Creating a Troubleshooting Guide Will Save Time & Money

I’m in the process of listening to my new audiobook called “The 27 Challenges Managers Face” written by Bruce Tulgan.  Mr. Tulgan discusses the challenge all managers deal with, which is the lack of time due to putting out fires all day.  The book provides multiple strategies, but the one I’m here to discuss involves taking preventative action to minimize the “fires.”  Anyone who works on-site at a residential building knows how fast problems arise and how the entire team always end up getting involved one way or another.  It’s a major burden for everyone and I believe the following idea would be a tremendous help.

In a perfect world, every new move-in would have a building maintenance technician escort them through the apartment to explain how every appliance works.  However, this is much easier said than done.  This is especially difficult during the busy season when larger buildings have multiple move-ins on the same day.  You might be thinking appliances are easy to operate, but as new technology emerges, these items begin to look like an airplane cockpit.  There are buttons everywhere and it’s all becoming digital, which makes it even more confusing.  Therefore, it’s time to create an easy to read troubleshooting manual for each move-in.

Creating a troubleshooting manual shouldn’t take very long to do.  Follow these steps:

1. Go inside a vacant unit and write down the name and model of each appliance
2. Type the name and model along with “manual PDF”  in the Google search box.
3. Click on the google listing that has the manual in PDF form
4. Open up the PDF manual and search for the “Troubleshooting” section, which is usually located towards the end.
5. Print out these pages and then do the same for each appliance.
6. Combine all the troubleshooting pages and then create a cover page that has your company logo on it along with the manual title.  You are now done.   Have a PDF version to email along with printed out copies.
7. Give this to every new move-in along with the residents currently living in the building.

If you are thinking this is a waste of time, please think again.  Did you know that most dryer problems are caused by lint build up?  Did you know that the condenser located in ventless dryers should be cleaned once every 3 months (every month for residents with pets)?  Did you know the #1 reason PTAC units (Packages Terminal Air Conditioning AKA the heating/AC unit on your wall) malfunction is due to build up of dust on the filters?  The majority of residents don’t know this and expect everything to run perfectly for the remainder of the lease contract.  By providing this manual to residents, I guarantee you’ll see a reduction in service requests along with longer life spans of your appliances.