How do you manage communication between maintenance techs and residents?

I recently had an interesting discussion about what the best way to manage communication between residents and our maintenance team. The basic problem comes down to balancing accountability and availability with protecting your tech’s privacy and keeping costs low.

I know that some maintenance teams just share one cell phone that they pass around like a hot potato depending on who is on call. I also know that others either provide their techs with a work phone or have them use their personal phones with some kind of number blocking system. Ours in the past has been a mashup of different methods.

I guess a lot of it depends on how you handle emergency calls in the first place (automated call-out system, call center, dedicated emergency number, etc) but I’m really curious as to what kinds of arrangements everyone is using and how they work.

Sam, I think that the best is to have one dedicated phone (mobile) which is passed around as required. I always ensured the maintenance tech would call me for things like a/c units going out in the hot season and heating units in the cold season.

To me and this is just me personally, that having the oncall maintenance tech with a company provided mobile is the way to go! Now, keeping in mind I am a creature of my exposure to certain things and where as they did not work for me does not mean they will not work for someone else, but I for sure tried and did not like the call center thing as it seems the problems were always greater by the time the message got to whoever needed to be contacted. Not to mention the message not being relayed correctly at times.

I agree with Nate - having a dedicated cell phone is efficient. I would also add that for those service requests submitted online, it would be ideal if those went not only to the office, but also to the Maintenance Supervisor. Then there is that little written back-up which may help in keeping things in order to ensure quick resolution and nothing is missed or overlooked (in the case of non-emergencies.)

Is this reserved for Emergency Calls? I would agree if this is an emergency, a member of the personnel must be assigned to the "Bat Phone" as we used to call it. This person would confirm the issue,do what they could to prevent a worsening issue, and then call for backup if needed.
In a non-emergency situation, how do you manage communication. Does your software offer progress updates to managers or residents? Perhaps with automated emails or SMS notifying the resident upon completion, pending their approval?

The "Bat Phone"! I love it!

We used to have just one maintenance number that rang to the on call phone, and then if that didn't go through, it would go to the supervisor.

Do you have the person with the Bat Phone acting as a filter, basically determining whether the issue is an emergency or not? Or do you give your residents different numbers to call for emergency and non-emergency things?