‘Twas the Night before Christmas…

On Friday 21 December True’s ‘physical office’ closed down for the Christmas break and all business operations were transferred to our ‘cloud office.’  This meant that while the rest of the team were having a well-earned break, Anne and I would be handling all inquiries from prospective tenants; queries from landlords; maintenance requests from tenants; conducting inspections of properties available for lease (well, Anne actually as she says I scare the children); and generally, running the show remotely from our home in Melbourne’s Eastern Suburbs.

On the Sunday evening we were sharing a bottle of ice-cold wine (it had been a stinker of a day with temperatures into the high-thirties) with some friends on our decking at home when at about 7.30pm the business phone rang which Anne answered.  All we could hear was one side of the conversation with comments such as “Are you OK?” and “Is there any damage?”

When she got off the phone some time later, she explained that a tenant in a 6 month old property in Mernda was unpacking his car in the garage when the garage door fell on top of him. He apparently was not too seriously injured but there was damage to his car and could not move it out of the garage due to the fallen door but he needed urgent attention as he was unable to move either of his cars or the heavy door.

8.00pm on the Sunday before Christmas when we knew all of the tradies and the building companies had gone on annual leave and would not be returning until mid-January.  It was without a great deal of confidence that Anne contacted the building supervisor for the company who had built the property only to be told he couldn’t assist as he was at a ‘family function’.  She then contacted a company advertising 24-hour service on garage door repairs only to be told that it would be a $350 call-out fee and nothing could be done that night.

Knowing that one of our maintenance contractors, Michael from Property One Solutions was going away with his family the following day, she contacted him to see if he knew of anyone that could help. He immediately took control and called the tenant, advised him he would be there within 30 minutes, picked up one of his team and headed off. Anne received a text message from Michael after midnight to confirm the door had been fixed.

We found out from the tenant the following morning that Michael was at the property until 2.30am in the morning, working in what would have been extremely trying conditions as the temperature in the garage would have been close to 50C. He managed to free the garage door, return home where fortunately he had parts that would allow him to carry out the work needed and returned to complete the job.

The tenant who also worked in the building trade was flabbergasted and said he had never seen such service at any time, let alone just prior to Christmas and late at night.

Having tradespeople such as Michael and Property One Solutions assisting us in managing properties gives us the confidence to live up to our business mantra – Personalised Service. Professional Results.

Tony Warren
Director

Your Turn: Have you had a service professional go out of their way for you ... or have you gone that extra mile for a customer?