Tenant line that handles repair requests

Requests arrive complete and in one place, emergencies reach the on-call manager straight away, and routine jobs are lined up with the right worker without anyone in the office relaying messages. Next step for a real property: a texting number and the team’s own calendars, in a short pilot.

The business

Built for property management companies looking after a few hundred residential units, with a small office team and a group of outside contractors. The prototype runs on a sample building, Maple Court, so anyone can try it.

The problem

Repair requests arrive by phone, text, email and notes under the office door. Staff spend hours chasing unit numbers and photos, and urgent issues wait behind routine ones.

My approach

In a busy property office, most of the time goes into collecting the same five details and relaying them, which is judgment work an agent can do. So the agent sits on a single intake channel, talks to tenants, decides urgency and finds the right worker. Code, not the model, owns the records: ticket numbers, calendars and bookings are checked before anything is saved, and nothing is booked until the worker approves.

What I built

• A text-style line where tenants report problems or ask questions. The assistant asks only what it needs, one question at a time.
• Every problem becomes a numbered ticket, sorted by urgency. Emergencies get the safety step first and go straight to the on-call manager.
• It picks the right worker (plumber, heating, electrician, appliance or maintenance), checks their calendar and offers open times.
• When the tenant picks a time, the worker gets an approval request. The tenant hears it’s pending, then gets a confirmation, or new times if the worker can’t make it.
• Questions about rent, pets, parking and other house rules are answered from the building’s policies; anything else goes to the office.