The oft-spoken complaint from both directors and homeowners in community associations is: “they never return either my phone calls or my emails.” Sounds familiar? Below you will find out the key to good communication for a property management company and why sometimes you are not getting an answer straight away.
Why are you not getting a call-back straightaway?
The truth of the matter is we all delay returning some calls, sometimes even with good reason. We want to check the facts. We want another opinion, maybe even a legal one, and we want the customer to cool down first. However, most of the time, we don’t want to take or return the call because we know it will be awkward, difficult, stressful, obnoxious, and unpleasant.
Our day would go a lot better if we attacked the problems first, and having dealt with them however bad they might be. We can now focus on managing the routine functions without the dreaded call or email waiting out there for us. If we could only realize that prompt attention saves us from worrying about it all day.
The news, complaint, request, or demand may not be what we want to hear, but now it’s over, and we can move on to other things rather than be suspended inanimately waiting to deal with the dastardly call. If we recognized that our job is to soothe the fevered brow and lower the temperature as I call it, we should be ready and eager to learn how to do something better.
Owning up to a mistake, omission failure is in itself cathartic. It allows our emotions to relax and slow down. Instead of building up a fever postponing the inevitable, we can release some of the tension as the difficult emotion has passed.
Property management’s communication goal
The goal of property management should be to answer all calls and emails in a reasonable time. Each person has their definition of what is reasonable. A blackberry user probably has a shorter fuse than someone who still has a rotary phone at home. Whatever the standard adopted by the management company, it should stick to it. There is even some software that tracks phone calls.
