Andrew Lamb uses a Google Forms system that feeds into a spreadsheet to track maintenance requests across his sober living homes, with a seven-day resolution target. He hires skilled trades workers or responsible residents for repairs while keeping unlicensed residents out of the work, and requests come through weekly house meetings or house managers.
So I mentioned that we have a Slack channel for repairs, but when it comes to maintenance requests, really want to build a team. So we have a handyman. We do have a lot of people in the trades inside of our home. So occasionally we'll identify somebody who communicates well and is responsible, and we will hire them to do some work around the homes. Occasionally some people might try to just do work on their own. And so I've been surprised with people saying, hey, I fix this, I fix that. But we try to limit that because we want licensed skilled workers working on our homes. So we'll identify just a few people who it might make sense to pay like a handyman fee or kind of fee for service. And they can do some things around the home. But the way we track that actually is through Google forms. So we have a form that our team submits or what the maintenance request is. Again, these can come up during our weekly house meetings. Or it could just be a house manager inside of the home saying, hey, this is what I was told needs to be fixed right away, or like an emergency situation or plumbing issue. So we get that form, it fills out a spreadsheet, and what we try to do is get back to that and fix it within as soon as possible. But nothing should drag on past seven days for sure, even if it's a small thing.
