Maritza Martinez

Westland Real Estate Group

By Leah Etling on Nov 8, 2012 in People

Maritza Martinez, Chief Purchasing Officer and Maintenance Coordinator of Westland Real Estate Group, Inc. in Los Angeles, has a smart and simple outlook on property maintenance. It’s about fixing things, certainly, and fixing them fast. But maintenance first and foremost is about great customer service.

“That’s my main concern – I always want to make sure the tenants are happy,” said Martinez, who started at Westland nine years ago in a purchasing position for the maintenance department. Two years later, she was promoted to her current role, in which she supervises and coordinates the maintenance crews working on Westland’s multifamily and commercial properties as well as 10 mobile home parks.

With 46 apartment buildings in LA County that account for 2400 units, as well as 40 commercial shopping centers, the Westland crews stay very busy responding to 200 to 300 calls for service in the average week. They also work on remodels and upgrades to the apartment units during tenancy turnovers.

To make sure that residents can always reach someone to address their maintenance request, no matter what time of night or day, Westland uses a hotline system that bounces to an on-call cell phone between 5:30 p.m. and 8 a.m. An on call customer service representative is assigned to monitor the overnight calls and dispatch maintenance technicians to deal with any emergencies.

Maintenance requests are also accepted through the on-site property managers and the company’s website, but Martinez told us that the telephone hotline is still the primary way services requests are submitted. In the future, she sees things moving to a web-based environment so that tracking will be easier. (Yardi’s Maintenance Mobile App is one easy way for technicians to view and respond to assigned work orders while on the go, and residents can submit their work orders via a property portal website or Resident App, which moves them directly into Voyager and a work queue.)

When hiring maintenance staff, Martinez looks not only for candidates with appropriate job skill sets, but great customer service and communication skills. “We’re going into people’s homes, we want to be sure our employees respect that,” said Martinez. “Our primary goal is to ensure that the tenant feels good about living in a Westland managed apartment. That if a problem does come up, we’re there to make it right.”

A mom of two young kids who hope to return to college to take project management courses in the future, Martinez has found that her role in the maintenance and procurement world means she’s often being asked for advice by family and friends. For remodels, household do-it-yourself projects, and plumbing and electric referrals, they know she’s got the best advice on where to go in greater LA.

Overseeing the remodeling of Westland apartment units is one aspect of her job that gives her great joy.

“Not everyone can afford to live in a luxury building, especially these days, but that doesn’t mean they don’t deserve a clean, healthy environment. We’re constantly upgrading our units with granite counter-tops, laminate flooring, new plumbing. They look great, ” she concluded.   “To me, it’s one of the most satisfying parts of my job. To know that I am part of helping people and families improve their environment by creating apartments they can feel at home in.”