In Order To Better Serve You … – Las Mañanitas Condos

In late April Las Mañanitas HOA decided to trial a "service ticket" system in order to better manage customer service interactions with you, our Members, as well as staff, vendors, service providers and others.

Screenshot of a "Dashboard" (Not LMHOA: We didn't want to possibly compromise any private messages.)

There are many software platforms that host service ticket systems, and we chose the one offered by Freshdesk because it offers the best value for our needs. In May, for example, we processed 338 service requests. We are still getting the "workflows" defined, but the platform looks very promising. We can coordinate tasks more easily -- e.g., invoice to approval, then to payables and ultimately to Associa for financial statements and reconciliation.

Or, here is a better example: an Owner submits a remodeling application for approval. Diana checks it for completeness and routes it to the Architectural Committee for evaluation.

Perhaps they need input from David about the structure of a wall involved, so ... the ticket is assigned with an "internal note" to David specifying their question.

Maybe It has to move back from David to Diana in order to look up a blueprint, which then gets forwarded, per David's instruction, to both the Architectural Committee and David. David later adds his opinion about whether the remodeling request risks any structural damage.

Every time the ball is passed, the person who has to take the next step gets a notification.

All communications are captured within a single "ticket" - email to/from the Owner, "notes" back and forth among internal Staff, forwarded emails to third parties if necessary -- and all the while, there is one "Assigned Agent" responsible to resolve the ticket. Ruthless clocks watch over all elapsed time and set off alarms and escalations defined by the "SLA" -- the service level response time specs. Every ticket can be audited by management, start to finish, to see where efficiencies can be captured.

There are still a few teething pains as we adapt the Freshdesk system to our work and vice versa. There are many features we haven't used yet, including a "knowledge base" as a resource for frequently asked questions.

We'll share more what we learn as time goes on. But so far, so good.