Darren Bagnall from Manage Your Block looks at how property technology is improving the block management process.
Property management companies have been embracing property technology for some time now. Utilising specially designed software to maximise productivity, simplify processes and boost efficiency will not only make working lives easier, but it will no doubt boost the bottom line.
Here we’ll be walking you through the features of Manage Your Block and explaining how its features are specifically designed to put apartment management in the palm of your hand.
The Challenge of Block Management
Property management is well known to be a challenging role. One person is often responsible for the delicate management of multiple units within a residential block. This calls for a varied skillset of customer service acumen, organisational prowess and, of course, up to date knowledge of the legalities regarding the responsibilities involved.
Add to this the often out of date processes that must be followed in a traditional office setting, and you have a very time-consuming job on your hands. Working from paper filing systems is obviously the worst-case scenario, but most will find themselves working from an archaic online system that is tricky to get to grips with and presents challenges when trying to work in a modern way.
With multiple resident emails coming in, several quotes received and ready to compare, service charges to request and collect, health and safety assessments due, a light bulb to replace and a leak in Flat 5… keeping track and maintaining resident satisfaction can be a challenge. That’s why we built Manage Your Block.
What Can Manage Your Block Be Used For?
Our software has been designed by and for residential property managers. It’s a powerful tool for property managers and yet it’s incredibly user-friendly, built with simplicity and speed in mind.
It’s essentially a central hub for anyone involved in the running of your block and can be used for storing documentation and information, including:
- Insurance claims history
- Maintenance history
- Inspections and reports
- Risks assessments and reports
- Preferred contractor information
- Contact details for all residents
Manage Your Block solves the issues of:
- Where to store information safely and in line with GDPR
- How to contact residents and contractors while keeping an audit trail
- How to ensure that essential documents and records are always accessible
- How to hand over the management of the building to a new Director when the time comes
Many Directors collate so much information during their time at the helm that it can be difficult to remember everything they need to hand over, or to know where to look for certain documents or contact details. While some are very organised and hand over successfully, others are not so thorough…Manage Your Block makes the whole process simpler, easier and provides less room for error.
24/7 Access Via Any Device
With flexible working now largely standard practise, many people are working on varying schedules and taking a hybrid approach to working from home and being in the office. Property management requires reliable access to documents, contacts, and paper trails. Not having access to the necessary records can increase the likelihood of major damage (as an extreme example), and simply slow processes down.
Manage Your Block is cloud-based, meaning teams can access all the information they need from any device and at any time. Be it a phone, tablet or laptop- as long as there’s an internet connection, staff can securely log in and work as they would from their desk.
Calendar and Diary Reminders
Your team will have constant access to the calendar function, where you can enter keys dates for your block. You can schedule in your Health & Safety, Fire and Lift inspections, service charge reminders and insurance renewals as well as setting reminders to alert you when things are due.
You can also note when garden maintenance will be happening, cleaning staff will be on site, team birthdays, resident events… the list is endless. It can all go in one place with reminders set so you can relax in the knowledge that your mental to-do list is no longer needed.
Contractor Information and Quotes
Once your diary reminder has popped up to jog your memory, you can then head to your contractor contact details list to request quotes or issue works orders- right from the system.
Keeping an up-to-date list of preferred contractors means that it doesn’t matter who’s on duty on any given day- anyone can log in and see who needs to be booked and whether a quote has been requested or obtained.
Contacts and Alerts
Communication with your residents is key. You can store all your residents’ contact details within Manage Your Block and then use our Alerts function to send messages out as and when needed. Common messages include:
- Health and Safety reminders
- Maintenance issues (and your plans to correct them)
- Broken lift alerts (especially important for any disabled residents)
- Resident event invitations and reminders
- Reminders about inspections/who to expect to see on site
- Crime in the building or in the area
- Sending quotes received to the RMC officers
Service Charge Collection
You can also upgrade your package to include our Service Charge Collections feature which will enable you to prepare and process service charge demands for your residents- minimising the need for back-and-fourth over service charge issues and keeping you compliant.
Summary
Manage Your Block is a modern solution for modern property managers. It allows the flexibility now expected by the workforce, eliminates the need for paper records and reduces the chance of human error.
You and your team don’t need to be technological whizzes either. Manage Your Block is simple to use and our tutorials provide all the training you may need. If you’d like to sign up or if you have any questions, just head to our contact page and drop us a line.
Manage Your Block is FREE for all Residentsline policyholders.
Manage Your Block aren’t here to tell you how to run your block of flats, but we can provide you with highly specialised software to make the management of your block much easier. Call us for more details on 0333 577 9070 or email info@manageyourblock.co.uk.