How to easily improve property management efficiency with technology

26 June 2025

The big bottleneck of property management

Being able to learn about a multitude of property management companies, without actually belonging to any of them, allows us to gain a more or less general perspective of the sector, as well as to infer, after several years, the differences and similarities that exist between them. My goal is not to identify the good or the bad; it's simply interesting for everyone to be able to abstract ourselves from the day-to-day and realize that, little by little, small and medium-sized property management companies in particular are tending to diminish their efficiency and, therefore, the quality of service they provide to their clients. And this process is occurring precisely as they gain more clients.

Analyzing this process of declining efficiency, we notice that it is primarily due to small, often routine tasks, which, when multiplied by the number of homes managed, ultimately result in a lack of time to complete them. Although they are small and simple, the volume is extremely high.

And the longer this situation persists, the greater the loss of efficiency, and the bottleneck widens, in turn causing third-party problems associated with other activities. Ultimately, what begins with the neglect your clients are complaining about is actually due to saturation and poor organization, or, in other words, an organization not designed for the current volume.

Among these small tasks that administrations tell us about, the management of incidents occurring in their regions stands out. These range from small, relatively simple problems to resolve, to more difficult issues to manage, which involve additional procedures such as communications with insurance companies. Thus, a simple broken step entails several calls for management, several asynchronous processes that are carried out with little control, based solely on email lists or notes collected by phone.

And in addition to the actual incident management, there are additional tasks such as answering multiple calls from residents requesting information about their status, some emails also commenting on when the issue will be resolved, and finally, messages in the presidents' WhatsApp group, where the same incident is discussed as well as the points for the next Board meeting.

In short, something relatively simple turns into a multitude of messages, calls, and explanations through multiple channels that greatly overwhelm anyone and end up affecting the efficiency and perception of service of the Administration itself.

Technology to the rescue of property management

And here we are when someone from the Administration asks us: Is there any way to improve this situation?

It exists, and it's also easy to implement. The difficult part is maintaining it over time and staying true to the solution. And it's based on technology.

I always ask management the same question: Is it really necessary to provide multiple channels for your customers to contact you regarding incidents?

That is, in today's world where everyone knows how to use a telephone and where it's so easy to write a message, make a call, or inquire about the status of an incident. Why multiple channels? Isn't it possible to use a single channel, available 24 hours a day, every day, where both the Administration and its customers can find out the status of incidents whenever they want? Haven't you created too many channels in an attempt to offer better service to your customers, but all of these channels are disconnected from each other, and there's no easy way to find information on any of them without requiring any action on your part?

Single channel of interaction

Our solution is to use technology to provide the following:

Real-time information on the incident. Whether the supplier or manufacturer has been notified, whether the issue needs to be resolved by the maintenance team or by a third party, the actions taken with dates, times, and responsible parties; and finally, additional content that can improve the issue, such as explanatory text, photos, and videos.
Access 24 hours a day, every day of the year. No need for anyone to answer the phone, reply to a WhatsApp message, or be on call, because this single channel is always up and running.
It should be flexible. Some communities require simple management, others more complex, and others require truly complex workflows. The solution must be designed to cover all these situations, as the administration doesn't need to use different tools for the same activity.
Data analysis. The system should generate relevant information for the Community, including the number of incidents, their categories, response and resolution times, and ultimately statistics or data that will allow for future improvements.

As you can probably imagine, what we recommend is using a mobile app that meets all the needs mentioned above and that is configured as the Community's incident management system. The only one

Of course, we can ask this system for more functionalities that improve the basic requirements described:

Allows you to immediately communicate the opening of incidents to different profiles or individuals. For example, to the presidents of each Community Block.
Allows you to control the assignment of incidents to suppliers by communicating with them automatically, without requiring additional calls or emails.
Allows suppliers to manage the incidents assigned to them.
Let the originators of the incident be alerted to its status. You don't have to ask us about the status of the incident; we'll inform you of any changes immediately.
Allows you to assign incidents to community employees. There are many incidents that can be resolved in-house, and the community maintainer can resolve them directly, without even the intervention of the Administration. Oh, by the way, these employees should also receive notifications about the incidents assigned to them, so they're instantly informed.
Something as simple as allowing an administration to maintain a general list of all its clients' incidents, especially those that haven't been resolved yet. This serves as an easy, simple, and direct reminder of the status of our bottleneck.

All that glitters is not gold

Obviously, what I'm talking about isn't always easy to achieve. It's not even recognized by all property management agencies. But it's true that more and more administrations are seeing the need to implement this type of technology, and they're also realizing that it's not as difficult as it seems.

The main problem our clients tell us isn't even technological, but rather that it's not easy to move from a previous situation to a new one. Because their customers have already grown accustomed to it and don't want another channel.

But of course, this is easily refuted by emphasizing that it is not just another tool, but the only tool, and that we must gradually educate customers that the change also means an improvement for them and that not only will the Administration stop being saturated with calls and emails, but ultimately the incident management service will be better overall and of higher quality, and the work done by the Administration and what it really entails will also be evident.

We have some administrations that have struggled with this process. They've struggled with various obstacles to its implementation, from issues like not everyone knowing how to use mobile apps to issues like incidents being opened for issues that didn't exist before. And all of these are probably true.

But in the end, over time, they've seen that the improvement is real, that efficiency increases, and that their customers are more satisfied. And best of all, it doesn't require a great effort to implement; it's an easy-to-use tool that adapts to the needs of each administration and its regional governments.