Resident Engagement

Building a sense of community is vital to the success of any community. However, bringing residents together during the winter can be challenging as temperatures drop. However, the winter season presents a unique opportunity to strengthen bonds by hosting fun events for your HOA communities. These events celebrate the season and help neighbors get to know one another. In this blog article, you will learn about fun events you can plan for your communities in the winter, safety precautions, and how to leverage technology to run successful events.   

1) Holiday Light Decoration Contest

The holiday season is a time of warmth, joy, and beautiful decorations. Holiday lights have a magical way of creating a shared sense of festivity. Hosting a friendly competition for the best-decorated house or yard allows residents to express their creativity, engage in friendly rivalry, and make some great memories.

Organizing and judging such a contest can be exciting yet challenging. Consider having categories based on themes, lights, and size so you can keep the competition fair. Most importantly, the entire neighborhood can enjoy the beautiful decorations together. 

2) Movie Nights

A winter movie night can be an ideal occasion to unite all community members for shared laughter, tears, and wonder. Consider having blankets, hot chocolate, and even a popcorn maker at movie night. Providing snacks and hot beverages can provide warmth and comfort, therefore, enhancing the movie-viewing experience for your residents.  

Selecting the right movies is crucial. Opt for films that are family-friendly to ensure everyone feels included and engaged. Classic winter-themed movies or holiday films can offer a great blend of nostalgia and entertainment.

3) Snowman Building Competition

If your community experiences snowfall, a snowman-building competition can be a great way to make the most of it. This event perfectly combines creativity, teamwork, and outdoor adventure. Making the competition a team-based activity encourages camaraderie among residents, leading to lasting memories and stronger community bonds.

Safety, however, should always be remembered amid the excitement. Reminding residents to dress warmly and take breaks to prevent hypothermia or frostbite is essential. With these precautions, a snowman-building competition can be an exciting event everyone can enjoy.  

4) Winter Sports Day

Host a winter sports day with sledding, snowball fights, or snowshoeing. It\’s another excellent way to create healthy competition and long-lasting memories. Such an event helps to reinforce the essence of community spirit and cooperation, focusing on wholesome fun over winning.  

You can set up games for varying skill levels to make the event more enjoyable for everyone. Having different areas of stations for different skills can ensure everyone has a chance to participate and enjoy.

5) Community Potluck or Winter BBQ

Nothing brings people together like good food, especially during the chilly winter. Hosting a winter potluck or BBQ can be a community bonding event, allowing neighbors to share and savor each other\’s culinary skills. Themed potlucks or BBQs featuring warm, hearty dishes can be satisfying and enjoyable.

Organizing such an event involves planning the venue, date, and time and assigning responsibilities. However, the result is a gathering that celebrates unity, diversity, and enjoying good food together. 

6) Crafts Day

The winter season is a perfect backdrop for a day of festive and cozy craft activities. Hosting a Cozy Crafts Day encourages creativity and participation from residents of all ages, from children to seniors. Not only does it provide an outlet for artistic expression, but it also serves as a platform for residents to bond and learn.

Craft activities could range from creating winter-themed art pieces to making holiday DIY ornaments. Whatever the crafts might be, there\’s joy in creating, laughter, and the heartening sight of your community engaged in creating something beautiful together.

How to Leverage Technology to Make Your Winter Events a Success

1) Organize events with a custom calendar:

Keeping residents in the loop about community events is essential to creating an engaged community. To streamline this process, consider using a custom calendar. Through Pilera, community managers can create custom calendars encompassing a variety of events—from community-wide gatherings and board meetings to tennis court reservations, clubhouse activities, and fun children\’s events.

Residents can easily access these calendars through the resident portal, where they can find all scheduled events or browse for specific calendars that match their interests. This user-friendly feature empowers residents to stay informed and participate in community events according to their preferences. Pilera\’s customizable calendars are a central hub for residents, which helps to ensure that everyone can quickly discover, engage, and enjoy different activities happening within their community.

2) Communicate with residents and send reminders:

Once you\’ve scheduled your events, the next crucial step is to spread the word. Event calendars in Pilera enable managers and board members to send out email notifications to residents, letting them know about upcoming events. Keeping residents informed about events is essential so you can foster community unity. Furthermore, managers can monitor all event-related email notifications in the message center to track who has opened the message.

3) Manage event logistics with task management:

Task management systems can be a great event planning tool. Managers and board members can leverage task management systems to organize the event\’s logistics. Task management systems help board members and managers stay on the same page by creating and assigning tasks to each other. With the ability to comment on tasks and monitor progress, everyone remains synced and engaged, contributing to the successful execution of events within the community.

4) Involve residents in the planning process with discussion boards:

Involving your residents in the event planning process can be a great way to build community bonds and increase engagement. A discussion board can facilitate conversations about the event and help your team recruit volunteers.  

A discussion board can be an invaluable tool for HOA communities that want to encourage residents to assist in actively planning and executing winter events. Community members can share their ideas, preferences, and suggestions for upcoming events by opening a dedicated discussion space. It\’s an inclusive approach that can foster engagement, empower residents, and enable management to tap into the creativity and insights of its diverse communities.

The discussion board is also a great place for managers to recruit volunteers interested in contributing their time and skills to make community events successful. Opening up collaboration for events with residents increases participation and makes every resident feel invested in the success of their community events. It creates a stronger sense of community ownership and unity. 

Conclusion

HOA managers and board members can foster better community relations with thoughtfully planned events for the winter. You can plan many events that bring fun for residents of all ages and interests – from holiday light decorations to winter movie nights. Residents can bond with one another through these events and create long-lasting memories.  

With robust community management technology, you can plan your events from start to finish with custom calendars, task management systems, automated communications, and more. Pilera\’s HOA management software empowers you to streamline the event planning process, enabling seamless organization and collaboration between managers, board members, and residents. With the right mix of creativity, community input, and technology, HOA managers and board members can host fun events that bring the community closer during winter.  

Are you looking to increase technology adoption in your community? Factors such as lack of training, security concerns, or residents simply needing to be made aware may prevent residents from using technology. Leveraging technology has many benefits for your community. It fosters engagement and keeps residents informed about the community. It also reduces your team\’s workload when residents can easily view information, submit requests, and update their information. 

This blog article will teach you the best practices to increase technology adoption in your community.  

Ways to Increase Usage of Technology in Your Communities

1) Roll out an easy-to-use resident portal

A resident portal is one of the most beneficial tools you can implement for your communities.  A portal provides a central place for residents to securely make online payments, view the latest community information, request services, and connect with other residents.  Promoting self-service in the community can help your team save a significant amount of time.  When residents can conveniently view information and request services, it can increase satisfaction while reducing your team’s workload.  Read on to learn how to promote the resident portal to your community and make adopting the resident portal easy.

2) Convey the benefits of your resident portal

It’s essential to convey the benefits of the community portal to residents.  Let residents know how the portal simplifies their interaction with the community and saves them time.  Show them how convenient it is to make payments or submit maintenance requests online without visiting or calling the office.  A great way to accomplish this is by sending newsletters or announcing it during community meetings.  

When residents sign up for Pilera, you can automatically send them a welcome message detailing the benefits.  In the welcome message, introduce your management team and list specific benefits:

• Make online payments.
• View the latest documents and events.
• Residents can update their information, such as contact preferences, guests, pets, insurance, and more. 
• Residents can submit maintenance, support, and ACR requests.  They can also check the status without having to call the office. 
• Connect with other residents through the opt-in directory and discussion board. 
• List items to sell on the marketplace.
• See all of their past communications. 

3) Offer training to residents

Showing residents how to use the resident portal can increase usage.  For example, you can create a short tutorial video demonstrating how to log in, change passwords, set communication preferences, view documents or the calendar, submit requests, make payments, and participate in the discussion board.  Offer support to help residents with any questions or difficulties they may have. 

To go a step further, you can schedule live webinars for residents.  During the webinar, you can show residents how to use the portal, review your community’s processes, and set expectations.  Although a webinar requires more time and resources, it allows you to have live face time with residents and answer their questions.

Pilera also provides a quick tutorial video of the resident portal.  Residents can access that video if you use our default welcome message template.

4) Incentivize residents to use the portal

Another way to increase the adoption of the resident portal is to offer residents incentives to use the portal.  For example, incentives may include partnering with local businesses and restaurants to provide discounts to residents when they sign up or use the portal to make payments.  The welcome message dashboard in Pilera shows you a list of residents who have logged into the portal.      

5) Keep the resident portal up to date

To ensure that residents are continually using the portal, managers and board members need to keep the portal up to date with the latest information.  When you regularly update the portal with documents or events, residents will view the portal as the most reliable source for community information.  Here are some examples of how you can keep your resident portal in Pilera fresh with the latest information:

• Create a folder structure to make it easy for residents to find documents and add new files as needed, such as community financials or newsletters.
• Schedule upcoming events such as social gatherings and meetings. 
• Encourage residents to participate in conversations about the community through the discussion board.  Provide guidelines for having respectful conversations and moderate the forum discussions as needed. 
• Regularly keep residents informed about the community through announcements.  A history of all notifications is automatically tracked in the portal for residents to view. 
• Provide updates on residents’ requests for work orders, support, and ACRs.    

6) Promote the resident portal

If you don’t promote the resident portal, residents will likely not know about it.  Here are some ways to promote the resident portal:

• Explain how to sign up for the portal in your community’s welcome packet.  
• Do a show and tell of the resident portal during board meetings, social gatherings, or new resident orientation events. 
• If you have a lot of walk-ins to the office, this is an excellent opportunity to show residents how to use the resident portal. 
• Send email announcements regularly reminding residents of the benefits of signing up and using the resident portal.  
• Include a link to the resident portal in your email signature.

7) Facilitate communication between residents

A great way to increase usage of the resident portal in your community is to encourage residents to connect with each other.  However, you’re often concerned that discussions in social media groups may expose confidential information to the public.  Pilera’s discussion board provides a secure place for residents to have constructive conversations while keeping your community’s data safe.  Through the discussion board, residents can create topics, share attachments, and have conversations with each other. 

8) Offer multiple communication options

Diverse communities call for diverse communication options. Giving your residents multiple ways to stay informed helps you reach broader demographics. Younger residents may prefer text messages, whereas older residents prefer phone calls. Offering numerous communication options also increases the likelihood that residents will receive your message.  

With Pilera’s communication platform, you can notify residents by text, phone, email, or postal mail.  Residents can also receive emails and text messages in their preferred language.  Additionally, if your community has a portal, your residents can select their communication preferences and update their contact information.  On average, communities can reach residents 30x faster with Pilera’s automated communication platform.  

9) Gather feedback from residents

Actively seek feedback from residents who are using the portal regularly.  Then, identify ways that you can improve the experience for your residents. When you change the portal, share the news with your residents.  Let them know you are taking their feedback and actively taking steps to improve their experience.  Here are some ways to gather feedback:

• Create a survey and email it to your residents.  
• When talking to residents in the office or on a phone call, ask them about their experience with the portal.  

Managers and Board Member Roles in improving resident engagement in less time

1) Keeping Content Fresh and Relevant

Regular updates from the management company ensure that the content on the portal is fresh, relevant, and useful to residents. This can include updates about upcoming maintenance, new policies, community events, or emergency alerts.

2) Building Trust and Transparency

When you actively posts updates and important information, it builds trust and transparency with the residents. It shows that the management is committed to open communication and is actively working to keep residents informed.

3) Efficiently Managing Expectations and Requests

By using the portal to communicate about services, maintenance schedules, and event planning, the management can manage resident’s expectations more effectively. It also allows for a more streamlined process of handling requests and complaints, as everything is documented and can be tracked easily.

4) Fostering a Sense of Community

Regular posts about community events, achievements, and news can help foster a strong sense of community. It allows residents to feel more connected to their neighbors and the management, enhancing overall community spirit.

5) Facilitating Feedback and Improvements

The management company can use the portal to solicit feedback from residents about various aspects of the community. This can lead to improvements in services and facilities, based on the residents’ input, thereby increasing satisfaction.

Managers are so busy, is it worth it?

Yes!    We get it, you’re busy, but the time investment in maintaining an active and up to date portal can pay off in numerous ways!   Here’s why.

1) Centralized communications

Your residents can find the most up to date information on events, important community information, rules and regulations in one spot.  Once established as a reliable source of information, the portal saves time for both residents and management

2) Enhanced trust

Regular updates and transparent communication through the portal can build and maintain trust with the management company. This is crucial for fostering a positive community environment.

3) Streamline Operations

Initially, it may seem like a task adding to your workload. In actuality, the frequency of direct calls and requests will decrease, saving you time. Resident satisfaction will also increase. An engaged and satisfied resident base leads to higher retention rates. Residents appreciate the ease of access to information, making payments and seeing updates to their requests.

4) Resident Feedback is Easy

Regular interaction in the portal can allows management to collect feedback easily. Understanding your resident’s needs and concerns can guide you on community improvements, services and amenities.

5) Time and Cost Savings

Digital communications saves lots of time, and the savings on printing and distributing physical notices and flyers or newsletters is significant!

Conclusion

Increasing the use of technology in your communities can be challenging.  However, training residents, regularly updating the portal, and gathering constant feedback can improve the resident experience and boost technology adoption among residents.  Using technology to create self-sufficient communities can enhance operations and reduce the workload for your team.  Implement these tips today to keep your residents informed and improve operations!

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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. 

Greetings!  We’re starting the month big with 2 brand new features that have been a popular request among our clients.  The new Resident Discussion Board & Threaded Conversation features are now available in Pilera!

Threaded Email Conversations

Previously, we added the ability for residents to reply to manager emails. Now, a history of all email conversations with your residents will be stored within Pilera.  The new threaded conversations feature gives you a single source of truth, so you will always know who said what.  You can see a history of all replies and when they replied in the message center and within the resident’s profile.  This new feature will be auto-enabled for everyone to start using right away!

Resident Discussion Board

The Discussion Board feature allows your residents to communicate with each other, exchange ideas, and facilitate positive conversations about the community.  Many community members use public tools like Facebook Groups or Nextdoor without the oversight of management or board members. If the board and management are not seeing complaints, they can’t address them before they get out of control.  With our new Discussion Board feature, you will hear about any complaints, concerns, or suggestions first and can keep discussions “in-house” within Pilera.

Here are some examples of how your community can use the discussion board:

• Exchange ideas on home improvements
• Provide feedback on community amenities
• Get recommendations for products and services
• Find ways to stay connected with other community members, such as through a book or gardening club.

Now that you understand the kind of conversations that can take place, we’ll walk through how the Discussion Board will help your community stay connected while ensuring conversations are healthy and productive for all.

Setup a moderator role to oversee conversations

A concern we often hear from managers and board members about public discussion forums and Facebook Groups is that comments can’t be moderated.  That’s why we’ve implemented a new Community Moderator role for the Discussion Board feature.  The Community Moderator will receive an email notification when a new topic is created and anyone comments on it.  Managers can also view notifications about the discussion board within the Message Center.  You can assign any manager, board member, or resident the Community Moderator Role. If the Community Moderator Role hasn\’t been assigned, the dashboard will display an alert to inform managers.

Organize discussion topics

You can create categories and subcategories to organize topics across multiple communities in the templates section. For easier access to category creation, we\’ve added a link within the discussion board topic. You can also adjust the categories within a community in the Categories tab under Settings.

Remove topics or comments

If topics or comments are inappropriate or it goes against your company’s forum policies, you can delete them.  Deleted topics or comments will no longer be visible to residents.  However, as a manager, you can view deleted topics with the dashboard filters.  Similarly, you can view any edited or deleted comments in the events section of the topic.

Close topics

To allow for new topics to get visibility, it’s important to close old topics that have been resolved or are inactive.  You can change the status of a topic to closed and filter the dashboard for that status to see all closed topics. 

Submit private comments

Managers can submit comments that are visible to other managers only or post a comment for all residents to see.

See the latest threads

Within the dashboard, managers, board members, and residents can see how many topics have had activity within the last 30 days.

Publish rules through the ticket alerts

For community discussions to be healthy and productive for all, it’s important to set some rules in place for your residents to follow.  The ticket alerts in Pilera are a great way to inform residents of the rules.  This alert will display at the top of each new thread a resident creates.  

Generate reports on-demand

Summary and Detailed reports provide you with a way to export all topics for archival purposes.  Additionally, these reports give you insights on discussion board activity and what kind of topics are generating the most interest in your community.  You can filter the dashboard based on criteria such as category, subcategory, and dates to generate your reports.  

How to get the discussion board for your community

The Discussion Board is available to all clients who have the Resident Portal at no additional cost!  We will be rolling out the discussion board gradually to our clients. If you would like to opt-out of the Discussion Board feature please contact us at [email protected]. 

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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. 

Greetings everyone!  Many of our customers requested an easier way to schedule events they hold on a frequent basis, and we’re excited to share that we finally have recurring events! If you’ve been looking to automate your board member meetings or your community activities, now you can! 

New Recurring Events

Set a recurring schedule

As you create your event, you can schedule how often that event occurs on a daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly basis. For weekly events, you can select the days to schedule the event for. Additionally, you can decide whether to set an end date for the event or let it run forever.

Consider these examples:

• Monthly board meetings and yearly budget meetings.
• Community activities such as biweekly virtual trivia night or a talent show every six months.
• Maintenance activities such as weekly trash pickup, monthly alarm testing, and more.

Modifying recurring events made easy

Chances are, you’ll need to modify a recurring event. Maybe you need to edit the title name or add more details in the description.  In Pilera, it’s easy to modify an event.  You can either choose to split just this event and update it or you can update this and all future events in one go.  

View all recurring events in the calendar

The calendar will display a list of all the one-time events and recurring events that you have created. By selecting specific custom calendars you\’ve created, you can get a more granular view of the events that are happening. Additionally, you can view the calendar by month, week, or day.

Notify your community about the event

Through the community calendar, you can send email notifications about events on-demand, any time.  You can further refine who receives your message by selecting a location (street, building, floor, or unit) or user type (owners, tenants, others, managers).   

Watch Video: New Feature Overview – Recurring Events & Communication Distribution Groups

Automate your events today with new recurring events

With Pilera’s new recurring events feature, you’ll save more time managing your community’s events.  It’s now easier than ever to schedule events you host on a regular basis like a board meeting or a resident event and modify the events if you need to.  

Note: This article has been updated on August 16, 2022, to include the latest resident portal features in Pilera.

Giving residents the tools that they need to have an enriching experience in their community is critical to delivering good customer service.  Tools that are built with a self-service mindset enables residents to access information quickly, on any device, and with a minimal amount of help.  A self-service resident portal is just as beneficial to residents as it is to managers. It reduces calls to the office, giving managers more time back in the day to focus on other projects. As a management company, your customer service efforts will pay off with happier communities that want to retain your services for years to come. In this article, you’ll learn about 12 features within Pilera that will impress your residents while improving employee workload.

What is a Resident Portal?

A resident portal is a place for residents to log in and view important information about their community.  Residents can access documents, learn about upcoming events, and see messages that managers send them.  When residents need to request a repair in the unit, they can submit a work order and track the status.  Additionally, if residents want to make structural improvements, they can submit architectural change requests for the board\’s approval.  Portals provide residents with a convenient way to pay dues online and view their financial transactions with the community.

12 Features of a Self-Service Resident Portal

1) Resident Portal Dashboard

The resident dashboard, released in January 2020, gives residents a high-level insight into what is occurring in their unit and the community.  Residents can see their current balance, open work orders and ACRs, messages received, and packages waiting to be picked up.  The dashboard also gives residents quick access to view more information for each key metric.  Additionally, residents can update their contact information so they\’ll never miss out on important communication from the community. 

2) Manage unit information in the resident portal

Residents can gain access to and maintain their unit information all in one place.  Residents can upload unit documents for management to see. They can view the latest messages that managers have sent them and view updates on their work orders or architecture change requests.  They can also manage other occupants in the unit, and keep vehicle, alternate addresses/contacts, and pet information updated. Additionally, multi-unit owners can manage all their respective information for each unit under one login, a capability not provided by many community management platforms.

3) Online Payment

As more residents continue to use their smartphones for everyday tasks, it’s important to provide them with flexible ways to pay their dues online.  Within Pilera, residents can make online payments to the bank of your choice or through our integrated partner Paylease. Residents can also view their balance and ledger to understand their financial history with the community.   

4) Work Order Request

Giving residents the ability to submit work order requests through a resident portal will help to reduce inbound calls to your office.  Through Pilera, residents can submit work order requests for their unit as well as the common area.  In addition to adding details to the work order, residents can also attach images of the issue.  As managers work on the request, they can post updates and choose to notify the resident by email.  Pilera also provides advanced occupant permissions so you can choose how residents interact with you on their work order requests.  You can allow residents to simply view the work order ticket or allow them to post comments.  

5) Architectural Change Request

When residents want to make structural improvements to their homes, they can submit an architectural request change ticket to get board and manager approval.  Along with details of the change, residents can also add attachments and photos.  Board members can comment on the ticket about whether they approve or reject the request, and can opt to send an email notification to residents.

6) Community Directory

A way for residents to stay connected to their neighbors is through the community directory.  Residents can opt-in to share their address, email address, or phone number with the rest of the community.  Additionally, they can view other residents who have opted in to share their contact information.

7) Community Document Library

Adding documents is a great way to keep your residents logging into the portal. A document library is a place for residents to securely obtain important files that their management has shared with them.  The document library is the page that residents visit the most within their community portal in Pilera. Add documents such as rules and regulations, emergency procedures, board meeting minutes, financials, additional forms, and copies of the previous month’s newsletters. Make sure to keep the document library relevant and fresh with the latest files so your residents will continually log in.   

8) Knowledge base

The knowledge base is a searchable FAQ section where residents can find the answers they need quickly.  It\’s important to note that the knowledge base is as good as the content that you put in.  Consider adding content that answers questions your residents most frequently ask.  Also, don\’t forget to tag your articles so residents can find answers quickly.

9) Event calendar

A great way to foster engagement in your communities is through hosting events and inviting your residents to take part in them.  We hear from our clients that they also post routine information in the calendar, such as maintenance alerts or trash pickup. The event calendar in Pilera helps you to handle the event details and notifications in a single place instead of in an external calendar provider.  Residents can log in and filter specific categories of events they\’re interested in. You can also send residents an email notification about an upcoming event so they will not miss it.

10) Forms

Forms are a great way to collect feedback and other pertinent information from your residents. Consider adding a resident satisfaction survey or a community improvement form so you can deliver better resident experiences. Examples of forms that you can post in the portal include condominium sales requests, election/voting, clubhouse rental, pool packets, and more.  

11) Submit support requests within the resident portal

It’s important to encourage two-way communication with your residents.  Making it easy for your residents to contact the management company when they have a question or concern is the best way to do that.  Within Pilera’s resident portal, residents can submit a support request and get updates without calling the office.  Managers can assign support requests to other staff, set a due date, and prioritize the task. Furthermore, to increase communication, managers and residents can add comments to the request and receive email updates.

Note: The Resident Support Ticket feature is included in the Help Desk product. When integrated with Pilera\’s Resident Portal, residents can submit and track their support requests.

12) Community Communications

Good communication is at the heart of all successful communities. Studies have shown that resident satisfaction increases when their community keeps in touch with them through frequent community updates. Pilera makes it easy to communicate in your resident\’s preferred method of communication and language. Residents can choose from phone, email, text, or postal mail to receive communications. They can also choose from 100+ languages for email and text as well as English and Spanish for phone calls. Within the portal itself, residents can view a history of all communications you have sent to them. Additionally, filtering capabilities enable by message type and year enable residents to quickly find the message they\’re looking for.

Conclusion

Through these 12 self-service resident tools within the portal in Pilera, management companies are better positioned to improve their customer service operations so they can deliver constant value to their communities.  Keeping the portal up-to-date will ensure that your residents always stay happy and informed and that communities will continue to renew your services for years to come.  

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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 increase operational efficiency.  May we help your community achieve these success stories?  Try Pilera today!

To start the new year, we’ve released some new exciting updates in the resident and board member portal.  These updates to the portal include a new home page when logging in and easier-to-use navigation. The new resident and board member portal aims to enhance the resident experience in the portal with visibility to important information and quick links to direct them to what they need.

What are these new updates all about?

Visibility into the community and unit information

When residents and board members log into the portal, they will be greeted by the dashboard that provides a high-level summary of what is occurring in the community and within their own unit. Residents can view open work orders, architecture change requests, packages that are awaiting pick-up, new messages in the past month, and open office hours for the day. Beneath each metric is a direct link to access that page for more details.

Update communication preference easily

Maintaining up-to-date contact information is critical so that residents and board members can be informed of important events happening in the community.  In the dashboard, the resident will see the phone number, email address, and text number they have on file with their community. The dashboard also provides quick links to update contact information and communication preference.  The preferred method of communication is denoted by a blue color in comparison to other contact methods, which are displayed in gray color. If the email address or text number is invalid, the dashboard will display an error message and the resident or board member can correct it.    

Make payments online and view the balance

The new dashboard provides residents and board members with access to their outstanding balance so that they can make a payment. The “Make a Payment” link right beneath the balance will direct them to the payment service to pay the dues.

Additional visibility for board members

In addition to the above metrics, board members will also gain a high-level view of the tasks and architecture change requests that are currently open in the community.

A more intuitive navigation

We’ve also improved the navigation structure to enhance the portal experience and make it easier to find information.  The new navigation items are Dashboard, Your Info, Unit, Community, Website, and Contact. Residents can manage their profile information through the Your Info tab.  They can also view and manage information pertaining to their home through the Unit tab, and view important information such as documents and events in the Community tab.  The website tab directs them to their community website. Through the Contact tab, residents and board members can send management a message.

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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. 

Increasing resident engagement is one of the most important functions in community management, yet one of the most challenging.  To empower our clients in bringing more engagement to their community and building relationships with new potential communities, we’ve released a new feature called the resident and board member dashboard.

What is the new resident and board member dashboard?

The dashboard provides residents and board members with a live snapshot of imporant things occurring in the community and within their unit.  Residents can get access to metrics such as their outstanding financial balance, the number of messages in the past month, open work orders, waiting packages, and more.  Board members gain additional information such as the number of tasks and architecture change requests. Learn more about the resident and board member dashboard in our January release.

Benefits of the resident and board member dashboard to community management:

Provide a more intuitive self-service area for residents

The resident and board member dashboard serves as a new home page when logging into the web portal.  With the resident dashboard, you can empower residents with important community and unit information they need, on the go.  The dashboard packs current information in one place, from open work orders to messages they received this month.

Maintain current resident contact information

Having the most current resident contact information helps managers ensure they can successfully reach out to residents and send them important information when needed.  The dashboard provides residents with instant access to their contact information and preferred communication method. If a resident’s text number or email address is invalid, they will be informed of that in the dashboard and they can correct it.

Access balance information quicker

With the new dashboard, residents can access their outstanding balance much quicker and in fewer clicks than before.  This makes it easier for them to submit their online payments on time and management can collect dues faster.

Keep board members informed

In addition to having instant access to their unit information, board members will also gain a high-level overview of the tasks and architecture change requests that are open for their community.  

Gain new association clients

When an association looks to employ a new management company, the distinction between the winning management company and alternatives is transparent operations and high visibility into community information.  The resident dashboard as a part of your community management portal can be an essential selling factor when pitching to new association clients. Board members and residents alike will be kept informed of live information pertaining to their community and home with payment balances, open work orders, and the latest communications all in one place.

With a live snapshot of their community and unit in one place, residents will be more informed and satisfied.  Managers can start to see more resident engagement and reduced calls to the office as residents have a more intuitive self-service area. 

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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. 

As you gear up for year-end meetings and community celebrations, you’re keeping busy with the event details and ensuring that residents are notified in a timely manner.  This month, we’re excited to share that managing your calendar of events and informing residents has become easier than ever! Releasing on November 12th, Pilera’s newly revamped event calendar, part of the Resident Portal product, is easier to use, more intuitive to work with, and gives you more flexibility in notifying the community. 

Watch Video: Event Calendar Training

Streamline your community events with Pilera

One central place to manage all events

Pilera’s events calendar is built into the system, which means that you now have one central place to manage all events.  No worries about managing events through external calendar services and then embedding the calendar into Pilera.  You can now add event details and time range with ease, all in one place.  

Create custom event calendars

As of Pilera\’s April 2020 release, managers can create custom event calendars to manage the different types of events they hold in their community.  Managers can create custom calendars for community events, board meetings, tennis courts, clubhouses, kid\’s events, and more.  Residents can view all the events or select a specific calendar to view upcoming events.

On-demand email notifications

In the legacy event calendar, managers could send a one-time notification of events upon the creation of the event.  Now, we’ve built an on-demand notification system so that managers can send emails to residents about an event when they need it, and not just upon event creation.  

Know that residents received the event invite

Knowing that residents are adequately informed of community events is imperative to the success of that event and bringing the community together.  Managers can now track all event-related email notifications in the message center, so they know who has received the message.  

More intuitive view of events

Residents can now have a more intuitive view of all events to stay connected to the community.  Through the calendar, residents can toggle between multiple ways to view events: monthly, weekly, or daily.    

How can I start using the Event Calendar?

If you\’d like this new feature enabled for your communities, please contact [email protected].

*The Pilera Software team updated this blog article to reflect new updates to the community events calendar feature.

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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. 

Turning prospective HOA and condo associations into clients can be overwhelming and pose a challenge for management companies.  With the property management market becoming more consolidated and saturated with many players, small and mid-sized management companies are finding it difficult to compete.  Many management companies who have lost out on associations learned that upon asking their communities about their decision-making process, the associations loved what they did, but another company had resident-facing software that they needed.  A resident-facing software can prove to a powerful selling factor and give companies an edge over the competition.  Pilera Software is one such management platform that empowers HOA and condo companies to gain more prospective clients by providing them with management and resident tools to more efficiently operate the community. 

Self-service resident portal

In the age of digital information, residents expect to receive up-to-the-minute news and perform various tasks quickly.  Residents will appreciate having a self-service resident portal that allows them to manage updates and occupants in their unit, pay their dues on time, submit service requests, get instant answers from a knowledge base.  This central portal also helps them to stay connected to the community through upcoming events, communication, and the resident directory.

Customer service

Customer support operations are at the heart of any community operation.  Quality customer service results in happy residents and board members that will want to retain your services in the long-run.  Pilera’s help desk product helps managers to stay on top of customer support through ticket creation, assignment, and follow-up dates to ensure nothing falls through the cracks.  The ability to collaborate on a ticket ensures that correct information and direction are being given whereas comprehensive audit tracking keeps everyone knowledgeable on a support ticket.

Property and common area maintenance

One of the most important functions of a community manager is to maintain or increase property values through the specific units (association-responsible) and common area maintenance.  The tracking of work orders from creation to completion allows managers to stay organized and accountable for their work while keeping their co-workers and residents in the loop.  Email notifications to residents reduce calls to the office and allow managers to work on more important projects for the community they’re managing. 

Do you have the tools right for you?

Many of our clients have shared their experience using Pilera’s suite of community management tools and say that the tools have made it easier for them to have a conversation with prospective associations and eventually land their business.  Having the right set of tools that is available 24×7, customizable, and reliable is vital for enhancing your customer support operations and meeting resident expectations. To learn more about how Pilera can benefit your communities today, connect with us at [email protected] or read more about our client’s success stories.

In July 2019, we released brand new functionality where managers can upload documents to a unit or specific resident account.  This gives managers the ability to store documents for internal use or to share them with residents, and in turn, have residents share documents with management.  In this month’s edition of the Manager Toolkit series for our community and property managers, we discuss some best practices for unit document management.

Tip # 1: Organize your documents using folders and subfolders

The framework for folders and subfolders in the unit document area is similar to a feature that you may already familiar with, the newer document library.  Creating folders and subfolders not only is a great way to organize your documents but it also allows you to set more granular permissions for each folder.  We’ll walk through permissions more in Tip # 3.

Tip # 2: Upload unit-specific files to the “Unit File” folder

The “Unit File” folder is a designated place where managers can store documents that are specific to a unit and is not tied to a current or previous resident.  This folder can be managed and viewed by community and property managers only. Here are some applicable scenarios of uploading documents to a unit:

• Maintenance contracts for units.
• Equipment warranty documents.
• Inspection documents.

Tip # 3: When adding documents to a resident specific folder, set permissions

This new feature also allows managers and residents to attach documents to a unit so that only managers and that unit’s residents can access those documents.  This means that by default, Pilera’s system filters and hides documents from past accounts using the resident account management framework we implemented earlier this year.  There are three default folders you will find in each resident account:

• Management – Folders and files here are visible to management only.
• Owner – Only managers and owners can see folders and files here.  Managers can allow owners to view files, to upload files, or choose to not display files to them.
• Tenant – Only managers and tenants can see folders and files here.  Managers can specify one of three permissions: allow tenants to access files, upload files, or choose to not display files to them.

Managers can allow residents to upload a variety of documents:

• A signed copy of lease agreements and renewals.
• Pet vaccination records and photos of their pet.
• Copies of insurance policies such as renters or homeowners insurance.
• Inspection forms and photos of issues.
• Other filled/signed forms.

Tip # 4: Add a title and description to all folders and files

Finally, when you create folders and upload files, it’s very important that you add titles and descriptions to them.  Folder/file names should be clear and concise, making it easy for your staff to understand the contents of it.  The description can be a high-level summary of what the folder or file is about or specific instructions for your staff and residents.

Unit level documents help with internal accountability, efficiency, and customer service

By attaching documents to a unit or a resident account, managers can keep their documents better organized, thus improving internal accountability, operational efficiency, and customer service efforts.  Rather than maintaining a binder, managers can keep a record of all pertinent resident and unit information within the unit itself.  The tips we\’ve highlighted above will set managers for success as they handle all document needs in the communities they manage for each unit.

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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.