Turning Chaos into Calm

The controlled chaos of many leasing offices is often indicative of some common problems that can easily be corrected. Often, these issues go unchecked because all of the problem-solving effort goes towards fixing resident issues, not internal operations.

It would behoove these chaotic offices to take time and turn their critical thinking and problem-solving skills inward in an effort to turn chaos into calm.  There are some simple steps to help a team identify and overcome problems. Let’s look at an example and use the steps to correct the issue. 

The Chaos – A resident shows up on Sunday to move in and the Leasing Consultant on duty isn’t aware of the move-in and is scrambling to find the file and provide service. The resident immediately picks up on the lack of preparation by the team and has a negative impression of the move-in.

The Real Issue – Both the maintenance staff and leasing staff often face challenges in staffing over the weekends. Weekend coverage is spotty and arguments ensue over coverage and who is on call. There are often last minute changes and team members are left handling situations with little preparation. This results in chaos.

Now for the fix.

1^st- Identify the problem. The problem is a lack of prepared coverage on the weekend and disgruntled employees upset with last minute changes.

2^nd – Breakdown the root cause. The last minute assignment of weekend duties and team member schedule swapping results in ill-prepared teams and spotty weekend coverage. Team members are often unaware of scheduled move-ins until they show up asking for the key.

3^rd -  Develop countermeasures. Create a prepared schedule a quarter in advance. Require any changes to the schedule to go through the property supervisor and be requested a minimum of 30 days in advance. Establish protocol for informing weekend team members of all scheduled services, such as move-ins, and verify preparation days in advance.

4^th – Test all countermeasures, evaluate success, and determine best practices. Put the countermeasures into practice and evaluate what works. Make the best practices the new policies.

If community teams would look at every issue or scenario that frequently results in chaos, they would quickly be able to build a list of problems. Unfortunately, many teams go on without doing this assuming the chaos is just part of being in multifamily.  This is not true. Once they’ve identified problems and really determined the cause they can take steps to find solutions and remove the turmoil.  This process works best with all team members brainstorming together to identify problems and create the solutions to overcome them.