Stop missing enquiries in property management: five practical fixes

If you manage properties in the UK, you’re not short of enquiries. You’re short of time, headspace, and clean handovers.

A tenant rings about a leak while someone’s already on the phone to a contractor. A landlord emails an invoice with three attachments and a one-line message that somehow implies it’s urgent. A new lettings enquiry calls during a viewing. Someone takes a message and says they’ll call back in five minutes, and they genuinely mean it, but the next ten things happen and the callback quietly becomes “tomorrow”.

By the end of the day you’re not wondering whether you’ve got enough demand. You’re wondering which of today’s conversations will come back as a complaint, which one was a hot lead, and which one’s going to turn into an escalation because nobody sent an update.

This is a workflow problem.

And the fix is rarely “buy a massive system and retrain everyone for a month”. The fix is usually a set of small, practical behaviours that you can implement quickly, then tighten over time. They map neatly to what OdjoAI automates (call logging and summaries, inbox categorisation, routing, case creation, dashboards), but you can benefit from the approach regardless of what tools you use.

Below are five changes that consistently reduce missed calls, lost emails, duplicated replies, and those painful “I’ve already explained this twice” conversations. It’s written for property management teams, but it applies to any business where enquiries arrive all day and there’s a real cost when they slip.

1) Decide what an enquiry becomes the moment it arrives

Enquiries go missing because they arrive as “messages” rather than “work”.

A phone call feels urgent while it’s happening, then it becomes a memory. An email feels like something to reply to, then it becomes part of a thread nobody wants to touch. A WhatsApp message feels informal until it suddenly isn’t, and now you’re scrolling through a group chat looking for an address and a date.

So pick one rule and make it non-negotiable:

Every enquiry becomes a trackable item within one minute.

Call it a case, ticket, task, job, or simply an “open item”. The label doesn’t matter. The existence matters, because once it’s trackable, it can be owned, triaged, and followed up without relying on anyone’s memory.

The minimum capture that actually works in property

Keep it simple enough that staff will do it. The moment you make it feel like admin, it’ll get skipped on busy days, which are the exact days you need it most.

A strong minimum capture for UK property management looks like this:

• Who contacted you (tenant, landlord, contractor, applicant)
• How (call, email, portal, WhatsApp, walk-in)
• Contact details (phone or email)
• Property address (or at least postcode if that’s all they’ve got)
• What they want, in one clear sentence
• Category (repairs, compliance, accounts, lettings, general)
• Owner (one person accountable for next step)
• Next step and when it’ll happen

That “owner” field fixes an astonishing amount of chaos, because shared responsibility is often the real reason things slip.

If you want something staff can type quickly after a call, this template works well:

• Caller and number:
• Address:
• Reason for call:
• What they’re worried about (in their words):
• What we agreed today:
• Next step and deadline:
• Owner:

The aim is that anyone in the team can pick up the thread tomorrow without detective work.

2) Fix missed calls by treating the phone like a queue

In property, the phone is still where urgency arrives first. People ring when they’re stressed, when something’s time-sensitive, or when email feels too slow. That’s exactly why missed calls matter.

If you need a reminder of why speed matters, it’s worth reading the lead response research. While it’s often discussed in the context of web leads, the behaviour pattern is familiar: contact rates and conversion drop sharply as response time increases. Here are two useful references:

• MIT lead response time study (PDF)
• Why timing is everything when responding to leads

Property isn’t SaaS, but the human part is the same. If someone doesn’t hear back, they’ll either try someone else or they’ll escalate.

A missed-call system that reduces chaos fast

You don’t need fancy telephony to do this well, but you do need a routine.

Set a callback promise you can actually keep.
If your team can’t reliably call back within an hour, don’t promise an hour. Promise a same-day window and hit it consistently. Reliability beats ambitious promises you miss.

Turn missed calls into callback tasks quickly.
If a call is missed, it should land as an item in the queue with the caller’s number, the time, and an assigned owner. If you’re doing it manually, set a rule that missed calls get logged within ten minutes of being noticed.

Route by intent.
Even on a busy day you can ask two quick questions:

• “Is this about a specific property address?”
• “Is it repairs, accounts, lettings, compliance, or something else?”

If a caller doesn’t want to share details, you can still route them based on the broad reason they’re calling. The goal is to reduce internal ping-pong and stop enquiries floating around.

Be clear about out-of-hours behaviour.
If you don’t handle emergencies out of hours, say that clearly and provide the right route. If you do have an emergency line, make sure it’s genuinely monitored, not just a voicemail box that’s checked the next morning.

When OdjoAI is used for this part of the workflow, the big win is that missed calls don’t become “lost”. They’re recorded, summarised, and turned into trackable follow-ups. But even without automation, the discipline above will move the needle.

3) Make your shared inbox behave like a workflow

Shared inboxes start with good intentions. One place for everything, everyone can see it, nothing gets missed.

Then volume increases and the inbox turns into a holding pen.

Some emails get replied to twice because two people think they own it. Other emails get replied to zero times because everyone assumes someone else will do it. Attachments get separated from context. “Quick questions” become long threads with no clear outcome.

The fix isn’t “check the inbox more”. The fix is assignment and visibility.

If you want a good overview of the principles, this guide explains it well:
Shared inbox management

A shared inbox setup that fits property management

If you’re managing repairs, compliance, and accounts through one inbox, you’re making life harder than it needs to be.

The simplest structure that works well is to separate by intent:

• repairs@
• accounts@
• compliance@
• lettings@
• general@

If you can’t split inboxes, split views and tags inside one inbox. The point is that urgent repair reports shouldn’t sit in the same pile as invoices and viewing requests with no distinction.

Then set basic rules your team can stick to:

• Every message is either assigned to an owner or parked with a reason
• Anything urgent is acknowledged quickly, even if it can’t be resolved yet
• Attachments get saved where they belong (case, job, property record)
• Every thread ends with a clear next step, or it gets re-opened as an open item

This also makes handovers less painful. If someone’s off sick, the team can still see what’s open, what’s waiting on a contractor, and what’s already been promised to a landlord.

4) Triage maintenance and compliance properly, because “reasonable time” isn’t a strategy

Property isn’t a normal customer service environment. Repairs and hazards come with legal and reputational weight.

In private renting, there isn’t one universal timeline for every repair, but the expectation is that repairs are carried out within a reasonable time depending on urgency and circumstances, and keeping a written record matters. These are useful references that shape tenant expectations as well as operational best practice:

• GOV.UK: Repairs in private renting
• Shelter: How long should a private landlord take to do repairs?
• Citizens Advice: Getting repairs done if you’re renting privately

In the social rented sector, there are clearer expectations and a growing focus on timeframes and processes, including around damp and mould. If you manage mixed portfolios or work with social landlords, these are worth reading:

• GOV.UK: Awaab’s Law guidance and timeframes
• Housing Ombudsman: Damp and mould expectations
• Housing Ombudsman: Damp and mould support guide

Operationally, the takeaway is simple: you can’t triage repairs by “feel” when you’re busy. You need a triage model that staff can apply fast and consistently.

A triage model that teams actually use

Keep it to three levels:

Urgent
Safety risk or major damage risk. Acknowledge immediately and act same day where possible.

Important
Service affecting and time sensitive. Acknowledge quickly with clear next steps and a promised update.

Routine
Minor issues and general admin. Keep visible in the queue with consistent response windows.

Then define what information needs to be captured for triage to work:

• address
• issue type
• severity as described by the caller
• photos if available
• access constraints
• any vulnerability flags if relevant

You’ll find that a lot of “urgent” calls calm down the moment you ask the right questions and send a proper acknowledgement. You’ll also find that many routine issues become urgent because they were left ambiguous for too long.

5) Replace memory with a visible queue and a daily rhythm

The biggest lie in busy offices is “I’ll remember”.

You will remember, until you don’t. Your colleague will remember, until they’re off. The contractor will remember, until they don’t answer the phone. The landlord will remember, which is why they’ll chase.

So build a system that doesn’t depend on heroic memory.

At any moment, you should be able to see:

• what’s open
• what’s urgent
• who owns each item
• what the next step is
• what’s overdue
• what’s waiting on someone else (tenant, landlord, contractor)

Then add a rhythm that forces the queue to be checked even on busy days.

A rhythm that works in real property offices:

• 9:15am: triage overnight emails and missed calls, assign owners
• 2:30pm: review what’s still open today, send updates, chase contractors
• End of day: quick scan for anything urgent with no acknowledgement sent

That’s it. Five minutes at a time if your queue’s clean. It saves hours of messy chasing later.

The metrics that actually improve performance

Track a handful of numbers weekly:

• missed call rate (missed calls ÷ inbound calls)
• first response time (average and worst-case)
• time to resolution for maintenance (split by urgent, important, routine)
• reopen rate (cases marked done that come back)
• chaser rate (how often tenants or landlords have to follow up)

These are the numbers that tell you whether the workflow is working. They also show where you should tighten the process instead of blaming staff for being busy.

Common questions people have

How do property managers reduce missed calls?

Treat missed calls like a queue, turn them into callback tasks, and set a callback window your team can reliably meet. Missed calls don’t get solved by “trying harder”, they get solved by a repeatable process.

What’s the best way to manage maintenance requests?

Capture every request as a case, triage urgency, assign an owner, acknowledge quickly with a clear next step, and keep a visible queue so nothing sits in an inbox thread.

How long does a landlord have to do repairs in the UK?

In private renting, there’s no single magic number for every repair, but repairs should be carried out within a reasonable time depending on urgency and circumstances, and keeping a clear record helps. See GOV.UK repairs guidance and Shelter’s explanation of reasonable time.

Why do shared inboxes fail in property management?

Because ownership’s unclear and statuses are invisible. The fix is assignment, a small number of categories, and a daily rhythm that clears open items. This explains the principles well: Shared inbox management.

If this feels familiar, it’s because this is the day-to-day reality we built OdjoAI around. It helps teams keep calls, emails, and follow-ups in one place, so nothing gets lost and no one has to rely on memory to keep things moving.