A room full of people and the sounders go off
Your engineers are servicing the fire alarm in a multi-tenant office building. The managing agent emailed the tenants a week ago, or at least meant to. On the third floor, a company is running an interview day. On the fifth, a training room is full. The sounders go off during a device test, and people start leaving the building because nobody told them it was a test. The tenants complain to the managing agent, and the managing agent complains to you.
The same happens at a shared industrial estate, a medical centre with several practices, and a block with ground-floor shops and flats above.
Why tenants are not told
In a shared building your customer is usually the landlord or managing agent, not the tenants. Notice depends on the managing agent passing on the date, and tenant contact lists are often out of date.
- Visit dates are confirmed with the managing agent, not the tenants.
- Tenant contact lists are held by the managing agent and not always current.
- Notices go out once, a week before, and are forgotten.
- Tenants have no easy way to raise a clash, such as an exam or an event.
- Engineers find out about clashes when they arrive.
Arrangements for alarm testing in occupied buildings are for the building's responsible people to decide. We build the communication around the arrangements they set.
What surprise testing costs
Complaints from tenants damage your customer's relationship with them, and your customer's view of you. Disrupted visits run over, or have to be rearranged. Engineers are put in awkward positions with frustrated occupants. And managing agents may decide a different firm would be less trouble.
Notices that reach every tenant
We build a tenant notice process into your visit scheduling for multi-occupied buildings.
- For each shared building, the managing agent keeps a tenant contact list through a simple link, adding and removing contacts as tenants change.
- When a visit is confirmed, every tenant contact receives a notice with the date, the expected testing times and what they will hear, in wording the managing agent has approved.
- Tenants can reply through a link to flag a clash, such as an event or an exam, which goes to the managing agent and your office to consider.
- A reminder goes to tenants the day before and on the morning of the visit.
- On the day, the engineer can send a short message to tenants when testing starts and when it finishes.
- Your office and the managing agent can see who was notified and when, for each visit.
| Step | Today | With tenant notices |
|---|---|---|
| Tenant list | Managing agent's old spreadsheet | Kept current through a link |
| First notice | Maybe, a week before | Sent to every tenant on confirmation |
| Clashes | Found on the day | Flagged by tenants beforehand |
| Reminders | None | Day before and on the morning |
| Record | None | Who was told and when |
A visit to a multi-tenant office, the new way
Two weeks before the visit, all fifteen tenant contacts receive the notice. The third-floor tenant replies that they have an interview day; the managing agent agrees with your office to test that floor's devices in the afternoon after interviews end. Reminders go out the day before and on the morning. The engineer sends a start message at nine and a finish message at three. Nobody leaves the building by mistake, and the managing agent receives no complaints.
Where it gets awkward, and how that is handled
Some buildings have tenants who never read emails, or a reception desk that is the real point of contact. The managing agent can mark a contact as print and post, in which case the notice is prepared as a PDF for the building's noticeboard or reception, and the record shows it was produced. When a tenant moves out mid-way through a notice cycle, the managing agent removes them through the same link and the reminders stop. And where a clash cannot be worked around, the reply goes to the managing agent to decide, not to your engineer on the day.
What you end up with
Visits that go to plan. Tenants who know what to expect. Managing agents who see you making their life easier. And a record of notices that settles any argument about whether people were told.
Signs you need tenant notices
- Tenants have complained about unannounced alarm testing.
- Visits in shared buildings are disrupted by clashes.
- You rely on managing agents to pass on dates.
- Tenant contact lists are out of date.
- You have no record of who was told about a visit.