PlumbingBossPro Blog — Property Managers & Commercial

Handling Property Manager Plumbing Requests: From the Manager's Message to a Scheduled Job

Property managers send requests in every way imaginable. A text at 7am. An email forwarded from a tenant with three paragraphs of complaints and no address. A voicemail. A request through the customer app. The plumbing office that turns each one into a clear, scheduled job — at the right address, with the right notes — is the one managers stop worrying about.

Where Requests Come From

Routing, covered in Routing a Commercial Plumbing Van: Jetting, Backflow Tests and Building Calls in One Day, assumes the job already exists. Before that, someone has to create it. Requests from managers usually arrive one of four ways:

• Text. Two-way texting from your office means the manager's message lands with their client record.
• Customer app. Managers and landlords can request service from the customer app.
• Website request form. Requests submitted on your website flow into Form Responses in the office.
• Phone and email. Still common. The office enters these by hand.

However it arrives, the goal is the same: a job at the right address, on the right day, with what the tech needs to know.

Get the Four Facts

Every request needs four facts before it becomes a job. If any are missing, ask before scheduling:

• Which address? “The Oak Street duplex” might be two addresses. Get the unit.
• What is wrong? “Leak” could be a dripping faucet or water through the ceiling. Ask enough to know how urgent it is.
• How do we get in? Is there a lockbox, a key, or does a tenant need notice? Check the access notes on the address first.
• What is the approval limit? Can the tech fix it on the spot, or does anything over a set amount need a quote first?

Store the manager's standing approval limit in a custom field on the client so the office does not ask every time.

Creating the Job

Because every property is an address under the manager's client, the office picks the client, picks the address and creates the job. The address brings its equipment and access notes with it. The From House picker fills in equipment from the saved record, so if the request is about the water heater, the tech already knows it is a 40-gallon gas tank in the garage from 2016.

Put the manager's description in the job notes, cleaned up if needed: “Tenant reports slow kitchen drain, worse after dishwasher runs. Unit B.”

Scheduling and Telling the Manager

Put the job on the dispatch board on the right van and day. If it is urgent, crew GPS on the office map shows which van is closest. Then close the loop with the manager by two-way text: “Got it. Mike is scheduled for 412 Oak St Unit B tomorrow between 10 and noon. Lockbox code on file.”

If the request is an emergency — water through a ceiling, sewage in a tub — skip straight to the closest van and text the manager the arrival estimate. The paperwork can catch up after the water is off.

That one text is often the difference between a manager who trusts you and one who calls back twice to check. If the job involves a tenant, the manager can pass the time along.

When the Tech Finds More

Rental calls often turn up more than the original complaint. The slow drain is fixed, but the water heater is leaking at the base. Inside the approval limit, the tech handles it and notes it. Over the limit, the tech notes what was found with photos, and the office builds an estimate from your service list and sends it to the manager.

The manager approves the estimate online, and the approved estimate becomes a scheduled job. Equipment details entered on the estimate — the new heater's model and size — carry onto the job and back to the address. Quotes get their own guide in Commercial Plumbing Quotes With Online Approval: Getting the Manager's Yes in Writing.

Closing the Loop

When the tech taps Complete, the office sees the job done with photos and notes. Send the manager a short text with a photo: “Unit B kitchen drain cleared, photo attached. Water heater is leaking at the base, sending a quote.”

For monthly accounts, the job joins the month's statement, labeled with its address. For card-on-file accounts, the invoice is created and the card can be charged. Either way, the manager knows what happened without having to ask.

Handled this way, every request leaves a clean record: what was asked, what was found, what was done and what it cost. For more on serving property managers, visit the PlumbingBossPro commercial plumbing software page.