How do residents prefer to get what they need from a service provider? They text, they talk to customer service, they send photos and videos to report their issues and discuss possible solutions. Consumers everywhere are used to an interactive back-and-forth, to communication. Now think about how residents still have to report a leaking faucet: Logging into a web portal, navigating dropdown menus, uploading photos, entering details into a text box, waiting for notifications. Residents have to fill out forms, when what they expect, and deserve, is a conversation.

This isn't a software problem. The software to give residents the interactions they need is certainly available and already in use across multiple industries. Every sector from food delivery to medical insurance implements some sort of conversational, interactive system to put users in touch with a person or AI agent who can assist them. The problem is one of user experience (UX), and property maintenance needs an update out of some outdated best practices.

What's wrong with legacy work orders?

This outmoded UX approach made sense for a long time. People were used to filling out forms online or on apps to get what they needed from any service. In fact, most people still know how. But consumer habits have simply moved on. Residents might have different expectations by demographics, but generally expect some sort of real-time, personal attention, whether from a chatbot or a living person. They want guidance, suggestions, and regular updates during a single, efficient interaction. Everything else feels tiresome and confusing, and nobody wants to fill out forms.

Add to this, the many friction points on offer when asking residents to explain and define problems in which they have no expertise. Residents who can't categorize a problem can easily misdiagnose what's going on. Maintenance teams often end up needing to make second trips when they arrive to fix a miscategorized problem, then need to return with the tools to handle what's wrong. All the while, residents who are used to instant feedback from their food delivery apps, are waiting impatiently with no visibility into the maintenance process into their flooded bathroom or broken HVAC unit.

Switching to a natural language model

If sluggish communication, miscategorized problems, inefficient repairs, and frustrated residents are the past, what does the future look like? For residential maintenance, the future needs to start resembling the present of many other industries that already leverage tools like voice, text, and video. All residential property leaders need to join the cutting edge of communications to adopt technologies that are already well-established.

With a high-quality conversational interface, residents can have real-time conversations or send text messages or video content to an instantly responsive AI agent. This agent is equipped to parse and accurately identify any problem using photos, video, and plain-language descriptions to determine what the resident needs. Rather than dispatching maintenance teams to fix the wrong problems, the AI agent understands the problem and creates accurate, actionable workflows to ensure maintenance professionals go in ready to quickly handle the issue.

Goodbye reactive tickets, hello proactive workflows

Catch an important term in that last sentence? Because solving the UX problem also means graduating from work orders to workflows. The difference is that a work order lists a problem and tells maintenance teams to solve it, while a workflow guides professionals throughout the entire process. A workflow outlines all necessary steps, including best practices and oft-forgotten tips. This means a better front-end for residents only matters if it feeds into a connected system that acts on the information it receives.

With the right AI-driven UX, not only will residents have an easier, frictionless experience reporting issues, the proactive AI agents that receive their complaints will use pattern recognition, machine learning, and generative AI to automate the entire process. Maintenance teams won't just know what's wrong, they'll be guided through every step of the repairs to eliminate wasted cycles and repeat trips. None of this works, though, without guardrails: the AI agent needs verified, controlled data sources and clear escalation paths built in, so it never leaves a resident with a misleading or inaccurate answer that opens the door to legal risk.

A new horizon for maintenance teams

Workflows also mean much more rewarding and efficient processes for maintenance teams. Rather than micromanaging professional approaches to problem-solving, AI-generated workflows present itemized and easily approachable step-by-step techniques that offer ideal solutions while leaving room for personal expertise. Newer maintenance team members can also feel secure in following the workflows precisely to make sure they never miss an important step while they build their skillset. This also solves a long-standing institutional problem. Property knowledge used to live in the head of whichever technician had worked a site the longest, all the quirks and history of a building's systems built up over years on the job. AI-generated workflows put that same insight in front of every technician the moment they arrive, whether they're brand new to the role or a veteran who's simply new to that property.

The result for maintenance teams: less time spent parsing vague tickets, less effort chasing and updating manual statuses, fewer wasted trips without enough information, and more time spent making repairs. AI-generated workflows can even guide teams through the ideal route from property to property to save on gas and travel time. The right platform even meets teams where they are by integrating with the tools they already use.

UX investment, operational payoff

By switching to a real-time, AI-driven maintenance reporting system, residential operators can build a strong foundation of benefits from residents to maintenance teams to building managers. Knock-on gains like fewer after-hours emergency calls and earlier intervention on recurring equipment issues all contribute to improved resident retention and higher NOI.

As operators evaluate the available models for a modernized approach to UX, it is key to look for flexibility, a powerful and robust AI model, smooth and reliable workflows, and a resident-friendly voice. With the right platform, residential living businesses can avoid the pitfalls of outdated systems and ensure maintenance teams handle every problem with flying colors.