Fort Carson housing partner upgrades call service

By Scott Prater, Fort Carson Public Affairs OfficeMarch 15, 2021

Fort Carson housing partner upgrades call service
FORT CARSON, Colo. — Mark Chamberlain, residential maintenance technician, Fort Carson Family Homes, repairs a light fixture at a home in the Cherokee Village neighborhood on post last summer. Fort Carson housing residents can now reach a live service agent 24/7 to log maintenance work orders and report issues. (Photo Credit: Scott Prater) VIEW ORIGINAL

FORT CARSON, Colo. — Fort Carson Family Homes residents at Fort Carson should have an easier time logging work orders and scheduling maintenance thanks to a new service supported by 24/7 live work order agents.

Balfour Beatty Communities (BBC), the post’s housing management partner, launched the new service for Fort Carson Family Homes residents March 1, 2021, and work order agents began responding to questions and scheduling maintenance appointments instantly.

“We now have a live agent who answers calls to our maintenance line and is able to enter residents’ work orders, schedule work orders and dispatch technicians on the spot,” said Justin Mueller, senior regional facility manager, Balfour Beatty Communities. “That’s significant because we’re improving the overall resident experience and ensuring residents have more certainty around when we’ll be there to make repairs.”

An important feature of the new service is its 24/7 functionality.

“We received customer feedback that it was difficult to place a work order at times or to get a person on the phone,” Mueller said. “This program was something we looked at to help eliminate those challenges and concerns. It’s going to be extremely beneficial, and will help streamline the work order process. It should help residents spend less actual time placing a work order – from 3 to 5 minutes. Whatever we can do to make this process easier for residents while taking care of their concerns promptly (will be beneficial) and allows us to be at a resident’s house within a couple days. That’s the goal of this whole program.”

Previously, when residents called the Fort Carson Family Homes maintenance line at 719-579-1065 during business hours, they reached a work order agent at

Fort Carson. After business hours and during heavy call-volume times, resident calls were routed to a call service, which then sent messages to Fort Carson Family Homes representatives.

As of March 1, 2021, all calls to the maintenance line go to live work order agents who are directly connected to the BBC work order system and can enter and schedule work orders, dispatch teams for urgent or emergency work orders, as well as provide status information on open work orders.

“Anything residents call in, whether it’s a water leak or an appliance issue, the work order will be immediately entered in our system and we’ll dispatch our teams according to the work order priority and resident availability,” Mueller said. “If we receive a call for an emergency or urgent request, we will dispatch that information straight to a technician so they can respond promptly. If it’s a routine request, we will log it in our system and schedule the appointment with the resident at the time the request is submitted, which is huge for us.”

BBC leaders indicated that the new approach has been in the planning and implementation stages for some time.

“There has been a significant investment to improve our services to residents,” said Shawna Swanson, Army west regional property manager for BBC. “Justin (Mueller) has spent probably the last six months getting all the data and the functionality ready.”

Getting the new work order agents up to speed on elements specific to the Fort Carson Family Homes community also required lengthy and focused training.

“Really, its nothing we didn’t do for our traditional work order administrators,” Mueller said. “Ultimately, we want to set our technicians up to be successful when they go out to a home, so we have specific follow up questions and directions our work order agents review with residents. We want our service technicians to have the right parts on hand so they’ll be able to resolve the issue the first time and deliver the exceptional experience our residents expect.”

For now, the new 24/7 service is specific to Fort Carson, though BBC leaders indicated the company is looking to implement the new strategy at other BBC installations.

Also, housing management leaders were clear to point out that the new service does not supersede any other platforms customers can use to log work orders and report urgent or emergency issues. Fort Carson Family Homes residents can still communicate requests through the Rent Café app and online through the resident portal.

There are no special instructions to reach BBC via telephone. Fort Carson Family Homes residents can continue to call 719-579-1065, just as in the past, to log work orders or report issues.