When your Managing Agent Won’t Communicate
After speaking to dozens of customers of block management firms, it’s often first thing that gets mentioned. In the end, an important job for block managers – may be the most important job – is to take residents’ complaints and get things fixed.
If managers are over stretched complaints often get unresolved or even worse, unacknowledged. Our surveys have shown this is not just a problem with small management firms but also large ones.
The biggest issue seems to be around the processes each management firm uses to deal with customers and complaints. It also seems, that managers who have a high turnover of staff, tend to have more complaints in this area.
Whatever the reasons, these communications problems can lead to a high amount of customer frustration and even damage to building and problems are not dealt with early.
Through surveys and conversations I’ve conducted, these are some of the top types of problems
| Issue | Average Reduction |
|---|---|
| Poor replies to complaints | 85% |
| Ad-hoc maintenance issues are not fixed | 75% |
| Staff are rude and unhelpful | 60% |
Communications in general, is one of the big 3 complaints I’ve found in this area. With customers that have been with the same managers for a long time, this actually becomes the biggest issue – as many managers may be good to begin with, but then stop performing.
Also, even if the managers are good at doing the need work, they are not always good at talking to their customers.
What can you do about it?
In the short term, it’s good to write things down. I’ve often used a simple Issue tracker to make sure that all my complaints are logged and at least from my side, nothing gets missed. Email me using the contact form below if you would like a copy of this template – it won’t force your manager to respond quicker but it will help to keep everything organised.
The long-term solution is to find new management. One of the thing I rate new managers when I’m talking to them is their ability to respond quickly to customers and finding a manager that is well rated in this area, is key.
What does a good manager look like?
A list of well rated managers in your location, can be seen here:
As a rule of thumb, some of the best managers when it comes to communication, have these characteristics:
Willing to let you meet the block manager (and deputy, if they are away, not available)
Small – with a designated person as the block manager
Have multiple ways to communicate, so can always find them
They sign up to a minimum service level agreement – so they will definitely respond in a set time
