Gannon Lifestyle Communities Took Maintenance Requests From 10 Days to 3.5
Gannon Lifestyle Communities, a land lease operator with four communities in New South Wales and South Australia, moved maintenance requests from Salesforce and paper forms to Conpago. Requests now average 3.5 days to close, down from 10 days. Conpago has handled more than 2,600 requests as at September 2026, and 60% of residents joined within 30 hours of launch.
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Salesforce is a customer relationship management system (CRM): software for tracking sales and customer contacts. It still runs Gannon's sales. Maintenance requests were a different job. A resident filled in a paper form, an admin entered it into Salesforce when time allowed, and the work went out to a maintenance team by phone, email or a paper slip. Below is what changed when Gannon moved that process to Conpago's retirement living software, built for communities.
Gannon at a Glance
| Operator type | Land lease lifestyle community operator |
| Communities | Four, across two states: Tamworth and Griffith (New South Wales), Angle Vale and Moonta Bay (South Australia) |
| On Conpago since | March 2026 |
| Before | Maintenance requests on paper or by phone, batch-entered into Salesforce |
| What was kept | Salesforce, for the sales side of the business |
| Conpago modules now used | Maintenance requests, chats, broadcasts, news feed, documents, community calendar, events, engagement and reporting |
How a Request Worked Before and After
| Step | Before: Salesforce, paper and batch entry | After: Conpago |
|---|---|---|
| Lodging | A paper form at the front desk, or a phone call that staff wrote up | The resident raises the request in the app |
| Entry | Admin staff entered forms into Salesforce in batches, when they had time | The request lands on the Conpago dashboard straight away |
| Start of the job | Often hours or days after the request, once the entry was made | The request is on the dashboard as soon as it is raised |
| Maintenance team | No access to the Salesforce record. Work went out by phone, email or a paper slip | Works from the same record as staff |
| Resident | A text when the job closed. No way to track progress | Sees each update until the job is done |
| What got recorded | Items were often never recorded or were missed | More items are recorded and actioned, in the words of Ryan Hodge, Gannon's Chief Operating Officer |
The Conpago dashboard is the screen where staff and the maintenance team manage requests across the communities. The 10-day average reflected the whole process: paper forms, batch entry, a maintenance team without access to the record, and no way for residents to follow progress.
The Results, With Dates
| Result | Figure | Date or window |
|---|---|---|
| Request turnaround | 3.5 days on average, down from 10 days | The 10-day average was tracked over several years. Around 2020 to 2021 it was closer to 3 weeks |
| Requests through Conpago | More than 2,600 | As at September 2026 |
| Resident adoption | 60% of residents on board | Within 30 hours of launch |
| Reporting | More items reported and actioned than before | Ryan Hodge's words, no figure |
The Rollout, Step by Step
1. Field Mapping
Conpago exported the fields Gannon's team used in Salesforce and rebuilt them in the Conpago requests module. Staff kept the process they knew.
2. Pilot in One Community
Staff and residents saw the results in one community before the wider rollout.
3. In-Person Launches, March 2026
Resident sessions ran around 18 March, and go-live across the four communities was announced around 26 to 27 March. Michael, Conpago's Head of Operations, visited each community at least twice, alongside online sessions.
4. Beyond Maintenance
Gannon now also uses chats, broadcasts, the news feed, documents, the community calendar, events, engagement and reporting across all four communities from one dashboard.
Why Purpose-Built Software Suited the Job
Salesforce handles sales, and Gannon kept it for that. Community maintenance asked for three things on top: a way for a resident to raise a request, a way for the maintenance team to see it, and a way for the resident to follow it. Gannon filled those gaps with paper, batch entry and phone calls, and the process averaged 10 days.
Conpago is built for this sector, so residents, village staff and maintenance teams work from one record. It is ISO 27001 certified and has operated for eight years.
In Ryan Hodge's Words
Ryan Hodge is Chief Operating Officer at Gannon Lifestyle Communities. "RV" in his words means retirement village.
On the old process:
"It was really just a place for the paper record to be digitally recorded. In reality, the manual input of a request into salesforce wasn't done at the time it was recorded, it would be done in bulk when admin staff had the time to record the requests which then often initiated the process of attending to the request (potentially hours or days after receiving a request)"
"There was no ability for residents to track progress of a request."
On choosing Conpago:
"Conpago's experience with other operators (who were willing to share their positive experiences in person) and it was clear that the solution was built for RV and understood the day to day needs of RV residents and staff."
On the launch and the pilot:
"That was a no brainer and would insist on the same approach if we were to launch in a new community in the future."
"We all got to learn and see the benefits together in one location and then had the confidence that the solution and support would be appropriate to roll out elsewhere and the desired results would be achieved."
On now:
"It feels like we have had Conpago in place for years not months. It is very satisfying to see the outcomes which is because users (staff and residents) can see the mutual benefits."
A resident, after a launch session in March 2026:
"The guys were really good, really listened and answered our questions with patience and respect."
Ryan's summary of before and after:
"Before Conpago, there was a manual well intended system with little transparency that relied on residents and staff remembering to record a maintenance item. Now we see reduced turnaround times, more items being reported and actioned and satisfied residents and staff using Conpago."
What Other Operators Can Check in Their Own Process
- Where does a request start: a paper form, a phone call or an app?
- Who enters it, when, and does that entry start the job?
- Can the maintenance team and contractors see the record?
- Can the resident follow progress before the job closes?
What These Results Cover
Treat these as one operator's results across four communities. Hours saved, call volumes, cost and staff adoption are not reported here, because none of them is part of the approved results.
Maintenance requests at Gannon took 10 days to close on average before Conpago, a figure Gannon tracked over several years. They now average 3.5 days. Gannon's Chief Operating Officer, Ryan Hodge, confirmed both figures. The 10 days reflected the whole process, including paper forms, batch entry and no resident tracking.
Salesforce is an enterprise sales system, and Gannon still uses it for sales. Maintenance requests relied on paper forms, batch entry and phone calls around it, and maintenance staff could not see the record. Gannon moved requests to Conpago, a platform built for communities, so residents, staff and maintenance teams share one record.
No. Gannon Lifestyle Communities kept Salesforce for the sales side of the business. Conpago took over maintenance requests, with Gannon's Salesforce fields rebuilt in the Conpago requests module. Gannon now also uses Conpago for chats, broadcasts, the news feed, documents, the community calendar, events, engagement and reporting.
60% of Gannon's residents were on board within 30 hours of launch. Conpago ran in-person resident sessions in March 2026, and Michael, Conpago's Head of Operations, visited each of the four communities at least twice. Gannon had also run a pilot in one community first.
Gannon's results come from one operator and four land lease communities, so read them as a reference point for your own. Operators running requests on paper, spreadsheets or a CRM can compare their process step by step with Gannon's before and after. Conpago's retirement living page covers maintenance requests for villages.
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