It is possible that the the maintenance team is the most digitally operational team in the building. Besides using HVAC controls that can be operated by phone, most of the team’s communication is app based.

Maintenance Request Tickets   Two years ago our Maintenance Team. moved its ticket system from paper to digital. The advantages were that the requests became transparent, easier to track, and allowed a means for us to maintain a slow chat about particular maintenance issues among ourselves and effected parties without maintaining complicated email threads. After investigating options we adopted the same system used successfully by our I.T. team– Zendesk.com

Conveniently staff can send cleaning, repair, and set up requests by email to Zendesk. Then I assign ticket responsibility to an team member. If we get a backlog I will call a meeting, but generally the work gets requested, assigned, completed very efficiently.

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GroupMe
Our communication with crew leaders is mainly through our smart phones. We were having communication issues, however because we were using both email and text messages. Unfortunately information was not being shared efficiently as we would neglect to “reply all” or include everyone on information that would benefit all. Consequently I asked our faculty which group text app they used for youth sports, girl scouts, family groups. I got lots of feedback and eleven different suggested app. The most votes went to GroupMe.  My maintenance group adopted it and we have had great success. We have also adopted protocols. Instead of me alone being texted when contractors are in the building or a team member is absent, we use GroupMe.