The Power of Policies and Procedures
They say - In life, you can't control what happens, you can only control how you react.
In your capacity as property management, not only can't you control what happens in your life, but you can't control what happens in the lives of all your tenants, their employees, their guests, vendors, delivery personnel, and more.
There are so many different "things" that can happen that can have a negative or positive impact on your asset.
Bad stuff, for example, a power outage, slip & fall, or fender bender in the parking lot or good stuff like walk-in property tour, or a guest complimenting your staff.
To have the best chance of responding well to anything that happens, you need to have robust policies and procedures in place so that when something unusual happens, you have the bandwidth to react well on the fly.
Let's start with a basic situation.
A fire alarm goes off in the building now, and you need to ensure your tenants are safe.
What is your policy?
Do you have designated evacuation points?
Who calls the fire department?
Who ensures the tenant's exit the building?
Let's look at another scenario.
A pipe bursts, and water flows into a tenant space damaging the ceiling and floor.
What is your policy?
What is your first response?
Do you know where the water valve is located so that you can stop the flow of water?
Who is responsible for documenting the incident, taking pictures and filing a report
Who contacts the insurance company?
Do you have a vendor for water damage and restoration?
Policies are essential for unpredictable events as well as for pre-planned events like a new tenant moving in.
When do they get the tenant handbook?
Who greets them on the first day?
Who is responsible for getting the tenant contact information?
The point is that bad and good situations can have a much better outcome if there are definite plans and realistic delegation of responsibilities.
As they say- plan for everything, and you and your team will be ready for anything!