The 11pm maintenance call, handled without a rota
Lettings agency, 180 units
Out-of-hours reports triaged and logged before the office opens.
The business
One office, four property managers, and 180 tenancies that generate maintenance calls at every hour a person can be awake. Applicant enquiries arrive on the same line.
The challenge
- Tenants report faults in the evening, when the office is shut and the on-call phone is somebody’s personal mobile.
- Genuine emergencies — a leak, no heating in January — sat in the same voicemail queue as a request for a viewing.
- Applicants who could not get through to book a viewing simply enquired on the next listing.
What was set up
Two kinds of caller, two paths
The agent establishes whether it is an existing tenant reporting a problem or someone enquiring about a property, and handles each on its own path rather than funnelling both to voicemail.
Faults captured properly the first time
Property, unit, what is wrong and how urgent — recorded in the caller’s own words with a transcript, so the manager reading it in the morning is not starting from scratch.
Viewings booked while the caller is still keen
Applicant calls are qualified on area and budget and booked into the diary, or captured with a preferred time when nothing suitable is free.
What changed
- Nobody is carrying the out-of-hours phone home.
- The overnight list is ordered by what actually needs doing first.
- Viewing enquiries are handled at the moment of interest rather than the next working day.
This story describes a real operating situation and the setup that handles it. The business is described by trade and size rather than named, and nothing here is presented as a measured result. Named stories with figures are published once the customer has signed them off.