It has now been nearly 5 weeks since the country entered lockdown and we thought our customers would be interested to hear how, over this period, we have been very active and thankfully able to continue providing our services.
Working from Home
All our Property Managers very quickly adapted to a regime of working from home. We equipped them with all the tools necessary to continue to provide a Property Factoring service, including laptops linked to our IT and telephony systems through enhanced server provision, and with regular interaction and team meetings taking place via daily Zoom meetings. Around 3 years ago, as part of our Corporate Social Responsibility commitment we chose to invest heavily in working towards a paperless office. This has been hugely beneficial at this particular time as our staff in all departments, not only Property Managers, can function just as they would in the office setting. All paper communications which come into our office are now scanned onto our system.
As a responsible employer we took account of other facilities which might make working remotely, away from the office environment, equally productive. Where it assisted our staff, they were provided with appropriate home working desks, office chairs etc. We are very proud of how our staff, and our IT partners continue to work through these difficult times for the benefit of our customers who require our services. We are also very grateful to the numerous contractors who continue, where necessary, to provide our customers with important services in a safe manner and in accordance with Government guidelines. We have been very clear with contractors that they should only continue to provide services where they can work safely within the Governments guidelines. Our staff also appreciate, hugely, the expressions of gratitude from many of our customers for continuing to provide our vital service.
Maintenance of Common Property – Business as Usual
While unfortunately some businesses have found it challenging, and sadly, sometimes impossible to provide services in the current environment, our customers have kept us very busy. With our investment in technology over the years, allied to the commitment of our staff and service suppliers, we have been able to continue to meet our customer’s needs, handling requests for common works on a daily basis. In addition to these daily requests, we continue to keep customers updated on their regular communal services, some of which are listed below, most of which have been unaffected by the lockdown:
- Building Insurance
- Public Liability Insurance
- Energy Supplies for stair lighting, door entry systems etc
- 24-hour emergency response service
- 24-hour insurance claims service
- Fire Fighting Facility Inspections
- Lift Engineering Inspections
- Emergency Lift Phone Lines
- Common Garden Maintenance
- Common Cleaning and/or disinfecting
- Play Park safety inspections
- Concierge services
We continue to be available to all our customers during normal business hours over this difficult period, and to enable us to do so, the infrastructure of the business is fully functioning. If any of our customers are aware of any communal matters requiring attention, we would urge them to telephone their Property Manager, who is available to help.
We hope this article provides more of an understanding of the essential service we continue to make available during the period of the Government restrictions.
For further information on the steps we have been taking as a business during the pandemic to ensure our service to all our customers remains unaffected, and for the all the latest updates, please visit your MY H&P App or Web Portal.
Please continue to stay safe.
