Page 27 - NY Cooperator October Expo 2019

COOPERATOR.COM THE COOPERATOR — OCTOBER 2019 27 Improve recycling in your apartment building! Enroll your maintenance staff in a FREE training by the NYC Department of Sanitation: on.nyc.gov/zerowastetraining nyc.gov/sanitation NYCsanitation NYCzerowaste my list and I prioritize what needs to get done for the client and I attack the list accordingly.” According to Sean Jordan, Director of Property Management at First Service Resi- dential Massachusetts, “Our entire job is based upon a schedule. Unfortunately it al- ways gets sidelined because of emergencies.” Nevertheless, he says, “You have to pick your core tasks that are absolutely essential and do them without fail: paying your bills, following up with requests, and making sure that the as- sociation and the community are serviced for those essentials.” Time Suckers Among the array of tasks a manager has to tackle on any given day, the task of read- ing and responding to emails ranks up there as one of the most time-consuming. “I have to put aside a certain amount of time per day just for emails,” Nugiel says. “If I miss a day because I'm out in the field, I know that if I don't catch up that night, the next day I'm going to be spending a ton of time on emails.” And, adds Weil, “It's get- ting people – especially boards – to understand that email doesn't al- ways need a response, and that we don't all need to be on nine re- sponses. You end up in the trail of people back and forth.” Time consuming as they can be, an email or text message does have the advantage of serving as a record of a cor- respondence. “There's documentation,” says Jim Stoller, President and CEO of Chicago- based property management company The Building Group. “We can see if someone has opened up an email that we've sent them, and we can also document \\\[what was said\\\]. In the old days people would say, 'I called your office four times,' and we'll say, 'Well, no you didn't.' Now we can see through computer logs and phone logs and email logs when we received an issue and how quickly the property man- ager responded.” Additionally, residents' requests that seem pressing to them but are in fact non-emer- gencies can divert a manager's focus and time away from more urgent tasks. “You have peo- ple who you never hear from, and you have people who are very needy,” says Stoller. “And then you have people who have unusual re- quests. Often it's just dealing with those types of unrealistic expectations and educating your clients to help them understand that they are responsible for certain things.” “If it's a non-emergency question, yes by all means, send us an email or pick up the phone and call us during business hours,” says Nardone. “There's a difference between cus- tomer service and people taking advantage. You have to set those boundaries up front.” Methods and Tools Whether it's through handwritten notes or spreadsheets, property managers have their preferred tools for getting tasks in a timely manner. For instance, Nardone carries a little notebook with him everywhere. “I like writ- ing my stuff down,” he says, “and as I complete a task that day, I strike a line through it. At the end of the day, when I look at my list, I can say, 'Alright, so I had 10 things to do, of which I accomplished seven.' So the sense of accom- plishment as well.” Crespo says his company uses Excel spreadsheets for everything. “We use a lot of Google Docs that we can share internally to keep the team apprised of things. I'm always sending myself scheduled text messages be- cause I can respond to them really quickly. I use Gmail for email to be able to filter through things that are important. That really helps out with time management too.” Nugiel recommends having an annual cal- endar. “\\\[The time\\\] to go out to bid for a snow con- tractor is in the summer... and you're not thinking about snow per se. So if you have it written down in the calen- dar, it gives you a good framework to work from. And a monthly calendar is good because you know you have certain meetings during the month, and you know when you need to get your board pack- ages out in order to get your information to the board. It's really important to work with a list of outstanding items and a calendar of items that you need to do as regular manage- ment activities.” To plan his schedule effectively, Jordan blocks his time. “For example, I try to sched- ule all of my office meetings throughout the day on Thursdays,” he says. “That way, ev- eryone knows I'm in the office that day; the vendors know I'm there. And then I do the same exact thing when I'm out in the field. I'll have a day where I'll stay at a property, and try and have multiple back-to-back vendors come by throughout the day so I can get as many things done as a walk-through, versus driving back and forth every day to the same location.” Delegation of Responsibilities A property manager is not expected to ac- complish everything on his or her own, which makes delegating the duties and responsibili- ties crucial. Weil's company, for instance, uses a team system. “Our managers who are re- sponsible for the physical property get bids, meet with contractors, and supervise them. “There’s a difference between customer service and people taking advantage.” — Tony Nardone continued on page 34 See us at Booth 411