The stakes for multifamily maintenance have never been higher. Elevated consumer expectations from the “on-demand” economy, rising turn costs, and an endemic skilled labor shortage are putting pressure on multifamily operators to get more done with less resources in faster time periods to keep residents happy and keep them in their units. And in a tight economy with flattening nationwide rents, boosting retention rates is one of the few NOI levers operators can pull on—look no further than tech and process-forward REITs like EQR doubling down on a retention-focused approach.
With all that in mind, creating a seamless front and back of house maintenance operating model has never been more pivotal for overall asset health. Residents need visibility into how their issues are being handled, and your maintenance team needs the right tools to get work done faster. Enter EliseAI’s Maintenance App.
Not familiar with this new product? Let’s cover some commonly asked FAQs.
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Section 1: Administrative Efficiency
How does the Maintenance App reduce my administrative overhead?
The Maintenance App drastically reduces the amount of time your team needs to spend on maintenance-related administrative tasks. For one, it uses AI to automatically assign technicians to specific work orders based on tech location, technician skills, and availability, while still offering manual override capabilities for managers who need flexibility. It helps you turn more quickly by auto-creating work orders from inspections and auto-scheduling vendors. And soon, it will help you manage preventative maintenance more easily through auto-scheduling and assigning PMs for compliance. It also makes manual payroll management a thing of the past, with automatic time tracking capabilities and clock-in/clock-out functionality that allows you to pull timesheets in CSV format to expedite technician payments.
What does "auto-assign" actually mean in practice?
The Maintenance App uses information you enter into customizable technician profiles to automatically assign techs to certain work orders based on their specific skills. For example, if you tag a technician as skilled at AC repair, the system automatically looks to match them to any AC related work orders. The Maintenance App also uses a location-based routing optimization workflow to intelligently schedule techs based on travel times and unit proximity, cutting down on excess travel and improving overall efficiency. It cross references technician availability when scheduling to avoid double-bookings.
Section 2: Real-Time Operations
How does real-time team visibility work?
The Maintenance App’s supervisor view gives maintenance supervisors live location tracking capabilities for clocked-in technicians. This Uber-like dispatch model allows supervisors to quickly assign technicians to emergency work orders they are located near, as well as makes it possible to provide real-time updates to residents awaiting fixes. With technicians opening and closing work orders in the field, job status updates, and live location capabilities, supervisors now have unprecedented visibility into where their technicians are and how they are performing, while still ensuring clocked-out technicians do not have their locations monitored.
What information can I see about my team in real-time?
The Maintenance App balances technician privacy with the need for maintenance supervisors to have clear and actionable information about their teams. The Maintenance App supervisor view shows real-time technician locations and routes to upcoming work orders, helping supervisors quickly ascertain their coverage and technician availability. It also provides job progress updates and completion estimates, helping with capacity planning. The Maintenance App also logs and updates technician communications, making it easier to provide updates to residents and monitor real-time work order status.
Section 3: Work Order Management
How does the app help close work orders faster?
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The Maintenance App does more than just provide visibility into technician locations and efficiency—it drives significant operational improvements for real operators using the tool, like Fieldstone Properties, who saw an almost 50% increase in work orders completed under SLA after onboarding the tool. The Maintenance App helps lower average work order completion times in a few ways. For one, it provides technicians with instant access to unit history and maintenance records, giving them the information they need to resolve work orders promptly and limiting the amount of extra visits they need to make.
The Maintenance App also helps technicians get in touch with residents for scheduling purposes with resident contact information and real-time translation capabilities built right into the app. Finally, job detail documentation and photo sharing reduces the risk of miscommunication and ensures work orders are resolved in a prompt and satisfactory manner.
What information do technicians have access to on-site?
The Maintenance App’s technician view gives your techs access to all the relevant information and data they need to complete work orders quickly and efficiently. First, it provides complete unit maintenance history so technicians have plenty of context and background on the apartment. Technicians also have access to resident contact details and preferences, allowing them to communicate updates to renters via their preferred means of communication. Previous repair notes allow techs to see what was done in the unit before, helping expedite any repeat fixes. The Maintenance App is also being developed to include parts inventory, ordering capabilities, and vendor management directly in the platform, giving technicians comprehensive oversight of the maintenance supply chain.
Section 4: Data and Analytics
What kind of data insights can I expect?
The Maintenance App gives you actionable data-based insights that you can use to improve technician performance, spot issues before they impact your bottom line, and analyze maintenance costs. The Maintenance App aggregates work orders to deliver property-specific maintenance trends, allowing your team to proactively head-off common repeat issues. Technician performance metrics, including utilization rate and average completion times, help you identify any potential issues with your training programs and find new opportunities to improve technician performance. In addition, overtime hours allow you to evaluate how efficiently your team is fixing issues.
How does better data lead to better maintenance operations?
Maintenance teams leveraging The Maintenance App have all the data they need to improve technician performance and resident NPS with SentimentAI. With data from The Maintenance App, you can implement preventative maintenance operations, helping reduce costs in the long run. Better maintenance data also allows operators to optimize their staffing ratios and get better visibility into what work should be outsourced to vendors.
Operators with comprehensive historical cost data can also budget more efficiently for upcoming fixes and preventative maintenance, cutting costs in the long run. Having data also makes vendor performance evaluation an empirical process, as you can factor in overall cost, time to complete a project, resident satisfaction, and more when soliciting bids and contracting work out. Robust data significantly improves your scheduling and completion compliance, reducing risk and expediting average work order completion times.
Section 5: Communication Features
How does The Maintenance App handle resident communication?
The Maintenance App simplifies resident communications with automation and resident contact information embedded directly within the platform. New updates to the platform will include automated scheduling confirmations to residents when their technicians are assigned, increasing visibility and making it easier for both techs and residents to plan their days. It sends automated progress updates and completion notifications to residents and supervisors, keeping everyone on the same page, and can reopen incomplete work orders if residents report that their issue wasn't fixed. It ensures consistent and professional messaging so that residents feel supported and can stay in the loop with ease, reducing the phone call burden on your front office.
How does The Maintenance App promote professional communication?
The Maintenance App has a few key features that empower your technicians to professionally communicate with your residents, increasing their level of ownership while also ensuring all messages meet high quality standards. AI-powered note cleanup makes it easy for technicians to plug and play relevant information into their messages to residents. Built-in automation means residents get timely status updates, all with the polite and consistent tone you’re looking for. Additionally, real-time translation powered by AI empowers technicians who don’t speak English to send status updates to residents that are automatically translated to and from Spanish.
Section 6: Implementation and Integration
How difficult is it to implement a maintenance app?
While maintenance technology rollouts can be challenging, EliseAI’s team works closely with operators to ensure minimal operational interruptions during The Maintenance App rollout. The EliseAI team will be extensively involved in the onboarding process, with specialized solutions engineers, product managers, and strategy team members supporting your existing customer success manager. EliseAI will provide robust onboarding instructions as well as training and enablement materials in both English and Spanish. Our team of specialized engineers will also work closely with your team to ensure The Maintenance App seamlessly integrates with the rest of your existing tech stack.
Giving Your Maintenance Team the Right Tools with EliseAI's Maintenance App
Now more than ever maintenance teams need new, purpose-built technology to meet elevated consumer expectations. EliseAI's Maintenance App is just that. Get in touch with us today and we’ll gladly answer any questions you might have that we didn’t get to in this piece.