3 Things you can implement to managing your high-volume strata inbox more efficiently

How you manage your high-volume strata inbox can certainly impact the outcomes of your workflow and client satisfaction.

The following three things I’ve implemented to help me manage my high-volume inbox, which you can easily implement too:

Implement the ‘do, delegate, defer and delete’ approach when you receive an email

Do: Simply put, act on your email. Whether it’s a quick reply, phone call or you allocate some time to action it.

Delegate: allocate and forward the email to those who report to you across departments, horizontally to your peers and even upwards. If you find you don’t have anyone to delegate to, can you start training someone or outsource the task?

Defer: If the email requires more than a couple of minutes of time to complete, you can defer it until later. Whether you schedule it in your calendar for later that day or for the following day. Having a clear plan of when you’ll respond can ease that overwhelming feeling of “having to reply to all those emails”

Delete: Simply put, if you don’t need it, delete it. Unwanted emails can instantly clog up your inbox, so the sooner you delete it, the cleaner your inbox will be.

Use software that tracks your emails

Most software programs have embedded email tracking which can be linked to a profile such as your client or stakeholder. This creates a comprehensive profile of every interaction you or your colleagues have had with them and becomes very beneficial at times of queries or conflict.

This feature is certainly one I recommend you use. The seamless tracking of your email against a profile means you do not need to keep multiple email threads sitting in your inbox or archive folders. Once you have finished with an email you can delete it. Your emails are easily searchable and available to you at any time.

Using this approach means your inbox essentially works as your to-do list, you can have the emails you have to action and emails you’re waiting on responses too.

Implement an online communication board

As a strata manager you’re the first point of contact when something goes wrong, whether you receive an email or a call, you may receive 10, 40, 100 plus emails about the same issue from multiple stakeholders.

To eliminate this, I recommend implementing an online communication board. All stakeholders can have access to view and add to the board, which means when there is a problem, for example, the light in the elevator is out, a person can post the issue on the board and as the strata manager you can reply with updates for example “The light will be fixed at 4:00pm today”, “Light is now fixed”

The board acts as the first reference point for updates on the building before stakeholders contact you, the strata manager, whilst keeping you in the centre of everything that is happening within the building.

With a motion at the next general meeting, everyone can be informed and educated through the communication board. As a result, communication and client satisfaction is improved, a sense of community is built and your inbound emails will have reduced dramatically.

StrataVault is an industry designed cloud-based platform which is currently offering the above features to manage your high-volume inbox more efficiently.

StrataVault also has benefits such as improving your general and committee meetings and ensuring your building safety compliance is available at a moment’s notice.