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Case Study Five: Portfolio Over-Staffs Maintenance Teams

  • Situation: Community maintenance staff sizes are at least more than one-half Maintenance Technician higher than the industry-standard, one-Maintenance-Technician-per-one-hundred unit benchmark.
  • This case study is intended to serve as a benchmark, and is based on the performance of a 2,000 unit Class B portfolio.
  • While not having the resources larger organizations do, the company has a somewhat unique operational approach: consistent with their mission of making apartments “homes” by providing caring, consistent and capable service, the company over-staffs every community with at least one-half extra Maintenance Technician (one-half a Maintenance Technician means one who contributes 20 hours of work per week, provided either by a part-time employee or by one who splits their time between two or more communities).
  • The company’s satisfaction scores clearly set the benchmark for excellence, as every year their portfolio satisfaction scores rank first or second nationally.
  • The table shows how this company’s scores remain consistently high year in and year out.
    • Their focus on service and the unique maintenance staffing plan lead to all service related scores being “superior” or “exceptional” (above 4.00 and 4.50 respectively).
    • The percent of outstanding service requests remain low, despite most buildings over thirty years old, due to the resources committed.
    • Taking the steps to maximize satisfaction and minimize outstanding requests leads to 62%-63% of residents each year saying they are “very likely” to renew, which is 16-17 points above the SatisFacts Index.
    • Their annual turnover rate is as much as 30 points below the NAA Income and Expense Survey national average…this company’s turnover is as low as half the national average!
    • The financial reward of this is significant:
      • Using one-half additional Maintenance Technician per community, the added cost per community would be approximately $15,600 per year.
      • The additional cost for all properties combined is approximately $156,000…this seems like a high figure until you compare the impact this has on satisfaction and ultimately their lower-than-average turnover rate.
      • Portfolio turnover is 707 units fewer than what it would be if the company had the same turnover percent as the national average.
      • At $3,000 per move-out, this means the portfolio’s bottom line is more than $2 million higher per year than if their turnover rated matched the national average…compared with the added staffing cost, there is clearly a significant return-on-investment!
      • These results confirm that regardless of market conditions, sound steps focused on satisfying residents minimizes exposure to costly controllable turnover.
Five Point (1-5) Scaled Satisfaction and Yes/No Questions
  Year 1: Score or % Yes Rating Year 2: Score or % Yes Rating Satisfacts Index
Apartment - Appearance, condition 4.30 Superior 4.32 Superior 3.92
Office - Courteous, professional 4.51 Exceptional 4.56 Exceptional 4.21
Office - Responsive, dependable 4.48 Superior 4.47 Superior 4.03
Maintenance - Courteous, professional 4.57 Exceptional 4.58 Exceptional 4.31
Maintenance- Response time 4.46 Superior 4.43 Superior 3.93
Maintenance – Work quality 4.45 Superior 4.42 Superior 4.04
Maintenance - Problems still exist 21%   25%   29%
Renewal Likelihood - "Very Likely" 63%   62%   44%
Overall 4.42 Superior 4.42 Superior 3.98

 

 
   
 
 

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