Is It Time for the Rental Property Office Phone to Go?

Many managers and employees are emotionally and mentally married to the office phone. However, this may not be in the best interest of the property, the residents, or the prospects. Investors may be losing value and property operations may suffer because of this bias. With the ever increasing quality of cellular phone coverage, the time may be here when we are all served by the office phone being on the hip or in the pocket of the duty manager or leasing agent.

Phone traffic has fallen dramatically in the last decades as young people and now the society as a whole has moved toward relying on text traffic for a large part of telephone communication. The fact is in many ways we are all better of for this transition. We can send brief messages without interrupting meetings and we can be less tethered to the traditional phone line.

The argument for the phone is it provides a known place where visitors, prospects, or residents can come to care for an issue or to rent and apartment. Unfortunately, the result of this is frequently managers or leasing agents feel tied to their desk near the office phone waiting on the prospective phone call. In many cases, the call never occurs and productivity and property condition is weakened because the management staff wasn't free to inspect the property, check on projects, make in person resident calls and so on. With cellular phones and test, all of these are possible.

Given trends in marketing, changes in phone usage, and the potentially greater ability to service properties, the following are likely changes the industry should consider implementing:

• Properties should have an office cell phone with text and email. This phone should be in the hands of the duty manager and should forward to leasing assistant(s) if the manager is not available. This will allow the manager to be on the property with maintenance staff, inspecting the grounds, and generally maintaining knowledge of all that is going on or needs to be accomplished throughout the property.
• Properties should have a maintenance cell phone with text. This will allow the maintenance person to have work orders forwarded via text and handled without interruption whenever they are on duty. This phone should be with the duty maintenance staff.
• The property manager or duty staff should be required to respond to email and text contact real time whenever they are on duty or on call. This will allow them to be responsive to a world that is much more active around the clock than it once was.
• The phone should be kept with whoever the assigned duty staff. Ideally, the property should have duty staff available from earlier morning hours to much later evening hours and on the weekend. Doing so can capture almost double the traffic that normal business hours will capture.
• The office should have very clear noticeable signs directing visitors to call the duty manager if they are not in the office. The sign should show clearly if the manager is on the property or not and the amount of time they will need to return to the office.

The combination of these changes will improve service quality, increase rent prospect traffic, and make operations simpler and more effective.

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