Emergency Preparedness

With about two months left in the Atlantic hurricane season, HOA communities need to stay prepared with an emergency plan. Last month, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) stated that this hurricane season will be more intense than initially predicted. They upgraded the season from \”near normal\” to \”above normal\”.

Hurricane Hilary marked the first time in 84 years that Southern California experienced a tropical storm, resulting in severe flooding and mudslides. Meanwhile, the aftermath of Hurricane Idalia continues to affect residents in Florida. It caused roofs to be blown off, trees to be snapped, and properties to be damaged.

Currently, Hurricane Lee, a Category 3, is restrengthening in the Atlantic Ocean. Although the exact impact of Hurricane Lee on New England is unknown at the moment, experts predict that dangerous surf and rip currents will affect the east coast later this week. Hurricane Margot turned into a Category 1 storm earlier this week. Although Hurricane Margot is not predicted at the moment to make landfall, it is currently strengthening.

To ensure the safety of your community, it’s important to stay informed about severe weather events and develop a plan. In this post, we curated several resources on effectively communicating and keeping your community safe.

Hurricane Preparedness Resources

National Hurricane Center

Website: https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/aboutintro.shtml
The National Hurricane Center provides forecasts, satellite imagery of a hurricane’s projected path, and educational resources on hurricane preparedness.

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)

Website: https://www.noaa.gov/hurricane-prep
On the NOAA site, you can find several guides to help you understand your level of risk, forecasting (including types of alerts and what they mean), and how to stay safe during and after a hurricane.

Emergency Kit

Website: https://www.ready.gov/kit
Ready.gov provides a comprehensive kit that is an excellent resource for you to share with residents and help them prepare for an emergency. This resource covers basic vital supplies, additional supplies, and how to store emergency kits.

Reduce Risk Ebook

Website: https://www.pilera.com/beprepared
Pilera provides a free ebook resource that helps you develop an emergency management plan from start to finish. In the ebook, you will learn the importance of establishing an emergency plan, how to identify risk and build a plan, and what to do after an emergency.

Hurricane Preparedness Fact Sheet (CAI)

Website: https://www.caionline.org/HomeownerLeaders/DisasterResources/Pages/PreparingforEmergencies.aspx
The Community Association Institution (CAI) created a comprehensive document called the “Hurricane Preparedness Fact Sheet” for board members and residents. This document covers how to identify risk, what to do if told to evacuate, and how to manage recovery.

Emergency Communication Plan

Website: https://www.pilera.com/2022/06/hoa-emergency-communication-plan.html
It’s vital for every community to have a communication plan as part of its emergency management plan. This guide covers practice drills, educating residents, messaging with care, and technology. You can check out additional resources on emergency management on our blog here.

Conclusion

When your community has an established emergency plan, you can better prepare for unexpected events, protect your community, and create peace of mind for your residents. We hope these resources help you to prepare for upcoming hurricanes or inclement weather events.

---

About Pilera

Pilera Software is the premier community and property management suite that has helped thousands of community managers and back-office personnel enhance communications, improve customer service, and manage compliance and operations. Thousands of communities rely on Pilera to improve routine and emergency communication with residents. In our recent interview, learn how a management community handled a 19-month grueling rebuilding after a fire in a Connecticut condo community.

Pilera Founder & CEO Ashish Patel interviewed Karl Kuegler, Director of Community Association Services, at Imagineers Property Management to learn how they managed the 19-month process of rebuilding after the Stonewood Condominium fire.

Watch Video: Pilera & Imagineers Interview

Transcript

[00:00:00] Ashish Patel: Hello, I\’m Ashish Patel, the CEO of Pilera Software. Today we are gonna be talking with Karl Kuegler from Imagineers in Connecticut and how Pilera was useful to them during a fire incident in Stonewood Condominium in Norwalk, Connecticut. Thank you, Karl, for agreeing to meet with me. 

Karl Kuegler: Thank you, Ashish, for having me.

[00:00:32] Ashish Patel: Before we discuss the fire incident, I thought it would be useful to talk about Imagineers and your role at Imagineers.

[00:00:38] Karl Kuegler: Thank you, Ashish. I\’m the Director of Community Association Services for Imagineers. I\’ve been with the company now 29 years. Imagineers is a company that manages common interest communities.  We\’ve been doing it now for 41 years. We manage just under 200 communities, comprising just under 20,000 homes.

[00:00:59] Ashish Patel: Can you talk about how do you currently use Pilera? 

[00:01:02] Karl Kuegler: Yeah.  Pilera has been a great tool for us, not only in terms of placing and collecting work orders but it\’s also been invaluable to us in communicating with the residents of our communities.

[00:01:14] Ashish Patel: Great. And how were you doing that before Pilera? 

[00:01:17] Karl Kuegler: Prior to Pilera, we had another web portal that had, you know, some of the bells and whistles with the ability to post documents and everything like Pilera does. But we felt as though it wasn\’t as robust or easy to use in communication, through e-Blast and other means with our homeowners.  And, we were really looking for something that not only beefed up our ability to communicate but also is more robust in the placing and tracking of work orders that were being placed by the members of our communities.

[00:01:46] Ashish Patel: Okay. That\’s great to hear. Let\’s talk about the fire incident at the Stonewood Condominium.  Can you describe what happened?

[00:01:53] Karl Kuegler: Sure. About two weeks prior to Christmas, a fire happened at a condominium community, which was comprised of 54 units. All the units were in one building and unfortunately, the fire, which damaged a portion of the building, required a lot of water to be put on the building.  And in the end, all 54 units had to be rebuilt, either gutted and rebuilt, from the studs out or had collapsed and had to be rebuilt as a direct result of the flames of the fire. So all 54 units were displaced in the end for 19 months.  

[00:02:28] Ashish Patel: Wow. How did you find out about the fire?

[00:02:31] Karl Kuegler: We received a phone call.  We started receiving phone calls through our office, in our staff. And I know our lead person in our branch office reached out to me following protocols that we have, to let me know that we had a major fire in one of our communities.

[00:02:46] Ashish Patel: Can you describe how you used Pilera during the fire incident and in the few days afterward?

[00:02:50] Karl Kuegler: The night of the fire, we were able to meet with homeowners and to be able to collect and compare the information that we had in Pilera for email addresses and confirm it with each individual homeowner. And we were able to that night, then update their email address. Had it changed or there was an additional individual that wanted to be added, we were able to do that within Pilera and then that evening to be able to send a message.  

We ended up doing it from the comfort of my home instead of the scene, but we could have just as easily done it from the scene of the fire to be able to communicate through Pilera the following morning. We made sure by going into Pilera that the residents were receiving the message, and Pilera has great functionality, which enables you to go in and look at an announcement that went out and be able to tell if the email communication was received, if they opened it, or if they clicked on content. And that was invaluable. So if we had a couple of homeowners or residents that were not receiving the message, we were able to reach out to them through other means, by phone, to be able to make sure that we had the right information for them. 

In the days that followed, there was a lot of information that had to go out.  And what we didn\’t want to do is inundate them with one big long message, with multiple topics in it. So I remember that day directly after the fire, we had four individual messages that went out in Pilera.  There were very pointed messages that dealt with a particular topic, and one of the great features of Pilera is the ability to send out a document, and that was invaluable to us because there were certain portions of the governing documents pertaining to insurance or other documents that individual homeowners needed to receive that they could then share with their insurance agent or their attorney to be able to help them in those days, that followed the fire and coping with and responding to the items that they needed to handle themselves. 

[00:04:43] Ashish Patel: Can you walk us through the community\’s recovery and rebuilding process? 

[00:04:46] Karl Kuegler: Yes, and it was a long, drawn-out process. This was a $16 million claim.  Both elevators in the building had to be replaced. The entire building had to be gutted or rebuilt. So a lot went into this and it was a long period of time where the homeowners were not able to go into the building themselves due to safety and legal concerns. So communication with the homeowners was critical.

And at least monthly we would send out an update on what was happening in the building. We included photographs, but one of the other things that we did was we would give virtual tours where we would videotape a tour of the inside of the building to give the homeowners a first-hand view of what was going on in the building, something that they couldn\’t see by driving down the street where the community was located.  And what we would do is provide the link to the video within our Pilera message, and then homeowners were able to go there and see it. But it was also critical to us as we communicated with homeowners about their selection of interior finishes, working with the interior designer, and making sure that other documents that needed to be completed as part of this process were being provided to them.  And they knew what they needed to do to communicate with our staff to be able to help them and help with the rebuilding. 

[00:06:10] Ashish Patel: How important do you think Pilera was in your company\’s response in dealing with the situation?

[00:06:14] Karl Kuegler: It was very important, and it was a critical part of our response to the community. Had we not had Pilera, we would\’ve been at a real disadvantage.

We would\’ve been forced to mail out documents or create a distribution list, and hope that we could send out an email without too many recipients in the email. And the worry about bounce back emails or emails constantly changing and being able to or having to update that distribution list constantly knowing that Pilera, whenever a homeowner\’s email address changed that it automatically entered that email address into the distribution list was critical to us. There was so much going on. We could not spend time worrying about that. So it was critical to us. 

The fire when it first started, there were a lot of angry homeowners disappointed that this fire had occurred. It was a cigarette butt that had caused a fire, so there was a lot of anger that they were displaced, that they lost their home over something as foolish as an improperly disposed of cigarette. But through those 19 months and our ability to communicate and provide information to the homeowners, we ended that process with a community that was broken into a community 19 months later, that was cohesive again and back together, and we survived. And the association survived without a lawsuit. Everybody was satisfied and pleased and looking forward to be part of their home, and very few people left the community. During that 19 months, only a handful of units sold during that period of time.  Most people truly, genuinely wanted to return to their homes and Pilera played a big part in our ability to communicate and provide the homeowners with the information that they needed during that difficult time. 

[00:08:14] Ashish Patel: I know for this community you did not use texting and calls, but I believe that since then you started to use over texting and calling feature as well?

[00:08:21] Karl Kuegler:  Yes we do. We do have some communities that utilized the texting and calling feature, and they are equally important in how those communities communicate with their residents, especially when the timeliness of everything is so critically important. And the community that had the fire was a diverse community.  We did have a couple of residents that had different primary first languages so having that available to those homeowners, I\’m sure was important.

[00:08:51] Ashish Patel: Can you talk a little bit more about how you use Pilera overall now since that incident?

[00:08:58] Karl Kuegler: Pilera is so important to our day-to-day operation and how we communicate and service our clients. The ability to place a work order online. The ability for us to be able to give updates and messages on work orders is critically important and provides that update to the homeowner without any additional effort from our staff. We generate work order reports for our printed board packages that are not so often printed anymore, but PDF documents, where we provide an open and closed work order going back to the time the last board packet was created.  And it\’s extremely important for our board members to be able to see not only what is open for work orders, but also what\’s been completed since we last met with them. 

[00:09:50] Ashish Patel: Can you talk a little bit about what happens to a work order at Imagineers once the resident opens it? 

[00:09:56] Karl Kuegler: Yeah, I\’d be happy to.  And one of the things that we really like about Pilera is the ability within a community to have vendors listed that serve that particular community. So for example, placing a work order for a roof leak, the manager or the property assistant can simply go to the list and assign it to the roofing contractor that serves that particular community and have confidence that by them selecting and saving that work order, that an email will go out to that vendor directly without the need for the staff person to then remember to email and generate a pdf. It\’s done seamlessly and effortlessly by assigning that work order.

[00:10:39] Ashish Patel: Would you recommend Pilera?

[00:10:39] Karl Kuegler: Absolutely. I think Pilera brings a lot of value to communities, whether they\’re a standalone community, right up to management companies, both large and small. The ability to communicate by email, phone, and texting, is critically important in this day and age where messages need to be and are expected to be received.

[00:11:01] The ability to place, track, look at, and update work orders to a homeowner is a great tool that is expected more and more.  The ability to post documents and forms on the portal is critically important because the reality is homeowners are looking for this information, not just between eight to five when our office is open, but in the evening or when they\’re thinking about it on the weekends.  So to be able to look at those documents or go look at their account history or their account balance. And to be able to make payments is critically important. You know, there are a lot of tools that are out there that are affiliated or part of accounting software packages and all, but we have found that the communication tools that Pilera has, the ease of use.  It just keeps us staying with, Pilera as a tool, to able to communicate and serve our client communities.

[00:11:59] Ashish Patel: Thank you Karl for agreeing to meet with me. 

[00:12:01] Karl Kuegler: Thank you, Ashish, for having me.

---

About Pilera

As an established leader in property management communications for over 13 years, Pilera is dedicated to helping communities keep their residents informed through timely and relevant communications.  To learn how Pilera can help improve your community outreach, book a personalized demo or request a free trial.

Hurricane Ian, a category 4 hurricane, made landfall on Florida’s southwestern coast last week with massive flooding and winds.  It is considered one of the worst natural disasters in Florida’s history, causing deaths, economic losses, and $28-47 billion in estimated property damages.   This week, 310,000 people are still without power.  Communities are now recovering and rebuilding from the hurricane, which will take time.  

Florida community managers, board members, and residents, many of whom have been impacted by Hurricane Ian themselves, are working diligently to communicate with one another as they deal with the aftermath of Hurricane Ian. 

Our thoughts are with all communities and families impacted by Hurricane Ian as they recover and rebuild in the days ahead, and we are here to help. 

In this blog post, you’ll find links to government websites, local help resources, and other practical steps to help your communities as you rebuild.  

Government and Local Resources:

• Florida Response to Hurricane Ian
• FEMA.gov
• Disaster Assistance 
• FCC Reports on Hurricane Ian
• Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
• Red Cross

HOA & Condo Resources:

• Community Association Institute (CAI) list of resources and practical advice
• Pilera – Reduce Risk Ebook 
• First Service Residential – 5 Steps to Rebuilding Your Community After Hurricane Ian
• Pilera – Emergency preparedness, mitigation & recovery – practical advice, communication, and technology information. 

---

About Pilera

Pilera Software is the premier community and property management software that has helped thousands of community managers enhance communications, improve customer service, and manage compliance and operations. To learn how Pilera can help to improve efficiency and reduce costs, book a personalized demo. 

Note: This blog article was updated in June 2023 to reflect new information.

To keep your community informed during an emergency, it\’s important to have an established communication plan. A well-thought out communication plan helps to create a sense of comfort and peace of mind for your residents. During times of crisis, your residents rely on timely and accurate information to make informed decisions and stay safe. This communication plan should include how you plan to keep employees, board members, residents, vendors, and any other parties informed.   When you communicate well with residents, it allows you to build trust with them.  

In this post, you’ll learn about what your emergency community communication plan should cover and how technology can be a valuable tool for communicating timely, accurately, and with compassion. We’ll also be referring to the experiences that Karl Kuegler (Imagineers Management) shared in his interview with Pilera CEO Ashish Patel and his talk “Recover and Respond: Emphasizing Community after a Disaster” at the 2022 CAI Annual Conference.       

1. Internal communications

Whether you are a board member or a manager, training is a critical step in the community’s emergency plan. Karl Kuegler explained that while individual staff may not have direct experience handling an emergency, a plan should draw on the skills of upper management and others who specialize in emergency management. It’s equally important to document the training process:

Practice Drills

A practice drill helps staff and board members understand the steps they need to take in an emergency.  Be sure to outline the steps, how often the drill should take place, and who has been trained.

Manager-Board Internal Communications

It’s vital for board members and managers to communicate regularly before, during, and after an emergency.  The Board has a duty to make sure the community is safe, but it’s also important to understand that they may be stressed too.  Even more so, if they live in the community.  Set up a meeting with the board to discuss their current operations and any gaps you can help to fill.  That way, they can perform their duties, remain calm, and help keep everyone safe.

Communicating with Local Agencies

Keep a list of who staff needs to contact during an emergency.  This includes local emergency response teams, Red Cross and other nonprofits, insurance agents, lawyers, vendors, etc.  Karl Kuegler talks about how it is important to identify yourself as part of the HOA board or community management company when speaking to the emergency response teams.  That way, they know that you are there to support residents and are not getting in the emergency response team’s way.

Communicating with Vendors

The community’s vendors are also a critical part of your emergency response or restoration plan.  Before an emergency, ensure you have the most up-to-date contact information for your vendors.  It’s also critical that your vendors’ certificates of insurance and other licenses are up to date.  Having this information at hand keeps your community, employees, and vendors safe while reducing any potential for liability if someone is injured.  A vendor management app will allow you to keep track of vendor information such as contacts and license expiration dates.  In Pilera’s vendor app, for example, managers receive an email notification when a vendor’s license is about to expire.  

During a community’s restoration phase, it’s also important to keep vendors informed of the current situation and what they can expect when they get on site.  This includes any safety hazards, building/community access, etc.   

Store your training documents online

Once you have the document(s), store it in an online repository.  This could be your company’s Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive, or an HOA software with document storage included.  For example, you can store these documents in Pilera at a client level and then share them with managers across your portfolio.

2. Educate residents on emergency preparedness

Educate residents on the weather-related emergencies that are likely to occur in their area.  It’s essential to communicate with residents throughout the year, not just during an emergency.  You can provide helpful tips and resources to residents based on the season as well.  Weather-related events a community could experience include:

• Hurricanes
• Tornado
• Damaging winds
• Flooding
• Large hail
• Fires
• Blizzard
• Snow

You can distribute resources through a document-sharing and communication platform.  A document library allows you to organize files, set permissions, and notify residents. Through a communication platform, email residents about best practices to stay safe. 

3. Build and maintain a resident contact database

Building and maintaining a database is a crucial part of your plan to keep residents informed before, during, and after an emergency.  This includes a resident’s email, phone, address, and emergency contacts. 

On the night of the fire at Stonewoods Condominium, the Imagineers management team met with residents to verify their current contact information.  Karl from Imagineers shared, “Had it changed or there was an additional individual that wanted to be added, we were able to do that within Pilera and then that evening to be able to send a message.”  They printed two copies of the resident contact information.  They gave one copy to the emergency responders at the scene.  They also added the fire chief, police chief, mayor, and other local community contacts in Pilera so they could receive messages too.

How to collect and verify contact information:

• Web Portal – As residents move in (or on a frequent basis), encourage them to update their contact information and emergency contacts in a web portal.  
• Paper Forms – Keep paper forms at the office for residents to fill out and then update your database.
• Identify invalid contacts – Make sure your communications platform gives you a way to identify invalid contacts.  In Pilera, managers receive automated reports on invalid emails and text numbers.  Each resident’s profile gives additional information on how to correct them.  
• Postal mail – Send postal mail to residents on a regular basis asking them to confirm their contact information.  Phone numbers and emails can change over time, so it’s vital that you have the most up-to-date information.  
• Post emergency verification – When Karl Kuegler’s team sent out their emails, they would view the delivery and open status.  If a resident did not open the email, they would call them to ensure they received the message.  If a resident did not receive the message, Imagineers could reach out to them through other means such as a phone call.

4. Assemble a communications response team

To keep your message accurate throughout an emergency, it’s important to assign roles and responsibilities.  Assign one person the responsibility of sending out messages.  It could be confusing to your residents when there are multiple people or board members sending out messages.  Worse, it could lead to liability.  

Your communications platform should provide a way to set roles or different levels of access for different people.  In Pilera, managers can assign those who are in charge of communications the message admin role. These individuals can send out messages and view the message center for information on open, clicks, and responses.

5. Identify communication methods you\’ll use

Before sending messages to residents, you must figure out which communication methods you’ll use.  To effectively communicate during an emergency, it\’s important to utilize various channels so you can meet residents\’ needs and preferences. For example, elder demographics may prefer to receive phone calls over text messages and emails. By diversifying your communication channels, you can reach a wider audience. It’s important to refer to the community’s CC&Rs and local/state regulations to understand what the requirements are. 

Most effective tools during an emergency

During an emergency, phone calls and text messages are the most effective tools to use.  They are fast, have high open/listen rates, and are interruptive. 

What your communication platform should include

• Multiple communication options – Keep your residents informed through many ways such as phone, email, and text.
• Resident preferences – Send messages in residents’ preferred communication method and language.  For example, Pilera supports email and text translation in more than 100 languages. 

Other communication methods and when to use them

• Social Media – During an emergency, one should avoid posting emergency messages on social media.  Because it is an interactive platform, it can cause panic, leading to misinformation and even liability.  However, you can use social media to post helpful tips on how to prepare for an emergency.  
  
• Email – Email is often not the best tool to use in an emergency because people may not see it immediately.  The average open rate for emails is 21% compared to text, which is 99%.  However, email can be a powerful tool to prepare residents for an upcoming weather event or days/weeks after an emergency.

6. Careful and compassionate messaging

An emergency situation is a very stressful time for residents.  It’s important that your message is timely, accurate, and understanding of your residents’ situation.  During the Stonewood Condo emergency, there was a lot of information to disseminate to the residents.  To ensure that residents wouldn’t feel overwhelmed, Imagineers created multiple short emails, each focused on a certain topic instead of one long message. 

It’s also best to have an extra set of eyes review your message before sending it out. Imagineers had numerous staff members in the organizations review the messages before they sent them out.  

When you’re ready to send a message, be sure to create a template for it.  That way, you can save time when an emergency arises.  In Pilera’s communication platform, you can create templates for email, phone, text, and PDF letters.  You can create specific templates for certain types of communication methods.    

7. Fast and reliable communications software

Fast and reliable communications software is essential to keeping your residents informed before, during, and after an emergency.  Throughout this guide, we referred to how technology is critical to every aspect of your emergency communication plan.  As a recap, your communication software should have the following capabilities:

• Fast messaging – Send thousands of messages out within minutes.  
• High deliverability rate – Many software platforms can send messages, but many have deliverability issues.  Pilera has a 99.9% delivery rate.  Our communication platform also has a retry algorithm that will make multiple attempts to send a message if it didn’t reach the first time.  
• Multiple communication methods & preferences – Having multiple ways to communicate helps you to reach residents more effectively.  In Pilera, you can send a combination of phone, email, text, and PDF letters.  Residents can choose from 100+ languages to receive text and emails in.  
• Accurate contact information – Your software should track invalid emails and text numbers. In Pilera, managers receive a monthly automated email on invalid email addresses and text numbers.  Each resident’s profile also gives you more information on how to fix incorrect contacts.
• People and unit-based Distribution groups – Creating contact lists ensure that you send messages to only those who need them. Your software platform should enable you to create any combination of people and units in your distribution group. Your recipient lists in Pilera maintain themselves as residents move in and out so those who left the community won\’t receive messages. In our interview with Imagineers, Karl Kuegler shared that the self-maintaining nature of the distribution groups was invaluable to them because whenever a homeowner\’s email is changed, the list is automatically updated.
• Contact database – Allow your residents to self-manage their information through a portal so you always have the most up-to-date information.  In Pilera, residents can manage:
  • Contact information and language
  • Emergency contacts or guests
  • Other occupants in their unit
  • Alternate contacts 
  • Alternate addresses 
  • Community directory settings (where they can also view other residents’ contacts)
  • Pets
  • Insurance
  • Unit documents

Watch Interview: How Imagineers Handled a Community Emergency with Pilera

Conclusion

Handling an emergency situation such as a fire or weather-related event is tricky as you’re dealing with very human emotions.  However, communicating with care and at the right time can provide a little bit of peace of mind in a stressful situation.  With a well-prepared communication plan in place, your HOA or Condo community can navigate emergencies effectively, together.

---

About Pilera

Pilera Software is the premier community and property management software that has helped thousands of community managers enhance communications, improve customer service, and manage compliance and operations. To learn how Pilera can help to improve efficiency and reduce costs, book a personalized demo. 

*This blog post was updated in January 2024, to provide new information on how Pilera\’s communication tool can help communities formulate their emergency communication plans. 

As we continue to weather the winter season, it is important to stay in touch with your residents.  Letting residents know about mandatory car removals, blocked areas or streets, or emergency evacuations is critical to maintaining the safety of the neighborhood during inclimate weather.  Explore 8 important communication tools you can leverage in Pilera to communicate with residents during the winter season confidently.

1) Automate phone, text, and email blasts to your community

Communicating with residents based on their preferences significantly increases the likelihood of reaching them effectively. Pilera offers managers the flexibility to reach residents according to their chosen communication method, whether it\’s via text, email, or phone calls. 

Moreover, Pilera enables managers to streamline their communication processes by converting frequently sent messages into templates for future use. This time-saving feature improves efficiency and consistency in communication, allowing managers to disseminate important information quickly.

2) Emergency blasts via Reverse 911

There are times when you need to alert residents of a mandatory evacuation or other incidents that occur. Managers can utilize the Reverse 911 feature to make emergency calls. This feature will override the resident’s preference and send text messages, phone calls, and emails.

3) Dynamic unit and location distribution groups

During a winter emergency, you can effectively communicate with residents using dynamic distribution groups. This is especially important for residents in different locations who may require specific messages based on their location, such as those living near a lake who are more susceptible to flooding. With Pilera\’s distribution groups feature, you can create tailored messages for specific areas. Pilera\’s dynamic distribution group is user and location-based, enabling you to customize messages for streets, buildings, floors, units, and individual residents. The self-cleaning nature of the distribution groups ensures that the recipient lists are always up to date, even as people move in and out of the community, guaranteeing accurate message delivery.

4) Invalid emails and text message reports

Ensuring that resident data is correct is vital when communicating important information to them.  When sending mass messages, it’s difficult to keep track of resident contact changes manually. Pilera provides automated monthly reports on invalid email addresses and text numbers.  You can then reach out to residents through alternative means to confirm the correct contact information. Residents can also manage their contact information through the resident portal.

5) Allow residents to manage contact information

Allowing residents to manage contact information gives them control over how they want to hear from management and who in their household can receive messages. In the portal, residents can choose their contact preferences and language preferences, which is crucial during severe weather and emergencies. They can opt to receive messages via phone calls, text messages, and/or emails. Pilera offers email and text translation to 103 languages and can make phone calls in Spanish. Furthermore, residents can manage occupant information for their residence. This allows other occupants or tenants to update their contact preferences and receive community communications

6) Send email communication to your entire portfolio at once

Pilera provides the ability for managers to send email announcements to select communities or to their entire portfolio at once.  You can segment emails by the type of user, so managers can even send messages to just their board members or residents across all their communities.  This is especially helpful when managers need to communicate winter company policies or communication plans to all board members.  Furthermore, managers are able to keep their message consistent across all communities while reaching board members or residents quickly.

7) Measure the effectiveness of your communication with the Message Center

It is important to know when your message has been successfully delivered. In Pilera\’s message center, you can also track whether a phone call was answered or directed to voicemail, if a text message was received, or if an email was replied to, opened, clicked, or bounced.

8) Find email responses quickly via Message Inbox

When you send an email announcement through Pilera, residents can reply with any questions or concerns. These responses are captured within Pilera and can be easily accessed and searched through the Message Inbox. The Message Inbox has powerful filtering capabilities, allowing you to find resident responses in seconds rather than hours, as with traditional email systems.

Conclusion

In conclusion, as we navigate through the winter season, staying connected with residents is vital to ensuring their safety and well-being. By leveraging the 8 communication tools in Pilera, managers can confidently communicate important information during inclement weather. From automated phone, text, and email blasts to dynamic unit and location distribution groups, Pilera provides the means to tailor messages for specific areas and ensure accurate delivery. Additionally, features such as Reverse 911 for emergency blasts, invalid emails and text message reports, and resident-managed contact information ensure you can communicate rapidly and accurately. The ability to measure communication effectiveness and quickly find email responses via the Message Center and Message Inbox help you make improvements to your winter communication strategies. With these tools, managers can proactively address winter-related concerns and maintain a strong connection with residents, ultimately fostering a safe and informed community.

---

About Pilera

Pilera Software is the premier community and property management suite that has helped thousands of community managers and back-office personnel enhance communications, improve customer service, and manage compliance and operations. May we help your community achieve these success stories? Book a demo to see how Pilera’s community management suite can help your company.

Note: This article was updated in June 2022 to reflect the most current information.

With the Atlantic hurricane season upon us from June to November, property management companies need to have an emergency preparedness plan to protect the community.  An essential component of the plan is implementing a reliable technology platform to help you proactively handle emergencies.  Such technology platforms enable you to easily stay in touch with residents, ensure a safer community, and bring back operations to an optimal level of performance.  Although there are many property management software tools in the market, we wanted to share how the ease of use, flexibility, and reliability of Pilera’s tools can benefit management companies and communities in an emergency situation.

1) Resident data

As a board or manager, you need to have access to accurate information quickly and on the go.  That way, you can reach residents quickly when you need to.  Many management companies also require that residents keep their contact information up-to-date in an online portal. In Pilera, residents have the ability to self-manage their own data. Residents can update:

• Contact information (phone number, email address, text number) and preference
• Language preference – Pilera supports over 100 languages for email and text translation.
• Alternate addresses
• Alternate or emergency contacts such as family members, friends, or doctors
• Guests and notes for each of them.
• Pets
• Vehicles
• Insurance
• Upload documents to their unit and share them with their manager.

Emails and text numbers may become invalid over time. In Pilera, managers receive frequent reports in their inbox showing all residents with invalid text numbers or emails. With this information, you can personally reach out to the resident and correct it so they won\’t miss out on any messages. The resident profile also gives additional context into issues with a resident\’s communication preference.

2) Automated communications

It\’s essential that managers and board members communicate with residents before, during, and after an emergency.

Before an emergency

Managers can send residents important reminders or resources to help prepare. Based on their location, one resident may need different information than another resident. To ensure you\’re sending the right information to the right people, it\’s helpful to create distribution groups. In Pilera, you can create a people and unit-based distribution group that maintains itself when a resident moves in or out of the community. Examples include residents who live on waterfront properties or individuals in an emergency management committee.

During an emergency

During an emergency, it\’s vital to get out a message quickly. Through Pilera, managers can send \”force\” emergency calls that bypass resident preferences. Residents will receive an email, phone, and text message if they have provided the management company with that information. The reliability of your communication tool is equally important. Pilera has built-in fault protection and retry patterns that will get a message sent, even in the toughest conditions.

During Hurricane Sandy, Pilera saw an uptick in messages being sent by more than 238 times the site’s normal usage. Our system was able to effectively withstand the high volume of calls being made.

After an emergency

After an emergency, managers can review the message center in Pilera for every communication sent out and the delivery status. Managers can see whether a resident has opened an email or text, clicked on a link, listened to a live phone call, or if the phone call went to voicemail. If they see that a resident has not opened any messages, they can contact them individually to ensure they received the message or correct any contact information.

3) Document management

It is vital to educate your residents about weather-related emergencies that are most likely to occur in their community. Pilera’s document management system gives you a secure way to share important documents with residents. When you add new documents, you can notify a resident about it through email. 

Managers often add documents such as emergency plans, shelter information, community and building maps, evacuation procedures, safety kit lists, and contact information for local law enforcement, hospitals, and non-profit services.  

Our client, Cynthia Holland, president of Stratford Towers, emphasized the importance of being able to access community information, remotely. She explained, “from emails to auto calls, to insurance and legal files remotely, to clean up documents – we were able to handle all building needs easily remotely”.       

4) Maintenance & vendor management

After an emergency, managers will evaluate any structural damage in the community once it is safe to do so.  It\’s important to have a list of vendors with their updated contact information, license expirations, and insurance expirations. That way, you are calling vendors who have up-to-date licenses.

In Pilera, you can maintain a list of vendors, their contact information, and license expirations. You can then create and assign work orders to their in-house maintenance team or external vendors.  In the ticket, you can attach images and set due dates for quick completion.  Each manager can filter the dashboard to see just the tickets they need, such as tickets assigned to vendors or other staff members. Additionally, residents can submit maintenance requests in the portal and review updates.

5) Community contacts

It\’s important to provide residents with contact information so they can reach out before, during, or after an emergency situation.  In Pilera, managers can post contact information in the portal for residents. Examples of contacts that managers should consider including are:

• Managers
• Board members
• Local law enforcement
• Hospitals
• Local shelters
• Red Cross and other nonprofit agencies
• Insurance agents

Conclusion

Management companies and communities alike have benefitted by using the Pilera platform to educate residents about potential emergency situations, effectively convey important information to residents during and after an emergency, and bring operations back to an optimal level of performance.  

Any emergency situation puts a lot of pressure on all community members.  The safety of all community members and staff, and returning to daily tasks are the most important.  In our previous two blog posts, we discussed how to evaluate the current emergency plan and how to create a new plan or update it.  In this post, we discuss considerations to make in a post-emergency and recovery plan.

Post Emergency & Recovery

The role of management after a has gone through a catastrophic event is critical for restoring stability in quality of life for residents and continuing daily managerial operations for staff.  The post-disaster and recovery plan should aim to assist residents in getting back to their daily routines once everyone is safe.  Cover the following in your plan:

Staff Roles

Once it is safe to operate again, ensure that roles and responsibilities are made clear to all employees.  Create a protocol for how communications, maintenance, building inspections, insurance, and other activities should be handled.

Communications

Devise a strategy on how to best communicate with residents in the aftermath of the event.  Evaluate the effectiveness of your communications strategy of the emergency to identify strengths and shortcomings.

Community Properties

Natural or man-made disasters can cause severe damage to buildings.  The maintenance process in place should include an efficient way to fix all building structures and internal equipment to make it safe for residents and staff.  The system your management uses to handle maintenance of community properties should be able to organize all service requests/work orders, assign vendors, and communicate to internal staff and residents.  

Financial Assistance

Provide information to residents on where they may gain additional financial assistance locally.

Community Insurance

This section should specify the process for contacting and working with your businesses’ insurance agents. Take photos of building structures before the storm or emergency situation and after once it is safe to do so.  

Resources for Residents

Work with local agencies to help restore the quality of life back to the community members.  Provide contacts to local food and clothing resources, shelters, blood banks, hospitals, hotels, counseling, etc.  This information should be conveyed to residents before and after the storm or emergency situation.  Furthermore, you can build a team of community volunteers to assist residents.     

Revising your recovery plan draft

Once the emergency recovery plan has been drafted, reviewed by your team, and revised for any required changes, share the document with your team through a document-sharing service.  As your plan changes due to new internal or external circumstances, update the document and re-upload it.  

---

About Pilera

Pilera Software is a premier community management solution that provides managers with a simple way to communicate with residents during an emergency.  Send phone, email, or text; choose one out of 90 languages to send automated email and text messages to residents; deliver emergency messages via  Reverse 911, and schedule messages up to two weeks in advance.  Contact us for more information.   

Once you’ve evaluated the current situation or emergency plan (whether you have a plan in place or not, and if you do, how much and what needs to be altered), it’s time to draft or update the plan. Work on the plan with your management team, staff, and board members.  Consult with your most preferred vendors, insurance agents, and other community members to create a maintenance plan to address preventative and recovery concerns.

Create a Plan for Disaster/Emergency Preparedness

Drafts of your disaster aversion or preparation plan should be well-documented, comprehensive,  and made accessible to employees.  Leave enough room for flexibility but don’t create ambiguity. Furthermore, the plan should incorporate the following information for each type of emergency:

Objectives

First and foremost, determine objectives that your disaster recovery plan aims to achieve.  Identify timeframes for each objective and resources available.  Then break down each objective into tasks.

Safety Procedures

Draft a safety procedures document for both employees and residents, detailing practices to help keep them, their families, and team members safe in an emergency.  Nothing is more important than the people’s safety.  Also, detail how residents can avert certain dangers. Residents should be informed of whom to call in case of a disaster and how to evacuate.  It may be helpful to work with the local fire department to practice drills for different types of events to help employees become prepared.

Personnel Roles and Responsibilities

Outline the role each managerial team member and board member is responsible for performing and overseeing.  An emergency situation undoubtedly puts a lot of pressure on employees who need to take prompt but careful action and oftentimes make tough decisions.  Training employees and conducting regular drills can be very helpful.

Resident and Employee Communications

Determine which communication channels and emergency-specific broadcast methods are the most effective for quickly reaching out to residents and employees.  Some residents may prefer phone calls over text messages and emails, or vice versa.  Social media is also an effective set of real-time platforms that can be used to inform community residents and those outside of the community. Additionally, as your community grows in diversity, it is important to send messages in the residents’ most preferred language.  This reduces the communication gap significantly and residents can take required action quickly.

In a “high-level” emergency situation, using a communication system that features Reverse 911 will overwrite resident primary contact preference and send instant phone calls and email messages. The communications strategy must also incorporate a contingency plan for alerting residents of an emergency in the event the community loses cellular service.

Vendor Communications

If the emergency situation requires the presence of a maintenance vendor, then you’ll need to have a process to immediately send messages to them.  Residents should have access to maintenance vendor contacts at times when they are unable to get a hold of the management team first.

Performance of all Community Equipment

To prepare for both the anticipated and unpredictable events, evaluate all community equipment and facilities to ensure proper performance.  All equipment must be functioning, up-to-date, and in compliance with local laws.  Make sure that the warranties are renewed on time.

Common Area Safety

All common areas in the community should have emergency safety equipment such as extinguishers and medical kits.  Review your state’s legislature to fulfill the requirements of placing safety equipment and gear in these areas.

Resource Aid for Residents

Catastrophic events are cause of immense stress for residents.  Management should supply information to residents on shelter areas, the local Red Cross, and other assistance agencies.  Keep this information readily available for resident access.  Include an area map with local resources highlighted and ensure that it is easily understandable.

Insurance Review

Evaluate your insurance coverage every season to ensure that community and residential property have the optimal type of coverages.  Selecting the optimal types of coverages will help minimize financial loss and liability.

Revising your plan

Once your plan has been drafted, reviewed by your team, and revised for any required changes, share the document with your team through a document-sharing service.  As your plan changes due to new internal or external circumstances, update the document and re-upload it.

---

About Pilera

Pilera Software is a premier community management solution that provides managers with a simple way to communicate with residents during an emergency.  Send phone, email, or text; choose one out of 90 languages to send automated email and text messages to residents; deliver emergency messages via  Reverse 911, and schedule messages up to two weeks in advance.  Contact us for more information.

Is your community prepared to encounter any emergency situation that arises?  Are staff appropriately informed of their role in such occurrences?  Disasters, whether they are anticipated, or occur suddenly without any warning have serious implications for your residential community and management.  Due to natural disasters or those caused by human beings, buildings or homes may be destroyed, individuals may be displaced from their homes, or it could result in injury or loss of life.  Damage to building, landscaping, and community equipment can have serious financial implications for management.  Community managers must be fully prepared to handle these types of disasters. Tread carefully, but act fast.

Evaluate Current Process for Disaster Recovery

Before you start drafting a disaster aversion and recovery plan, stop and take stock of your current process and the procedures in place.  Your existing plan and experience dealing with past circumstances will inform you of efficiencies and inefficiencies for further improvement. Consider the following questions to help shape your evaluations:

Current Plan (High-Level)

• Does your company or association have a documented disaster recovery plan in place?  How well documented and executed is it?
• Has your team tabulated a list of the most likely and least likely disasters to occur in your area(s)?
• Does the recovery plan include preparedness for averting controllable situations and recovery if the event were to occur?
• What resources, tangible and intangible, are required to fully execute the plan?  How must those resources be utilized?
• Where do you keep all your data? Physical files, drawers, hard-drive, company share drive, and/or cloud software?  Is the information easily accessible or transferable when necessary?

Team and Community Preparation & Safety

• Are staff members aware of the intricacies of the plan?  Are they well practiced in the responsibilities they are required to perform?
• Is the management team supplied with sufficient emergency kits and other necessities such as water bottles, flashlights, batteries, etc? Is anyone on the team certified in CPR?
• How are residents currently notified of any emergencies?  Are emergency contacts easily accessible to residents?
• How well are residents prepared for anticipated emergencies?

Community Structures

• How secure or robust are the community buildings or equipment?
• Is there a process for quickly dispatching maintenance staff once safe?
• Have you properly secured all community property and equipment and posted notices online and offline informing residents?
• How are residents informed of any equipment, building, or ground repairs once the storm/emergency is over?

Compliance

• Is the plan compliant with local, state, and federal regulations? Community bylaws?
• What are the board member’s responsibilities in shaping current procedures?
• Is the community management’s insurance coverage sufficient?
• Do you have a clear camera to take photos in case of potential damage to buildings to provide to insurance agents?

Evaluating your current process or plan is the way forward to making changes for the better of your community. Knowing the right questions to ask and where to find the answers are critical.  Head on to Part 2 of the emergency preparation blog series, we’ll discuss components for creating a disaster aversion and preparedness plan.

---

About Pilera

Pilera Software is a premier community management solution that provides managers with a simple way to communicate with residents during an emergency.  Send phone, email, or text; choose one out of 90 languages to send automated email and text messages to residents; deliver emergency messages via  Reverse 911, and schedule messages up to two weeks in advance.  Contact us for more information.

With the recent Hurricane Irma, the team members at Pilera wish for the safety and well-being of all individuals who have been affected in Florida and surrounding areas.  We are committed to helping our customers in the best way that we can.  Thus, we recently provided free phone calls and text services to our Florida customers to assist with the storm.  Hurricane Irma is the second major weather event that impacted residents in the United States this weekend after Hurricane Harvey in Texas last week with severe flooding and damage.  After causing massive damage in the Keys and southern Florida and leaving 6.5 million individuals without power, the storm reached Georgia and is now heading northwest.  Hurricane Irma was stated to be a category 4, one of the largest Atlantic-based hurricanes to hit the east coast of the United States, and encompassed 500 miles wide from Tallahassee to Miami.

The safety of staff and residents is the number one priority and communication is of utmost importance in ensuring this.  Pilera hopes to help community managers and board members in Florida communicate quickly and gain peace of mind that their messages will reach residents in a timely manner.  By providing free phone calls and text services to residents within the storm’s path, community managers will be able to send more emergency calls during and after the storm.     

Furthermore, it is essential for everyone to stay informed of the latest news pertaining to Irma:

• Irma Live Updates via NY Times – The storm is now pushing north, however, there are still millions without power in Florida.  
• Florida Division of Emergency Management – view updates from Florida Governor Scott, current situation and weather updates, evacuation notices and orders, military support, and other vital information.  
• South Florida Closings, Cancellations & Supply Locations (Local 10) – Up-to-date information on closings and re-openings.
• Irma Updates from MyNews13 – County maps, storm tracking and latest news.  
• CAI Community Disaster Preparedness and Relief – Up-to-date Information on how your community can plan and prepare for potential/imminent disasters, and rebuild and recover from recent natural disasters.  
• To be informed of latest updates, view content from these hashtags on social media: #Irma, #HurricaneIrma, #FloridaStrong.

Copy of latest press release: http://www.prweb.com/releases/2017/09/prweb14687757.htm