What Automation Metrics Should You Track for Property Management?

So, you're ready to automate property management operations—congratulations! One of the primary benefits of property management automation is the ability to track and measure how well it is performing. Easily measured metrics prior to the digital age were the stuff of dreams: now, we take it for granted that metrics are based in fact and not easily altered. This transparency makes it simpler for you to identify issues in your operations and correct them, improving your business overall.

Every business is different—and there is no definitive list of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) you should be tracking—but here are some of the ones we find most useful.

Tickets

What do you measure with tickets? Everything from work orders to daily team tasks—depending on how you have your ticketing system set up. We like to look at the following metrics for tickets:

• The number of open tickets per employee: This can either indicate a bottleneck or efficiency issues with an employee. Keeping an eye on this number can help you predict future staffing needs.
• Average ticket time to close: Are your employees meeting your service level agreements? Are there processes that need to be overhauled to help them meet this? Is training needed for a particular person to help them improve?
• Tickets by category: Keeping an eye on the types of tickets can help you predict staffing as well as determine whether issues are being resolved the first time.
• Volume over time: Predict busy seasons and make a plan for efficiency.
• Tickets by status: Tickets should tell you more than whether they are open or closed so you can have an accurate view of where all your work is in the pipeline.

Accounting

If you start using property management automation for collections, for example, it is a good idea to track the reduction of monthly delinquent accounts so you can see the effectiveness of a collections pipeline through data. You can start to calculate how many more accounts you can take on without hiring more staff by looking at these numbers.

• Use your data to remind your current clients of your value—and as a marketing tool for future clients.
• Track the reduction in staff hours and assign a value to that as well.
• Take the total time a task takes, multiply it by the times it needs to be performed, and then multiply it by the average salary for that position. You'll see your savings in labor and can then compare that to the cost of automation.

Emails

If your ticketing process is working correctly, it should create a reduction in overall emails. If your automation software is in the same program as your CRM, this should be easy to look into. In addition to this, track opens and clicks to see if your emails are effective—and optimize the ones that are underperforming to ensure you get the results you need.

Satisfaction

Are your employees happier? What about your clients? Be mindful; implementing any new system comes with some growing pains—so this is a metric best measured after everyone is used to the new system, and it is running smoothly.

For employees, tenants, and owners, you can track satisfaction using Net Promoter Score (NPS) surveys. An NPS survey is a simple question you pose to your audience: on a scale from 1-10, how likely are you to recommend us to a friend? This question is a very accurate predictor of satisfaction and is very useful for getting out in front of dissatisfied customers and employees to correct issues before they become bad reviews.

Accuracy

This one is a little harder to track because you may not have metrics from before—but it is an important one. Automation is supposed to reduce errors—not increase them. If there are more errors than there used to be, you need to look into why that is. Sometimes it comes down to training or a broken process; no matter the cause, identifying and correcting it is important.

Adoption

Finally, automation is only good if your team adopts it. If only some of your team gets on board, it isn't going to work as well as it could—and you basically doom your efforts from the start. Measure adoption and use and keep an eye on it. Ultimately, staff that refuses to adapt to new processes may no longer be a good fit for the company—and tough conversations will have to be had.

Can You Measure Your Metrics?

Are you thinking about investing in property management automation? Geekly Media can help. All of our automation solutions include detailed reporting built into the system to help you see just how effective your new automation is.

If you are interested in learning more about how much automation can transform your business, download our case study showing real results from real clients—then book a discovery call with us to see if we are a good fit! We're excited to make this year your best yet.