What to Look For in a Property Management Answering Service
As a property manager, your job goes well beyond building management. Not only do you have to ensure that your property and your management company continue to increase in value, but you also need to ensure that your tenants’ needs and desires are met.
As busy as you are with tenant calls, building maintenance, showing units, collecting dues, and the flow of tenants in and out of your property, it can be difficult to take care of everything on your plate in an efficient and effective manner. So many challenges can leave you feeling exhausted at the end of the day, not to mention incredibly short on time. However, a live answering service for your property management business can handle all of your calls for you around the clock.
Myths About Live Answering Services
Some think that live answering service is no different than any other answering service, in that they can’t possibly care about the caller. This is far from the truth. In all reality, a live answering service’s only job is customer service; their only aim is to make your callers happy.
Yet another myth is that calls end up being answered by people oversees and your callers will likely encounter communication difficulties and less than desirable customer experience. However, there are plenty of USA-based answering services that refuse to outsource call handling to another country. Their local answering service agents take care of each call exactly the way you would, with friendly professionalism.
Finally, another popular myth is that people don’t like speaking to a live operator. The truth is that, in a sea of automated and web chat services, live operators are a welcomed personal touch. Unlike some services, which may simply take a message and promise to get back to a caller, a live answering service can help the customer resolve an issue right then and there, providing help and assurance along the way.
How Live Operator Services Handle Your Calls
Unlike automated systems which force callers to choose options and wait to speak with someone, a live real estate answering service allows anyone who calls your number to speak with a real person right away. The professionals who answer phones with a live answering service have been trained to handle all of the kinds of calls that property managers receive.
Existing Tenants
Tenants who are having plumbing, electrical, or other issues in their units may be unsure what to do when they call your answering service. The live operator they’re connected with will be compassionate and friendly, ensuring that all details of your tenants’ issues are recorded accurately so that solutions can be found.
Prospective Tenants
Individuals may call your number in order to get more information about an available unit. In this case, your live operator’s professional manner will offer several benefits. In having such a service, you give potential tenants a positive first impression of your company.
Your operator can be given all of the information about your property and its units so that callers can get the answers they’re looking for.
Appointment Scheduling
In addition to providing information, your live answering service can schedule appointments for viewing available units. When existing tenants call about maintenance or other issues, the service can schedule maintenance appointments or reroute their calls to you or a member of your maintenance staff.
Additional Benefits
Having a live answering service ensures personal service for each caller. Why is this so important? Because a significant part of every caller experience is how that caller is treated. Automated systems cannot provide the kind of warm and friendly service that a live operator can.
Elevated Reputation
Another benefit of having live answering service for your property is that it elevates your company’s reputation. Property managers with smaller businesses can offer the same level of professional service for callers as larger companies do.
The addition of a live answering service which personally answers all calls will let callers know they are dealing with a professional and reputable company.
Personal Attention
Each of your callers is important. A caller who receives personal attention, such as the kind a live answering service offers, will know without a doubt that they matter to you, unlike an automated service which just repeats pre-recorded message to customers that their calls are important.
If your tenant community includes Spanish-speaking individuals, your answering service can also include bilingual operators. Giving all tenants and would-be tenants the opportunity to communicate issues and get information will help you to build a professional relationship with them based on customer care.
Increased Efficiency
When you invest in a 24-hour answering service for apartments, your existing employees no longer need to answer the phone in addition to their other tasks. Instead, they can focus on what needs to be done and work with customers who have visited your office. This significantly increases business efficiency.
Money and Time Savings
Having a live answering service can also save your business a lot of money. Instead of having in-house staff that you need to pay and provide benefits for, your live answering service is provided on a flexible, month-to-month contract basis. So during times of the year when you receive fewer calls, you still only pay for what you use.
You also don’t need to look for the right people to answer your phones, and then train them, because this has already been done by the company. As well, there is no need to purchase any of the needed equipment and software for handling calls, because the company will already have it.
Of course, this service also saves you time. Instead of answering calls yourself, which can take away from the task at hand, you can continue working and getting things done as calls are answered.
Tips for Choosing the Right Answering Service for You
There are certainly many benefits to hiring a live answering service to handle your property management calls. However, not every company is the same. There may be several different companies out there, but the right one for you will be the one that has the following characteristics.
Well-Established and Trained
The property management answering service that represents your company should be established and experienced. They should consist of a reliable team whose top priority is ensuring each of their operators is professionally trained.
In having operators who are professionally trained, you and your callers will receive quality real estate answering service that is always consistent, regardless of the time of day that a call is placed. A company who invests in the proper training of their employees understands the benefits of this training to its customers and its own business.
Professional training should also include proper telephone etiquette, as well as knowing how to handle difficult situations and callers.
Tailored to Your Business
The trained operators who will be answering your business calls should be able to meet your specific requirements. This can be done by providing them with as much information about your business as possible so that custom scripts can be written, and a strategy developed for how calls will be directed.
Multi-Tasking Experts
In addition to being able to pick up the phone, greet callers, and take messages, your live answering service should also be able to provide general assistance and schedule maintenance and viewing appointments, as well as route calls to the appropriate department so that your callers never have to wait long to get their issues resolved.
Operators should be able to screen calls using a series of specific questions that help them determine the call’s level of severity and route only high-urgency calls to necessary personnel. They also need to be able to notify you of any non-urgent messages via SMS or email.
Simple Web Interface
A live answering service company can ensure all calls to your company are answered and dealt with in a professional manner—but what about you? In addition to providing stellar service, the property management answering service you’re considering should also make it easy for you.
They should offer a full web interface that allows you to update and manage all received maintenance requests, as well as allow you to pay your bill and view your account status from the same convenient location.
Get Professional Answering Services Today
As a property manager, you always have a lot to do. Why worry about how you’re going to handle calls as well? AnswerMTI can do it all, from logging maintenance requests and connecting callers with on-call staff during emergencies to assisting tenants with their rent payments and providing prospective residents with directions to your property for a showing and much more.
Call 1-800-673-2000, and discover the many ways that professional live answering services from AnswerMTI can start benefiting your property management business today.
