The Call Audit: Where They Come From and What They Cost
The first step is to measure. Over two weeks, teams at four offices logged the origin, duration and type of every incoming call. The results were surprisingly consistent:
- 28% of calls: queries about fees and payment status
- 21% of calls: maintenance incidents (breakdowns, requests)
- 18% of calls: questions about regulations or bylaws
- 14% of calls: document requests (certificates, minutes)
- 11% of calls: meeting notices and schedules
- 8% of calls: cases that genuinely required a human conversation
92% of calls could have been resolved through another channel. But owners call because it is the fastest and most familiar option for them.
Why Owners Prefer to Call
The answer is not what it seems. Owners do not call because they prefer the phone. They call because the alternatives do not give them confidence in a fast response. If they know an email takes two days, they call. If they know the portal is not up to date, they call. If they know the chat responds in eight minutes with the correct information, they do not call.
"I used to call because nobody replied on WhatsApp before 10. Now the chat responds in five minutes with the document reference. I have no reason to call anymore."
— Anonymous owner, community in Sabadell
The Migration Strategy in Four Steps
Step 1: Activate the chat with real responses (not static FAQs)
The critical difference is that the chat responds with information specific to that community, not with generic answers. "Your monthly fee for the 2026 fiscal year is €94, approved at the meeting on November 12, 2025 (Minutes #47, item 3)" is a thousand times more useful than "For fee information, contact your manager".
Step 2: Actively communicate the new channel
Send a communication to all owners: "We have activated a 24-hour query assistant at [access]. It answers questions about fees, bylaws, meeting notices and maintenance in under 5 minutes. For emergencies, the phone remains available from 9 to 18h."
When an owner calls, the first IVR message is: "For queries about fees, regulations or documents, you can get an immediate response in our WhatsApp chat at [number]. For technical emergencies, press 1. To speak with a manager, press 2."
This change alone reduces calls by 25% without any other effort, because some owners will prefer the faster option once they know it exists.
Step 4: Measure and adjust monthly
Each month, review the percentage of calls vs. chats and the type of calls still coming in. If calls about fees continue, the migration message probably has not reached that segment of owners, or the chat is not answering those specific queries well.
Owner Education: The Step Many Skip
There are two groups of owners who will keep calling no matter what: those over 70 who do not use smartphones and those with a complex incident that genuinely requires a conversation. For the first group, the phone is still the right channel. For the second, it is too. The goal is not to eliminate the phone: it is to eliminate unnecessary calls.
Results at Six Months
Across the four offices in the study, at six months after implementation:
- Total call reduction: between 58% and 74% (average: 67%)
- Phone time/day per admin staff member: from 3.1 hours to 1.0 hours
- Owner satisfaction with response time: from 3.2/5 to 4.6/5
Frequently Asked Questions
What about owners who do not want to use chat?
They have every right to keep calling. The goal is to make the chat so good that owners choose to use it by preference, not by obligation. The phone channel should never be eliminated.
The system authenticates the owner by phone number (on WhatsApp) or by credentials on the web portal. They can only see information about their own properties. Debt information is only shown to the debtor owner, never to third parties.
Related Articles
Try IgeraFincas freeDiscover how IgeraFincas answers residents' questions by citing the exact clause from the bylaws, without the manager having to intervene.
See IgeraFincas
