I would like to share this article as I know many of my residential industry friends will relate and find interesting. While it is written with apartment/multi-family properties in mind, but it certainly applies to condos as well. Over the past 3 years or so, there has been an undeniable crisis affecting the front desk, valet and receiving staff members, not only during the holidays but year-round. More and more residents chose to do their shopping online, overflowing storage rooms, common areas, and management offices in some cases.
Our friends from Bisnow.com include valuable data and cite real cases, scenarios, and solutions that some property managers have come up with. I personally believe that there is not a unique solution to the problem, and each property has to assess its own situation on how to handle the overflow of packages and the options available in their market. A critical part of the solution, however, is integrating a dedicated staff member or creating a department dedicated to effectively receive, scan, store and distribute packages.
There will be technology, systems and space components to deal with, but the human factor needs to be part of any plan. So far we have seen how overwhelmed front desk agents are tasked with most of this process, involuntarily dropping the ball in the customer service experience to their residents, and in some cases being unfairly blamed for it. Based on the data, this problem will only get worse, so the time to implement a plan is now.
Marcelo A. Rivero
CEO/ Luxury Concierge Network
CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE
Published by: www.bisnow.com