Alva Property Maintenance (APM) Mission Statement

Negative resident interactions happen when:

1. A resident feels forced to allow maintenance to enter when they honestly don’t feel comfortable with it, but they allow it anyway.
2. A resident feels surprised, alarmed, or unreasonably inconvenienced by maintenance staff suddenly at their door.
3. A resident feels the privacy of their home has been violated by maintenance staff.

Good entry procedures combat this by:

1. Taking every reasonable step to ensure a resident responding to their door feels empowered to decline entry, both verbally or nonverbally (when no emergency exists).
2. Calling ahead of all service calls even when Permission to Enter (PTE) has been granted.
3. Educating residents one-on-one about their right to privacy and what tools they have available to protect it, namely, the PTE box and what that actually means in different real-world scenarios. 

All residents should be treated the same during entry procedures, whether they have been a resident for 30 years or 30 days, or whether they are an ex-Navy SEAL or are a stay-at-home mom. This is because all residents are professional clients who all should receive the exact same level of professionalism and formal process. 

When I approach a door, I:

1. Call or text 30 minutes ahead to remind resident of appointment
2. Knock 
3. Announce, "Maintenance" loudly 
4. Take 3 steps back from the door to assume non-threatening posture
5. Wait at least 60 seconds
6. Repeat steps 1-4
7. Complete steps 1-5 for any other prominent exterior entrance

If I have PTE:

1. After at least two minute above, I will announce "Maintenance, coming in" loudly
2. I will put a door hanger on the door indicating my presence
3. I will knock again
4. I will use my key to unlock the door without opening it yet
5. I will knock and announce myself again
6. Then I will crack the door open and announce through the cracked door
7. Continue with the service call announcing upon entering any new room or floor

If the resident answers the door:

1. Before entering, I will usually explicitly ask for permission to come in
2. Often, my first question to the resident is, "What's going on?" This is an open-ended question that makes the service call about the resident, offering them the opportunity to lead the service call in the direction of which problem is most important to them. I ask this to listen intently, not just to check it off a list.

Normal Checklist for Entry into Leased Residential Units:

1. Written Work Order

2. Written Permission to Enter (PTE)

     OR 

     PTE provided at door 

     OR 

     Property Manager has posted door and is present at time of entry

Exigent Circumstances:

1. If authorized by property manager, I can provide Law Enforcement or EMS access if emergency services state that the reason for asking to enter is Exigent Circumstances.

Emergency Maintenance:

1. No current provisions.

To provide owners/property managers/future vendors maximum transparency and information, reports in invoices shall be structured like this:

Observe: Document anything noteworthy the resident said. Then, document everything noteworthy observed regarding the problem. These observations happen before touching any tools. 

Test: Document any tests that used to better understand any problems.

Repairs: Document what steps were taken to address the problem(s).

Results: Document any tests performed to verify the repair work was successful.

Notes: Document any recommendations for any future repairs. Document any miscellaneous observations of the property not immediately relevant to the work order.

Here's my typical process for service calls:

Communicate: Put 100% of focus on what the resident has to say before touching equipment/tools.

Observe: Observe the equipment as the resident would without popping panels off.

Test: See what works and what doesn't. Consult documentation if unsure.

Repair: Take steps to mitigate failed tests.

Test: Repeat the tests to see if the fix worked.

Conclude: If all tests now pass, provide any recommendations and document rigorously for the next guy.

If I get stuck on diagnostics, I use TESS:

TRACE exactly where the good stuff ends and the bad stuff starts

ELIMINATE possible explanations

SUBSTITUTE questionable parts with known-to-be-good parts to test

SIMPLIFY to the simplest possible form of the problem

Another model I sometimes may use for decision-making comes from commercial aviation. It's called FOR-DEC. If there is an emergency, high risk situation (this happened many times when I worked as an employee), I am often in close communication with a property manager. This is where the FOR-DEC model truly shines. In these cases, FOR-DEC helps me provide the most useful information to the decision maker, if it's not myself, at the right time in the right way.

FACTS: Calmly observe what is happening in simple, technical terms.

OPTIONS: Brainstorm options and provide to the decision maker.

RISKS: Communicate the risks of each option to the decision maker.

- take a step back, may have missed something

DECISION: Prompt decision maker to make decision if urgent.

EXECUTE: Execute the decision without second-guessing.

CHECK: Verify the actions taken are producing expected results.

Since I don’t do system installs, most of my work naturally falls outside the scope of traditional warranties. The vast majority of what I do is minor repairs, not major replacements. However, the “warranty” my repair work carries is the integrity of my handshake. Larger companies might offer fancy, lawyer-written warranty policies, but you never know how they’ll try to weasel out of something with fine print—often these are just sales gimmicks. With me, there’s no fine print or gimmicks. It’s just old-fashioned integrity. If I sign off on something as fixed and it turns out not to be, I’ll usually fix it for free, no questions asked. The word “warranty” doesn’t even need to be said. I sign off on it, I own it (within reason).

Bad service call conclusions leave residents feeling the following emotions:

a. Confused

b. Frustrated

c. Left-out

d. Angry

e. Afraid

f. Discouraged

Good service call conclusions avoid these feelings by :

1. Always leaving physical, written documentation of work done for the resident(s) even if this information was also given in person, as well as by leaving a business card with an email address that the resident(s) may use if they have a question or concern.

2. Reducing potential for call-backs by anticipating and addressing problems that haven’t happened yet, even if they are unrelated to the current task.

3. When service calls are more complex, providing simplified as well as detailed documentation of all work done in the software in the form of 2 separate notes: 1 the simple one visible to resident and the detailed one not visible to resident. This should include any anomalous observations made, tests performed, results of those tests, parts replaced, procedures performed, final observations, conclusions, and the current status of the comprehensive solution, whether it is complete, in progress, waiting on parts, or sent to vendor. (This documentation is also for edifying techs on future service calls, for internal quality control purposes, as well as possibly for the property owner’s edification). 

4. Always making it clear to residents when done for the day both in writing and in person (when possible) whether the technician intends to return at a later date or not. 

5. Directing residents to the leasing office if they are dissatisfied at the end of the service call and it is not possible or reasonable to extend the service call to further address their dissatisfaction.

6. Making it either impossible or extremely unreasonable for a resident to be confused about if a certain piece of equipment is safe for them to use or not, especially when service calls are not concluded on the first visit. This should usually be achieved with lock-out/tag out equipment, but when that is not possible, it can also be achieved with more creative means. Simply unplugging an unsafe device from the wall is not enough. If any equipment is unsafe for the resident(s) to use, this must also be clearly and directly communicated so that no confusion may exist.

7. Directly thanking the resident for reporting the problem, more so if they give verbal or nonverbal signals indicating they feel they shouldn’t have made a fuss about the problem (assuming the problem they reported was actually a reasonable complaint of course).