I have written previously about what steps can be taken to mitigate out of hours emergencies and given one extreme example of how involved just one issue can be. But what resources are required to be prepared for your portfolio’s out of hours needs? In this stat heavy piece we examine the numbers involved.
All these figures are based on a yearly average and of course will have seasonal fluctuations (but we will cover that) and come with the caveat that these are also averages across all portfolio’s and some will have heavier volumes than others where quality of build, differing profile of residents and differentiating required service levels need to be taken in to account.
All figures are based upon 15 years of statistics compiled by our team. When haven’t said emergencies above because as most people will know, not all the calls received outside office hours are actually urgent but we still have to deal with those. From now on we will refer to them as emergencies for ease.
So, the first question that everything else stems from; how many issues will I get?
Well, the average is 12% (its actually 11 point something but 12 makes the maths a lot more straightforward) of your portfolio per annum. Therefore, if you have 1000 units expect 120 emergencies or an average of 10 a month.
Now the seasonal variation we mentioned means that in real life this is more like 6 in the summer months to 14 in the Winter.
Within those issues you should also be aware of the number of calls involved – the average here is 7.5 to include the original incoming calls and then outbound to include instructing a contractor, updating site/residents and following up to ensure the job is complete.
When do those issues arise; well, again based on averages some of highlights are…
Monday to Friday 5pm to Midnight will see 35%
Monday to Friday 6am to 9am would be 7%
Weekends 9am to 5pm would be 36%
Finally, what types of issues will my calls be about?
Not surprisingly top is leaks at 16.5%
Alarms and AOV’s at 8%
Lifts at 5%
Communal Access at 5%
Communal Boilers at 3%
Hopefully this provides some insight into the world of out of hours, the full breakdown of averages, times and types of issues are available from us along with the associated costs so if you require more detailed information please do get in touch.
Colin Stokes is MD of adiuvo, the largest specialized call handling service in the UK who have managed over 900,000 out of hours issues on behalf of their clients.
For more from adiuvo, click here.
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