Property managers function as an interface between the property owners and the tenants by providing crucial services to property owners, for residential or commercial properties. They serve as a building maintenance coordinators, leasing agents, and complaint department. A property manager must be available 24/7. Instead of hiring additional staff to do this round the clock, you would be much better working with a property management answering service.
A reliable and professional call answering service ensures that whenever clients contact your office, they speak to a live person. You will always be there to handle all the needs of your existing and prospective clients. A call answering service gives your clients the confidence that they can always reach you whenever they call. This helps build strong customer service, thus building your services and reputation.
Benefits Of A Property Management Answering Service
Your property management company will reap many benefits from hiring a call answering service:
Helps You Manage Tenant Expectations
Property managers play crucial roles, including sales consultants, maintenance coordinators, rent collections, and handling tenants' complaints. These demands never arrive in an orderly sequence. Instead, they pile up when you least expect, even at odd hours or on holidays and weekends. Many tasks will pop up at once, all demanding your attention. It can be challenging to allocate time to all the tasks, which could negatively impact your customer service. An answering service will lighten your load in many ways and leave you ample time to attend to tasks that need your personalized attention:
- A call answering agent can handle your incoming calls as you attend to other pressing needs.
- An answering service will keep your property management business running while you attend to other matters and even after work hours. A call agent will schedule showings for you, give information to potential tenants, and dispatch maintenance personnel.
- A call agent will handle all calls according to your instructions. Therefore, you can be confident that the agent will comply with all your established processes.
Handling Maintenance Issues
There are two main categories of maintenance issues:
- Emergency maintenance
- Routine maintenance
Emergency maintenance issues are urgent, requiring immediate attention. Emergency issues include water leaks, no heat, or faulty air conditioning while routine maintenance issues include a faulty electrical outlet, cracked window, or a broken light fixture. You should ensure that you communicate to the call-answering agent on how to categorize maintenance issues. For example, a broken toilet would be an emergency in a one-bathroom apartment. In contrast, in a two-bathroom apartment, a broken toilet may be a routine maintenance issue whereby the repair can wait until the following day. After you categorize maintenance issues under routine and emergency categories, your property management answering service will apply these criteria when handling clients' calls to help them determine the right action to take.
The call agents will contact your maintenance personnel for emergency maintenance issues and arrange a repair. For routine maintenance issues, the agent will take all the necessary information from the tenant and deliver the information to you on the following business day. An answering service enables you to pay attention to all maintenance issues. It also signals to your clients that you care about them. Furthermore, the tenants will be assured that help is available whenever they need it. They can call whenever they want to, whether on a weekday, during the day, at night, on weekends, or even on holidays.
A Property Answering Is Available At All Times
With a reliable answering service, your tenants will never suffer even when you are sick and when your team is short-staffed. Your answering service will always provide the backup you need. They will offer unmatched customer service to your clients, whether you are available or not. The productivity of your staff might suffer, especially during vacation, sick days, or other time off. However, your tenants should not realize any change or experience a decline in service.
Your answering service will stand in for you during these times, taking calls from your existing and prospective clients. You can count on the answering service to support you regardless of what is happening in your office, your staffing levels, and the number of issues you are trying to handle at a time.
Handling Your After-Hour Calls
You probably do most of your property management work during regular work hours. However, tenants and potential tenants do not just call your office during working hours. Space availability calls or requests for leasing information often come in after work hours for commercial and residential properties. There is a good chance that you won’t be in the office when these calls come in. This is where a property management answering service comes in.
An answering service is more like an extension of your regular work hours. They can answer basic questions about the property and space availability. Some of this information will be on your website. However, not all clients will go through your website to find it. Most of them will prefer to call your office directly. When the answering agent provides this information to tenants, they will feel valued and get the impression that you care. The prospects will then decide whether they are interested in the property or not. You will have a chance to focus on positive leads and avoid being sidetracked by phone calls that may not amount to a business.
Helping You Close on Sales
In addition to providing basic information about your property, property management answering services also go a long way in helping you close on sales. A call agent will help you schedule property showings depending on your availability and preferences. A call agent will also help you cancel showings for tenants who are no longer interested in a property. This will help you save time and improve your efficiency.
Why Property Management Answering Services
Property management answering services can help any property management company thrive. Whether your callers are existing tenants or potential new clients, a property management company is an ideal addition to your business. In property management, every call matters. A call could be anything from a tenant emergency to your next big lease. That is why every call should be answered by a well-trained agent dedicated to providing an excellent and professional phone experience. You can choose from a wide range of message delivery, scripting, and account management options to customize the answering service to meet the unique needs of your business. By hiring a professional answering service, you can count on:
- Highly-trained personnel
- Afterhour or overflow call answering services
- Live receptionists
- 100% US-based answering services
- Email response management
- Call patching and paging
- Bilingual answering services
Signs That You Are Ready For Property Management Answering Services
If you notice any of these signs, it is an indicator that you should seriously consider partnering with a property management answering service:
Your In-house Staff Are Overwhelmed
An overwhelmed staff is the first and the most obvious sign that you need an answering service. Perhaps you started your business on a tight budget, and for a long time, the weight has been on the shoulders of your in-house team. The last thing you would want is to continue overwhelming your team or burning them out with endless phone calls. You will have an agency managing all your phone calls and maintaining the highest quality standard with a call answering service. Hiring a call answering service is more appealing and productive than hiring additional staff.
You Are Receiving Messages At Night Or On Weekends
Just because your property management business runs from 9 to 5 does not mean that your clients will stop contacting you until you are available on the next business day. You might notice that clients call your business after hours and leave messages with their questions and concerns. Most callers do not leave voice mails because they assume they will not be heard. Therefore, not having an answering service could mean you are not connecting with numerous callers who contact your business after hours. With an answering service, your phone lines will be open 24/7, meaning that you will never miss a single lead. The good news is that an answering service will only cost a fraction of what it could cost you to hire additional employees to handle phone calls on shifts.
Phone Calls Are Distracting And Hurting Your Productivity
You might notice that your team is receiving numerous phone calls. Perhaps they are switching from one call on hold, assisting another customer, and then switching back to the first caller. All tasks might seem under control, and you might assume that your staff is on top of it. However, it is important to take some time to consider the tasks that are not being done when your team is busy handling phone calls.
Your in-house team should focus on the unique responsibilities you hired them to do. It is even more alarming if you have a small team and find yourself answering phone calls throughout the day. As a property management business owner, your role should be to take the larger decision-making and strategic planning tasks that help prepare your business for the future. Hiring a property management answering service will free-up time for you and your employees, helping you manage other crucial objectives to take your business to the next level.
Your Leads Are Not Converting To Sales
You might notice that your property management business is collecting many leads, but you do not seem to be converting the leads into sales. Perhaps your team is overwhelmed, and they do not have ample time to pursue, nurture, and close these leads. Closing leads requires a steady and consistent focus on customer communication and follow-up. A call answering service will help you schedule appointments to contact customers at the most convenient time for them. This will help you close sales and tax revenue into your property management business.
Negative Customer Feedback
Negative feedback from customers is the last thing you want to see as a business owner. However, if your property management operates long enough without the resources it requires, the effects will soon trickle down to your customers. Even the most reliable team will soon give up if you do not provide enough support to manage their workload. When this happens, your customers will feel the effects. Some will let you know, while others will post negative reviews online. They will express their feelings of being ignored or neglected by your staff. Whether intentional or not, the customer suffered and expressed their experience to warn other customers.
A property management answering service can help turn the situation around and assure your customer that you value and care about them. You should be proactive in hiring an answering service. It will prevent your team, business, and customers from suffering. Now is the best time to decide and let someone else handle your phone calls as you focus on growing your property management business.
What To Expect
Professional property management answering services play four main roles in assisting property managers in managing their properties and attending to the needs of their existing and prospective tenants:
- Helping property managers to handle their tenant expectations in a timely and fulfilling manners
- Offer a fast response to emergency maintenance issues
- 24/7 availability irrespective of what the in-house property management team is dealing with
- Revenue generation even when a property manager is out of office by helping convert prospects into tenants.
An answering service can enhance the success of a property manager in many ways. First, however, you have to ensure that you choose the right answering services. You should go for an answering service that specializes in property management. You should also ensure that the company has a proven record in the answering industry.
Find A Property Management Answering Service Near Me
If you need to take your property management business to the next level and improve your customer service, an answering service will help you do just that. For reliable property management answering services, you can count on Best Call Center. We provide professional phone answering and virtual receptionist services across the United States. Call us at 800-385-4656 and talk to one of our call agents.