Here at The Building Maintenance Company we should know a thing or two about running a successful property maintenance help desk, as we have over 25 years experience providing property maintenance across the UK.
Your help desk is the link between your clients and your engineers, their first point of call and the corner stone of your business.
Failing to make your help desk a success is likely to result in failure to deal with your clients needs, and the worst case scenario being you lose the customers you worked so hard to gain.
Here are some of our top tips on running a successful 24 hour property maintenance help desk:
Plan Ahead
Always agree SLA’s and KPI’s in advance, this gives you a target to work towards and a way of measuring your success. Make sure everyone in your team understands that SLA’s and KPI’s may change from customer to customer.
Advise your clients of external and internal procedures for raising maintenance work, so they know exactly how you operate and how you will deliver your service.
Understand Your Customers Needs
Take some time to get to know your customers. What service do they offer? What are their operating hours?
Use your knowledge and experience to provide advice on the best plan of action for your customers maintenance needs, your customers will acknowledge and appreciate it.
Keep Things Simple
Don’t over complicate things; keep them as simple as you can. Remember that your customers might not be as technically astute as you are and may need information that is a bit easier to digest.
Relay information to them in an easy to understand manner and always make sure that they understand what you are telling them.
Work Together
Work with customers to make sure you both get the most out of your service. Help your customers help themselves by providing help and information, even training if you think that it is necessary.
Help them understand the difference between an emergency call out and general maintenance, working with them to get relevant and accurate information first time.
Communicate
Keeping your customers updated throughout the process is essential. From acknowledging their initial email to finishing the job and providing them with confirmation, a job card and an invoice.
Find out how your customers want the information to be relayed, there is no point sending an email when the customer requires a telephone call.
Listen to What your Customers Have to Say about You
Actively seek feedback from your customers and make sure you record it. It is a fantastic source of information that you can use to continually adapt and improve your service.
Feedback is also a great way to let the rest of the world know how good you are. Use feedback and testimonials on your website and in your newsletters to showcase your service and be proud of what you do.
Here at The Building Maintenance Company we have a 24 hour help desk to deal with all of your commercial maintenance needs.
