We’re Hiring: Managed Services Assistant

We’re passionate about staycations, fabulous holiday homes and exceptional, friendly service. We’re all about matching the most authentic, beautiful, and sought-after properties with the most discerning holiday makers.

Dedicated to finding and opening the doors to some of the most remarkable houses in Great Britain, we’ve slowly grown our portfolio of exclusive holiday homes to comprise over 300 unique and inspiring properties across Northumberland, the Scottish Borders, the Lothians and Yorkshire. From wisteria-bestrewn cottages and grand manor houses to a stylishly converted cowshed, each has been carefully handpicked for its stunning location, unusual architecture, remarkable history or beautiful interiors.

The calibre of our property portfolio is matched only by the uniquely thoughtful, personal and comprehensive service that we offer to both our homeowners and guests. From sharing local recommendations and insider tips to ensuring our holiday homes are homely, welcoming and in tip-top condition, we pride ourselves on going the extra mile to guarantee that every C&C holiday is one to remember.

About the Role

The Managed Services Assistant is responsible for the operational success of the managed services commitment offered to homeowners to ensure that properties are well maintained and that managed services are constantly delivered to a high standard, fulfilling the contractual obligations to owners.

Reporting directly to the Managed Services Manager and working closely with the Property Team and the Property Consultants to manage the coordination and all arrangements for the managed services delivery.

Key Responsibilities & Outputs

Management of Maintenance and Property Services

• Managing the coordination and establishment of all the arrangements required to deliver a full managed service to maintain properties on behalf of their owners.
• Supporting the Property Managers by dealing with any maintenance issues that might arise within their managed services portfolio and further properties in the portfolio when required.
• Supporting the Property Consultants in assisting guests during their stay, dealing with problems they have reported on maintenance issues that require immediate assistance by arranging for maintenance support.
• Taking control of property issues quickly and effectively, working with the Property Consultants to manage guest expectations, making plans so that they are kept informed of progress made to rectify problems with their holiday property.
• Dealing with on-holiday guests in a helpful, supportive and reassuring manner, taking responsibility for finding a solution to any problems reported.
• Arranging with local tradesmen to repair or if necessary replace faulty, broken or damaged items to minimize inconvenience to guests. Helping with short-term fixes (such as the provision of portable heaters) whilst more complicated issues are being actioned.
• Making it a priority that all issues that have been identified have been resolved where possible within a 24/48 hour period to prevent any substantial impact on the guests holiday.
• Where necessary, visiting properties when complaints are received to assess the problem coordinating the most effective action plan and following it through to completion.
• Managing complaints and updating Property Managers, Assistant Property Managers and Property Consultants with situation and progress reports and problem resolution.
• Keeping all property notes updated on Supercontrol in a timely manner so that they can be accessed by the rest of the team.
• Developing good practice and promoting a proactive and preventative approach to property maintenance, to assist owners in maintaining high quality properties.
• Carrying out the system-based setups and administration needed for all managed properties, making sure information is kept up to date and correctly configured on Supercontrol.
• Ensuring that all managed services operations are carried out in line with all relevant health and safety legislation and guidelines.
• Supporting owners to ensure their property meets all legal health and safety compliance requirements including Electrical and Gas Safety, Fire Safety and PAT testing.
• Scheduling and arranging yearly maintenance tasks such as chimney sweeping and boiler servicing.
• Making sure that all reports and documentation are updated and stored within the property managed files, such as gas and electrical safety certificates, compliance certificates and access statements.
• Promoting the implementation of managed services so that this service can be provided to existing and new homeowners.
• Supporting the consistent delivery of an effective out-of-hours support function for guests, suppliers and homeowners, ensuring excellent service is delivered at all times.
• Assisting with minor maintenance task if required, such as changing batteries, bulbs, etc.

Managing Relationships with External Tradesman and Maintenance Teams

• Building strong long-term relationships with a range of local tradesmen, to cover the provision of property maintenance service delivery across all areas of need.
• Developing sufficient trade contacts and capacity to support the seasonal needs of the business and expansion of the managed service, and arranging for cover when key external suppliers are unavailable.
• Maintaining these relationships and ensuring that their standards and reliability meets our requirements and those of the homeowners.
• Coordinating the payment of invoices to tradesmen and setting up and maintaining systems for ensuring that payments are made and coded correctly and management charges to the owner statements are at the correct rate.

Housekeeping and Property Provisions

• Developing relationships with local housekeeping teams and owner housekeeping teams to ensure that this provision is well covered and to ensure uninterrupted service delivery particularly during peak seasons.
• Continually looking to build new housekeeping contacts and capacity to support the planned growth of the business.
• Arrange cover cleans and ad hoc services as required.
• Manage complaints or feedback around housekeeping standards and take action to resolve any issues.
• Making up linen bags and welcome hampers ready for each changeover
• Managing stock levels of all maintenance consumables and stock items such as light bulbs, batteries, fire lighters/wood, cleaning products, general basic household provisions on behalf of owners with a full managed service contract. Informing owners when stock levels are low and arranging for them to be restocked.
• Ensure that supplier invoices, if arranged to be managed by Crabtree & Crabtree, are processed correctly and in a timely manner. Making sure that the owners are charged at the agreed price for the billable work on their statement.
• Keeping all property maintenance notes up to date on Supercontrol in a timely manner in relation to housekeeping and stock maintenance.
• Making sure that the changeover charts are checked and correct in relation to any additional cleaning or linen requirements.

Quality Control

• Working with the Property Manager and Assistant Property Manager to ensure that high standards are maintained within the managed services portfolio.
• Delivering excellent service to homeowners and customers in relation to all property maintenance issues.
• Continually looking at ways of minimizing property maintenance complaints with the aim of reducing negative guest feedback and compensation claims.
• Carrying out proactive and periodic property inspections, feeding back constructive comments to the Property Management team and homeowners with regards to any basic maintenance work that could be carried out, improvements or deep cleans that might be required.  
• React accordingly to maintenance issues and continually develop strategies for improving turn around times and preventative actions.

Business performance and recruitment of managed services provision

• Helping to deliver the agreed annual targets for increasing the delivery of managed services and, where possible, exceed them.
• Supporting the retention of the existing portfolio by proactively managing homeowner relationships regarding managed services.

Core Skills

• First class written and verbal communication and interpersonal skills.
• Experienced at managing projects and tasks under pressure and consistently following processes and procedures to complete tasks and resolve maintenance issues.
• Experienced in making quick decisions when required
• Excellent attention to detail.
• Strong time management and multi-tasking skills with the ability to organise and prioritise workload to achieve agreed deadlines.
• Solutions oriented, with intuitive problem solving and analytical abilities. Working out short term solutions to longer term issues.
• Self-motivated with plenty of initiative to make changes and improve systems.
• Excellent IT skills with the ability to suggest improvements and better ways of using technology to enhance the Managed Service function.
• Good numerical skills for managing invoices and applying management charges to owner income/statements.
• A charismatic personality with a ‘can-do’ attitude, prepared to help in any way required to achieve Crabtree & Crabtree’s commercial objectives.

Objectives

• Portfolio performance – assisting in the maintenance of property standards, both preventative and reactive so that the high standards can be maintained.
• Operational excellence – ensuring all guest property complaints and problems are dealt with fast and effectively with an action plan put in place within 24 hours (during office hours) to resolve any issues.
• Owner experience – enhancing the Crabtree & Crabtree owner experience by going above and beyond to ensure owners receive the best possible managed service.
• Guest experience – maintaining good customer relations and reacting to guest complaints about maintenance issues, to ensure that maintenance issues are dealt with efficiently and effectively to receive positive guest feedback and overall satisfaction in relation to the presentation of properties, improvement of property maintenance, resulting in fewer complaints and compensation claims.
• Attention to detail – checking all work, including owner and guest correspondence, copy, rates and performance figures, to ensure it is accurate.
• Health & Safety compliance – ensuring that all assigned properties are compliant with relevant legislation at all times.
• Knowledge sharing – continually sharing ideas and suggestions with other members of the team and ensuring that systems are always up to date.
• Achieving Crabtree & Crabtree’s commercial objectives, as part of the wider team, including:
  • Property performance (occupancy, income and booking numbers)
  • Growth of portfolio
  • Guest and owner satisfaction
  • Overall portfolio performance

Application Process

To apply or for more information please send your CV and cover letter to hr@crabtreeandcrabtree.com.

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