. Both of these things will wreak havoc on resident satisfaction. 31% of residents report the reason they left a property was due to maintenance issues. Failing to analyze your process strategically will lead to a higher resident turnover rate. If you start losing residents at higher rates than average, your property owners aren’t going to trust that you can manage their properties properly and may end up working with a competitor instead. With Insights’ visibility, property managers can see every aspect of the maintenance process, including measuring resident satisfaction. This data tool is the first of its kind to the industry, allowing property managers to make data-driven decisions that bring about positive organizational change.

To see insights in action, schedule a demo with our team and see why Property Meld is the new standard for property maintenance.

The post What Will Happen If You Don’t Have Insights appeared first on Property Meld.

However, for those who don’t have a grasp on what to track or which maintenance metrics are essential, Insights can be overwhelming. To understand why Insights is so revolutionary, you must first understand how data can influence your process and help you optimize.

To help, we have identified which metrics on the Insights dashboard match with specific steps on the Ladder of Maintenance Excellence. The power of Insights and the Ladder of Maintenance Excellence will help you gain a deeper understanding of the importance of maintenance analytics and how they can help you achieve excellence in maintenance.

Step One: Effective Communication

Communication is essential for a property maintenance process; without an effective communication model, your maintenance process will fall apart. This is why you’ll find effective communication as the foundation of the Ladder. Achieving effective communication ensures that all players involved in the maintenance process know what is going on and can participate. In other words, every individual in the process should know what is happening and when to engage.

There are two main data awareness points that you should keep in mind when trying to achieve effective communication.

1. The property management company knows all communication
2. All parties are aware of the communication

Insights has a few essential metrics to track when determining if you have achieved effective communication. The Insights dashboard breaks up metrics based on the step of the ladder they are associated with.

Step Two: Scheduling Efficiency

The second step on the Ladder of Maintenance Excellence is scheduling efficiency. Achieving scheduling efficiency means having the right resources in the right place and at the right time. Scheduling efficiency is not always about being the fastest but ensuring you assign the right vendor or technician to the job quickly at a time that works for your resident. Improving scheduling efficiency leads to higher resident satisfaction and means you can increase your output without increasing your resources, positively impacting your bottom line.

There are a few data points to keep in mind when analyzing your scheduling efficiency.

1. Jobs/day
2. Speed to Schedule
3. Speed of Repair
4. Segmented Cycle Times

These metrics can be found in Property Meld’s Insight dashboard and more in-depth metrics of scheduling efficiency, such as the number of Melds open longer than 7 or 14 days. This can help you determine if you have a high amount of backlog and identify what may be causing it.

Step Three: Staffing Efficiency

You will be able to tackle staffing efficiency once you have mastered effective communication and scheduling efficiency. Staffing efficiency helps you measure the output of your maintenance team and determine if you have the right size team to keep up with the number of maintenance requests you receive. Ensuring you have the right amount of team members is crucial to maintaining a healthy speed of repair.

To measure your staffing efficiency, keep an eye on these metrics.

1. Jobs/day
2. Coordinator Throughput
3. Technician Utilization Rate
4. Vendor Throughput
5. Work orders created versus closed

Insights allows you to see how many Melds have been created versus closed in a specific time range. This enables you to determine if you have a backlog or if your staff can effectively and efficiently complete the assigned work.

As we get further in the Ladder of Maintenance Excellence in The Maintenance Minute, look for a part two of this article!

The post How Property Meld Insights Can Help you Achieve Maintenance Excellence appeared first on Property Meld.

In this episode of Tech Tuesday, Hespen shared the importance of maintenance analytics, the Ladder of Maintenance Excellence, leading vs. lagging indicators, and a sneak peek into Property Meld’s new Insights tool.

Watch the Episode

Why Does Maintenance Matter?

Property maintenance is the most controllable yet least optimized property management expense. Many property management companies overlook the opportunity to lower maintenance costs and even utilize maintenance as a tool for revenue generation. Property maintenance is not only necessary but can significantly impact your ROI. In addition, maintenance has a significant effect on lease renewals and owner retention. Below are some data points illustrating this:

• 31% of residents say maintenance is the reason they left a property
• Property management companies have less than a 1% chance of receiving a positive resident review if a work order takes more than 5.5 days to complete
• Greater than 12% in maintenance costs versus rent roll is when investors will leave their property manage

Principles in The Ladder of Maintenance Excellence

If you haven’t discovered the Ladder of Maintenance Excellence, we highly recommend subscribing to the Maintenance Minute for an in-depth understanding of how to solve each step on the maintenance ladder. The ladder outlines the most critical aspects of the maintenance process. It highlights what issues need to be solved first and in what order to achieve maintenance excellence. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs inspires the ladder. Maslow’s theory states that our actions are motivated by particular physiological and psychological needs that progress from basic to complex. Our Ladder of Maintenance Excellence is similar, outlining the steps to achieve Maintenance Excellence, from effective communication to achieving a predictable NOI. This article breaks down the Maintenance Ladder step-by-step.

You Can’t Move What You Don’t Track 

Without visibility into your maintenance process, determining what changes to make is difficult. It’s like saying, “I want to stop spending so much money,” without looking at your bank account to determine where you’re spending the most. Property Meld likes to break this into two groups. Those who are utilizing data to catch issues by observing indicators and those that make changes by escalation after something goes wrong.

Many in the industry are currently catching process issues by escalation. Examples of this could be an angry email from a resident, a negative online review, or losing your property owners. If you only decide to make a change after these things happen, you are being reactive with your process, and it will be difficult to sustain or improve with this mentality.

The more innovative way to manage maintenance is to catch significant problems early. Suppose you start seeing longer than average repair speeds, or your technician utilization rate drops. In that case, this allows you to catch problems by indication and implement changes before something escalates into a bigger issue.

Leading Vs. Lagging Indicators

A leading indicator is a predictive measure that foreshadows an event or outcome, whereas a lagging indicator looks back at whether the intended result was achieved. For example, imagine you’re driving on the highway and the speed limit is 40 mph. You look at your speedometer to ensure you’re following the limit. Your speedometer is a leading indicator telling you how fast you are driving, which is a prediction into if you’ll be receiving a speeding ticket. So if your speedometer is a leading indicator, the speeding ticket is the lagging indicator.

In property maintenance, there are many leading and lagging indicators. Speed of repair is a leading indicator of your resident satisfaction. Maintenance spend per unit is a leading indicator of owner retention. However, in some cases, leading indicators may become lagging indicators. Take resident satisfaction, for example. Resident satisfaction is a lagging indicator of your repair speed but a leading indicator of your online reviews.

How Can You Measure These Indicators?

Property Meld’s new Insights dashboard is the first in-depth, real-time data tool visible for property management companies thus far.

Insights allows property managers to gain unparalleled insight into their maintenance process to begin catching by indicators.  With visibility like never before, property managers can start making decisions that are data-driven instead of guessing.

“Rent Manager is one of the pioneers of integrating the marketplace and the reason why we are one of their most popular integrations is because everything maintenance related is automatically updated in Rent Manager in real-time. So you get all the benefits of Property Meld, but you are able to see everything in Rent Manager.”

To see a customized demonstration of this industry-changing product, fill out the form below to speak with our team.

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For property management companies looking to improve their maintenance oversight, understanding and tracking these metrics is a great starting point. While there are numerous metrics to consider, the following five are essential for gaining a comprehensive view of your property maintenance performance.

Our new Insights dashboard offers property managers full visibility into their maintenance processes, enabling data-driven decisions that enhance overall management.

1. Speed of Repair

Speed of Repair measures the time it takes to complete a work order from the moment a resident submits it to when the issue is resolved. This metric is vital because quick response times demonstrate a commitment to resident satisfaction, foster positive relationships, and reduce turnover. Additionally, timely repairs prevent minor issues from escalating into major problems, which could lead to costly repairs and further property damage.

2. Resident Satisfaction

Although Resident Satisfaction is not a direct maintenance metric, it is a crucial indicator of your overall maintenance effectiveness. Collecting feedback from residents about their maintenance experiences provides valuable insights into the quality of service you deliver. High resident satisfaction not only improves retention but also helps maintain a low turnover rate. Ensuring that your residents are happy with maintenance services is key to achieving long-term success.

3. Technician Utilization Rate

Technician Utilization Rate measures how effectively your maintenance technicians use their time. This metric calculates the percentage of time spent on actual maintenance tasks versus total available working hours. A high utilization rate indicates efficient and productive use of resources, while a low rate may reveal inefficiencies or underutilization. Monitoring this metric helps you optimize technician performance and identify areas for improvement.

4. Work Order Completion Rate

Work Order Completion Rate tracks the percentage of work orders completed within a specified time frame. This metric is particularly useful for assessing and improving your speed of repair. Setting and monitoring goals for work order completion helps ensure that repairs are handled promptly. A high completion rate reflects effective workflow management and a streamlined maintenance process. Conversely, struggling to meet goals may highlight the need for additional staff training or process adjustments.

5. Response Time

Response Time measures the duration between receiving a maintenance request and the initial response from maintenance personnel. A shorter response time indicates efficient communication and a proactive approach to addressing issues. Faster responses enhance resident satisfaction, as they feel their concerns are being addressed promptly. With maintenance software like Property Meld, you can automate responses to work orders, ensuring residents receive timely updates without requiring manual intervention from your team.

Enhance Your Maintenance Operations

Tracking these important maintenance metrics will provide you with valuable insights into your property management processes. If you’re looking for a comprehensive solution to oversee your maintenance operations, schedule a demo with our team to explore how our automated maintenance dashboard can transform your management strategy.

If you are interested in an automated maintenance dashboard that provides full oversight into your business’s maintenance process, schedule a demo with our team today. 

The post The 5 Most Important Maintenance Metrics for Effective Property Management appeared first on Property Meld.

The majority of property management companies employ two types of maintenance personnel: in-house maintenance technicians and external third-party vendors. Maintenance technicians are typically salaried employees who only complete jobs for your properties. A third-party vendor or contractor is someone that you hire on a per-job basis based on their speciality. Property management companies can be made up of both internal maintenance technicians and third-party vendors, and there are benefits to both maintenance structures.

Whether you are utilizing third-party vendors or an internal team, ensuring their efficiency is crucial to the success of your property management company. Tracking key metrics related to maintenance performance is the best way to identify any problem areas in your maintenance process or opportunities to optimize your team.

Before you can begin tracking metrics related to maintenance performance, you have to understand scheduling efficiency and staffing efficiency at a deeper level.

For more insights on scheduling efficiency, staffing efficiency, and other aspects of the Ladder of Maintenance Excellence, subscribe to the Maintenance Minute.

Scheduling Efficiency Versus Staffing Efficiency:

Your scheduling efficiency refers to the speed at which you can complete a task. When a work order is received, how promptly can your team schedule it with an appropriate vendor or internal technician, and arrange a time for the repair to be completed with the resident? On the other hand, staffing efficiency determines if you have the right-sized team to handle the number of work orders you receive on time.

Imagine arriving at an auto shop to get an oil change for your car. If there are 30 technicians working on 15-minute oil changes simultaneously, they may be very efficient, but we understand that may not be a profitable business model. So even though they can get the job done quickly, they don’t have the right amount of people working for the demand of the job. That is the critical difference between scheduling and staffing efficiency. Scheduling efficiency refers to how fast you can get a job done. While staffing efficiency is determining how many team members you need to get the job done promptly.

Now that you have a better understanding of what maintenance performance means, we will go over what metrics you should track to determine the performance of your maintenance team.

Technician Utilization Rate:

Technician utilization rate is a metric used to measure the productivity and efficiency of your internal maintenance technicians. The technician utilization rate represents the amount of time a technician spends on billable work compared to their total available working hours. This helps you measure your technicians’ effectiveness and how much of their day is spent on tasks that directly contribute to your bottom line. For example, most salaried employees work 40 hours a week. If your maintenance technician spends 30 hours on billable tasks, you can calculate their utilization rate as follows.

Utilization Rate = (Billable or Productive Hours / Total Available Hours) x 100

(30/40) X 100 = 75%

Jobs Per Day:

Jobs per day are simple; it measures how many appointments a maintenance technician can complete in one day. However, to determine if there is a problem with your staffing efficiency, you have to track both jobs per day and your utilization rate. If you don’t follow both of these metrics, you will have significant blind spots in your process and struggle to find how to improve. For example, if you have a technician who is only taking on quick, easy jobs but you aren’t sure how they’re spending the majority of their day, time may be wasted even though their jobs per day are healthy.

On the other hand, if it takes a maintenance technician four hours to complete a repair, that should only take two; their technician utilization rate may be reasonable, but in reality, they aren’t working efficiently. Tracking these two metrics together will help you catch inefficiencies with your internal maintenance team.

Speed of Repair:

Lastly, if you want to track your scheduling and staffing efficiency, you should closely monitor your repair speed. Speed of repair measures how long a work order takes to complete from the time a resident submits it. At Property Meld, we prefer to divide the speed of the repair process into various segments.. This lets you visualize which part of the maintenance process takes the longest. Maybe your team struggles with assigning the right maintenance person or vendor to a task promptly. Or it might take a while to schedule a time with the resident for the repair to be completed. This is why we divide the speed of repair into rate to assign, speed to schedule, and speed to invoice.

Schedule a demo with our team to see how you can improve your metrics and your maintenance process.

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