As Australia embraces new "right to disconnect" laws, which aim to protect employees' time outside of work and promote a healthier work-life balance, property management is also evolving. For landlords and property managers, staying compliant with these changes can be challenging, particularly in managing tenant requests efficiently without infringing on personal time.
We know what it’s like for property managers and landlords alike, sitting down in the evening relaxing with a glass of wine only to receive and ‘urgent’ text from a tenant. We saw this as a problem early, and were ahead of the curve, launching our Tenant Concierge in 2019. For the past five years we've been intercepting tenant requests for property managers by troubleshooting and triaging their maintenance.
Every week over 3000 tenant requests are submitted into Tapi by tenants. These tenants feel listened to, and can even have their maintenance resolved through the AI in the chatbot alone. But what's more important is that we've been able to distance the Property Manager from the nitty-gritty of the request process. Not only does this diffuse conflict, but it respects the principles of the right to disconnect. This means Property Manager's can head home and not continue to have their phones and emails going off with after hours requests.
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The Tapi Tenant Concierge can handle maintenance requests 24/7, allowing tenants to report issues outside of normal working hours. Across Tapi customers, 51% of tenant requests come through after hours and are handled by our Tenant Concierge. The chatbot can collect essential details about the problem, triage the request, and ensure troubleshooting has taken place. This means that property managers are not required to address requests immediately outside of their working hours, reducing the pressure to be constantly available.
The Tenant Concierge prioritises maintenance issues based on urgency. For example, it can differentiate between an urgent repair and a non-urgent one. The Tapi Success team will assist you in building the perfect after hours process, meaning that there won't be work highlighted to the property manager or your after-hour trades unless it truely needs to.
By handling the initial stages of maintenance reporting, the chatbot reduces the administrative workload on property managers. We're all about removing task-ticking. This not only helps in maintaining a clear separation between work and personal life but also allows property managers to focus on higher-priority tasks during their working hours. Not only are you complying with the “right to disconnect” principles, but you’re committing to a healthier work environment with less stress felt by all.
We've been believers in the right to disconnect from way back when. Part of making maintenance suck less is by respecting your after hours work time. Here's the simplest way to do it.
