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.

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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.

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.

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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. 

Important Update: The Colorado Governor has recently passed a modification to HB22-1137 called HB24-1233 with new communication requirements.

On June 6, 2022, Colorado Governor Jared S. Polis passed HB22-1137 into law, which deals with “Homeowners’ Association Board Accountability and Transparency”.  These new laws which go into effect on August 9, 2022, aim to protect homeowners and increase transparency in the association.  This post covers the new requirements to communicate “a unit owner’s delinquency in paying assessments, fines, or fees”.   

HB22-1137 Homeowner Communication Requirements

Unit Owner Notification

The unit owner must receive a notice about their delinquency before the association can take any action.

Language Preference 

A unit owner may inform the association if they prefer to receive a notification in a language other than English.  If so, the community must send them a notification in the language they requested.  Otherwise, the community will send a notification to the unit owner in English.

Designated Contact

The unit owner can designate another person to receive delinquency notices on their behalf.  The designated contact should receive the same notice as the unit owner. The notice must also be sent to both at the same time. However, the alternative contact will receive the correspondence in English, while as mentioned, the unit owner can receive it in their preferred language.   

Communication Methods

The association must contact the unit owner and designated contact person by certified mail.  They also must physically post a copy of the notice at the homeowners’ unit. 

In addition to the above, the association must contact the unit owner by one of the following methods:

• First-class mail
• Text via a phone number only if the unit owner provided it to the association.
• An email address that the unit owner provided to the association. 

Communications Archive

The board or management company acting on behalf of the board must keep a record of any contact with the unit owner about the delinquency.  This includes the type of communication used to inform the unit owner, as well as the date and time of contact.

Are you prepared for HB22-1137?

Consult with your community association lawyer

Be sure to discuss the more complex details of HB22-1137 with your lawyer and how it impacts your association.

Evaluate your current process

Technology is going to play an important role in helping you comply with these new changes. It\’s important to ask the following questions about your current communications provider.

• How do you currently communicate delinquencies with your residents?  
• Can you easily track all the messages you send to residents, with the date, time, and communication method?
• Can residents easily inform you of their language preference and set alternative contacts to receive messages on their behalf?   

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About Pilera

Pilera Software is a leading provider of automated communication and community relationship management solutions for HOAs, Condos, Apartments, and High-Rises.  Thousands of communities rely on Pilera’s automated phone, email, text, and PDF letter solutions with language translations to keep residents informed.  Talk to an expert today so you can see how Pilera can help you manage your communities today.

Do you often ask a fellow community manager if they sent out a message about an upcoming event yet?  Do you often struggle to find a message about maintenance you sent out months ago?  Or, is it challenging to figure out which residents are not receiving your messages or not opening them, and why?

Managers and board members often struggle with improving transparency in their communication strategy.  When companies lack visibility into their communication efforts, they can lose up to $62.4 million in productivity according to Ring Central.  A lack of visibility into your communication efforts can also lead to a decline in resident satisfaction and even the potential for liability.  In contrast, having visibility into your communications efforts means you can:  

• Keep your team on the same page and thus deliver a better resident experience.  
• Identify successes in your communications strategy that you can repeat.
• Identify areas in your communication strategy that you need to improve on. 
• Protect your community from potential liability. 

In this post, we will cover 6 steps in Pilera you can take to gain visibility in your communication efforts.

1) Designate responsibilities

The first step to improving transparency in your communications efforts is to designate responsibilities.  This way, you can set clear expectations on who will be responsible for communicating with residents.  

User roles in Pilera enable you to designate different responsibilities for employees based on what actions they need to perform.  User roles also keep your staff and board members in the know when it comes to your communication efforts.  

We recommend setting these three important roles:

• Message Admin – These are the individuals in your organization who will be responsible for managing communications with owners, tenants, other occupants, and board members.  They can send announcements and manage messages in the Message Center.   
• Announcement monitor – These individuals will receive a copy of every announcement that you send out.  For example, you can set this role for your Board Members to keep them informed of every announcement you send.  
• Message monitor – These individuals will receive a copy of every message that is sent out through the “Send Message” feature.

2) Fix invalid resident contact information to improve message deliverability

Your residents\’ text numbers or emails may change from time to time, so it’s vital that your database has the latest information.  Not having accurate contact information will adversely affect your message deliverability.  It also means your residents aren’t receiving your messages and that could result in a potential lawsuit.  

Here at Pilera, we take the delivery of your messages seriously and offer many ways for you to identify which residents aren’t receiving your messages and why.  Let’s take a look at each way.  

Occupant Search

The occupant search page lists all of the residents in your community.  Next to each resident’s name is a visual indicator that shows their communication preferences and contact information failures at a glance.  

Resident Profile

In each individual resident’s profile, you can view the resident’s contact information, preferences, and failure reasons in detail. 

Monthly reports

Each month, managers receive a report on invalid contact information directly to their inbox.  This report compiles a list of residents with invalid text numbers and email addresses so that managers can fix them.

Message Center

Within the Message Center, you can also view the success or failure of each outgoing message.  Real-time analytics show if a resident\’s email has bounced or if a text number is undeliverable.

3) Focus your message on only those who need it

When communicating with your residents, it’s important to send specific messages to only those who need them through segmentation.  That helps you to build trust with your residents while ensuring they aren’t frustrated by receiving messages that don’t impact them. Repeated, unimportant messages or stimuli can result in residents missing actual important messages.

In Pilera, you can segment your message by location (drilled down to the unit), user type (board, tenant, owner, other occupants, manager, etc), and by a specific distribution group.  Then, there are two ways you can confirm your recipients before pushing “send”:

Distribution Group Preview 

As you create your distribution group, you can view all the residents included in that group.

Send Announcement/Message Preview 

When you use the Preview & Send option in Send Announcement, you can confirm which residents will receive a message and if they will receive it by phone, text, email, or PDF letter generation. 

4) Build trust with your residents

Trust and transparency are key to operating a community smoothly.  When you communicate frequently and consistently, residents are less likely to call the office with questions or complaints.  The more informed your residents are, the more productive and organized your team will be.  

How you can build trust through Pilera’s communications:

• Encourage residents to manage their own communication preferences and contact information.  This way they can always count on receiving messages the way they want.
• Roll out the resident portal to your community so that residents can access past messages and all important community information. Our clients include a link to the resident portal in their email signature so they can increase resident signups to the portal.
• Know when a resident has changed their contact information, that way you can verify they’ll be receiving your next message.  Pilera sends an email notification to the main manager contact whenever a resident updates their contact information. 
• Keep residents informed on their customer support, maintenance, and ACR requests. 

5) View the message center regularly

Knowing what messages have been sent out to your community is key to improving visibility in your communication efforts.  A communications archive that is easily accessible can benefit your community in numerous ways:

• It reduces the back and forth communication among employees, including those working after-hours.  If a staff member is out or has left the company, others will know what was done.
• A substitute manager who usually doesn’t manage a community can check the message center so they can respond to resident queries or complete other tasks.
• Reduce the community’s risk to liability.   

Improving accountability with Message Center:

Every message you send out through Pilera is automatically archived in the Message Center.  You can view a history of all messages sent and sort by the message category.  Each individual message displays the following details:

• The message content
• Who sent the message
• When the message was sent
• All recipients with delivery and open status.  

6) Measure your communication efforts

After sending out your messages, it’s important to measure your efforts.  Identify the successes in your communication efforts and what you can improve.  For example, if residents are consistently getting your emails but not opening them, you may need to improve the subject lines.  Or, if inbound calls to the office have increased after you send a message, that may indicate that your message needs more details.  

In Pilera, you can measure your communication efforts through real-time analytics and communication usage reports.

Real-Time Analytics

The Message Center provides delivery analytics of your messages in real-time.  You can see who clicked on or replied to an email, received a text message, or picked up a live call.  

Communication Credits Report

This report details how many messages each community in your portfolio is sending out on a monthly basis.  Through this report, you can easily identify which communities are communication superstars and which aren’t sending out enough.  

Conclusion:

Transparency is vital to your communication efforts right from creating your recipient lists to evaluating the success of your efforts.  Pilera Communication helps to improve visibility within your organization and build trust with residents.  As a recap, you learned about these 6 steps that are important to transparent communication efforts:

1. Designate Responsibilities – Assign someone the responsibility of managing communications with the Communication Admin role.
2. Fix Invalid Contacts – Managers can easily identify which resident contact information is invalid so they can fix it and improve message delivery. 
3. Message Segmentation – When creating your recipient lists or sending out a message, you can confirm all the residents who are going to receive it before hitting send. 
4. Build trust with your residents – Encourage your residents to update their communication preferences and contact information so they are always informed and you are always up to date. 
5. View communications history – Your managers will be on the same page when they know which communications have been sent out with an automatic archive.   
6. Measure Communication Efforts – Real-time message delivery analytics track whether a resident has opened or replied to an email, received a text message or listened to a voice call.  Communication usage reports show which communities are communicating the most, and which could improve their efforts. 

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About Pilera

Pilera Software is the premier property management software that has helped thousands of community managers and back-office personnel improve communication and customer service. Request a personalized demo so you can learn how Pilera’s community management suite can increase work efficiency for your company.

A good HOA communication strategy enables you to run operations more smoothly, reduce costs, and increase resident satisfaction.  By contrast, the lack of a communications strategy or an unclear strategy can result in lost efficiency and increased costs for your community.  When creating a budget for your HOA communication strategy, it\’s important to identify what factors drive costs up.  That way, you can understand what efforts result in the most amount of money being spent and how to reduce those costs. 

We found in our recent study that 79% of our clients reduced their communications cost without sacrificing quality but instead improving with Pilera.  This had us thinking about what factors increase costs and we found that many of them are hidden or unforeseen costs.  In this article, we\’ll talk about:

• The costs you may incur in your current communication strategy and hidden aspects within them. 
• How to reduce costs with technology so you can have more in your budget to deliver better resident experiences.

Short on time? Use our Table of Contents below to read the section that you’re most interested in.  

1) Postal Mailing

Many communities include postal mailing as a part of their HOA communication strategy. Certain states like Nevada now require community associations to send notices via postal mail.  Postal mail is useful in various situations such as sending non-urgent communications or reaching residents who do not have other electronic means of receiving information.  In situations where you need to reach residents on the spot or during emergencies, digital communications are more effective.  

Hidden costs of postal mailing

Postal mailing is an expensive form of communication and larger communities spend thousands of dollars every year.  Doing this in-house means that communities will incur expenses such as stamps, envelopes, paper, and toner. Also, let\’s not forget employee time dedicated to preparing letters and stuffing envelopes.

How to reduce costs in your communications efforts:

1) Transition to digital communications

When you transition to a digital communications system, your community or company can save hundreds of hours of labor and improve daily workflow. The cost of one postal mailing effort can equal months of digital communication costs.  Each community can save at least $3,000 in their budget per year with automated email communications over postal mail.  It\’s important to make sure that your communications platform can provide multiple ways to communicate with your residents, such as phone, email, and text.

Resource: See our in-depth analysis of how much you can save with Pilera email communications.  

2) Reduce manual effort in your postal mailing outreach 

If you need to communicate via postal mail due to state/governing document requirements or because your residents prefer it over other methods, you can still save time and money.  With integrated systems that can generate letters in bulk and mail them out, you can reduce the cost of supplies and employee labor.  For example, Pilera’s new PDF letter generation feature enables you to create letters, download them in bulk, and then upload it to SouthData to mail them out.

2) Manual Resident Data Management

Having the most up-to-date resident contact information is vital to your HOA communication strategy. When contact information is current, you can reach residents when it matters most, like during an emergency. 

Hidden costs of data management

Keeping your data organized and up to date can take a lot of time when using an email service provider such as Gmail or Outlook or an email marketing system like Constant Contact or Mail Chimp.  Since accounting systems don’t integrate with generic email service providers or marketing solutions, updating contact information becomes a longer, more manual process. 

This process involves:

• Managing unit information.
• Tracking who moves in and out, and then updating the appropriate list.  
• Updating contact information manually.

How to reduce costs:

1) Integrate your Accounting Software with HOA Communication Software

When you integrate your accounting system with an HOA communication solution, resident contact information syncs from one platform to another.  This eliminates the need for you to continually update information into your HOA communication platform.

Hidden lost time also happens when your data is inconsistent, such as when sending an email to an outdated email address.  With an integrated system, you\’ll have accurate, up-to-date information.

Resource: Do you currently use accounting software in your management business?  Download a free PDF of Pilera’s integration with your accounting software.

2) Save time with dynamic distribution groups

As a new resident joins or leaves a community, you will need to keep your recipient list up to date.  Many HOA communication platforms offer distribution groups to message specific groups of residents, but they don’t account for new residents or those who left.  A dynamic distribution group such as Pilera’s will automatically maintain your list to account for these changes.    

3) Gain insights through invalid contact reports

Are you seeing more email bounce rates than usual or text messages getting undelivered?  Low delivery rates mean that contact information for some of your residents may be incorrect.  A hidden expense that many managers and boards may not initially realize is the time it takes to fix resident contact information.  Your HOA Communication Software should ease the process by providing you with frequent reports on invalid contact information.  Pilera’s HOA Communication Software sends an automated report on a monthly basis on invalid email, text numbers, and phone numbers for each community.  You can also view invalid contact information at any time directly in the app in the occupant list and within each resident’s profile.  

4) Roll out a resident portal 

A resident portal is not only a great way to engage your residents but it also helps you to get the most accurate contact information.  Your residents can update their contact information and how they’d like to hear from you in the resident portal.  Having a self-service resident portal puts the pressure off your managers and will save time.  With Pilera’s resident portal, your residents can manage their contact information and communication preferences.  Additionally, any time a resident updates their contact information in Pilera, you’ll receive an automated email notification about it.

3) Lawsuits & Fines

Your HOA communication strategy should also outline how to keep your community in compliance with regulations. A lack of communication with residents on maintenance, safety issues, or rules can result in your community getting sued or having to pay hefty fines.  With the average lawsuit costing a business $54,000, this potential hidden expense can put a strain on your community’s financial resources.

How to reduce costs:

1) Secure your communications and data

Can you easily reference an announcement you sent to residents about a maintenance issue from a year ago?  If the answer is no, then you may need to look into a communications solution that will automatically track your outgoing communications in one place.  The communication platform should also provide you with real-time analytics for each message you sent.  Did the resident open a text message, click on an email link, or pick up a phone call? This information can be critical in case of a lawsuit where you need to present information and protect your community.          

2) Mitigate issues from the get-go

Frequent communication is better than a lack of communication.  That’s why it’s important to mitigate issues from the start and keep your residents informed.  The most effective way is to encourage your residents to choose how they want to hear from you – phone, email, text, or postal mail.  Based on your governing documents or state laws, there may be certain communication guidelines that you need to comply with.  For example, Florida law requires condominiums with over 150 units to provide residents with a password-protected website or portal to access documents and other important community information.  As we also mentioned earlier in this post, Nevada is requiring communities to use postal mail for all communications. It\’s important to communicate regularly with residents and through the right channels.  

4) Inbound Phone Calls

Are the phone lines constantly ringing in your management office?  Are hours spent with residents on the phone preventing your staff from focusing on more vital issues?  Inbound phone calls are less commonly seen as a hidden expense.  However, when the number of calls increases over time, it can result in lost efficiency. 

How to reduce costs:

1) Keep your residents informed

Keeping your residents informed is essential to a community’s success.  It reduces operational issues in the long run, which helps to regain your staff’s efficiency.  When you communicate more frequently, you’ll see fewer inbound calls to the office.  Here are some ways you can reduce inbound calls:  

• Message your residents about emergencies, maintenance alerts, reminders, and upcoming events. 
• Notify residents when you have posted an important document to the portal, such as updates to amenity rules.
• Update residents on the status of their maintenance, customer support, rule violations, architectural requests, and other tickets.

2) Promote resident self-service

Promoting self-service within your community through a resident portal or website can significantly reduce inbound calls and operational costs.  A self-service resident portal enables residents to access information on any device or at any location with a minimal amount of help.  With a resident portal or community website, your residents can:

• Pay their dues/rent online and access their financial balance/ledger.
• View all messages you have sent them.
• Submit maintenance, support, and architectural change requests. Communicate with their managers and receive updates so they don\’t have to call the office.
• Manage their own unit so managers have the most up to date information. Your residents should be able to add contacts, addresses, guests, pets, insurance, and more.
• View answers to commonly asked questions in a searchable knowledge base.

5) The cost of outdated systems or processes

Are inefficiencies in your current HOA communication plan causing employees to spend hours sending a message, creating content, tracking when a message was sent, or which residents received a message?  If, yes then it’s likely that inefficient processes or outdated software are resulting in high labor costs. According to Frevvo, 57% of business leaders expect that when they automate processes, they can save 10-50% of labor costs.  

How to reduce costs with technology:

1) Identify software features that automate processes

As we’ve mentioned earlier in this post, automation is key to improving your team’s efficiency and reducing labor costs.  When evaluating communication software, identify ways in which you can automate previously manual processes.  Features in Pilera like emailing at a portfolio level, creating templates, scheduling messages in advance, analytics, and communication archives can automate every stage of the communication process from sending a message to confirming message delivery.  

2) Look for a system with unlimited manager access

Many communication platforms will limit the number of employees you can have logged into the system.  As you require more employees to log in and access information, software costs will increase.  That may limit your company from purchasing more licenses, which can hurt team productivity.  Something to consider when evaluating communication software for your plan is if it allows an unlimited number of managers to log in.  With more employees can access communications, you can improve visibility in the office. You can also reduce unnecessary back and forth follow-ups with employees on what was done.  Through Pilera’s communication software, an unlimited number of managers can have their own accounts and log in.  They can access a history of all communication sent and real-time analytics on which residents opened a text, clicked on an email, or picked up a phone call.  

3) Consolidate your communications and customer service operations under one platform

With the rise of software platforms, there is no shortage of apps for employees to get their work done.  The modern worker uses 9.39 apps every day, according to Businesswire.  Switching between apps can cause employees to feel overwhelmed and can dampen productivity.  Studies show that app overload results in 52 days of lost efficiency and $14,000 in wages every year.  The more functions that you can consolidate in as less platforms as possible, the easier it will be for your staff to perform their jobs.  With HOA software, your business can reduce labor costs by combining communications, maintenance, customer service, resident engagement, board collaboration, and more in a single platform.

Summary: Hidden expenses in your HOA Communication Strategy

As you create your HOA communications strategy, be sure to consider hidden expenses you may incur along the way and how to reduce them. As a recap, these are the expenses you will want to keep an eye on:

1. Postal Mailing – Postal mailing is an expensive form of communication. However, transitioning to automated, digital communications solutions can save on postage and labor costs. If local/state government regulations require you to send out postal mail, you can still reduce costs. Integrated communication and mailing systems can generate the letters in bulk and mail them out for you.
   
2. Manual Resident Data Management – Managing resident contact information through a manual process can result in lost efficiency. When integrating your accounting software with an HOA communciation solution, contact information syncs seamlessly and error-free.
   
3. Lawsuits/Fines – Lack of communications or the proper channels to communicate can increase a community’s liability. Make sure that you can consolidate all of your communication efforts in one place, so your staff can look it up when needed.
   
4. Inbound Phone Calls – Spending hours on the phone with a resident on payment-related issues can take time away from interacting with residents in more positive ways or providing additional services to your community. Providing a self-service portal where residents can update their contact information and access community information can reduce inbound calls to the office.
   
5. Cost of inefficient processes or outdated technology – Manual processes in your communications strategy from creating a message to tracking opens and clicks can reduce staff efficiency and increase labor costs. Leveraging technology to automate time-consuming tasks and consolidate your operations in one platform can make your staff\’s jobs easier.

How Pilera can help reduce hidden expenses of your HOA Communication Strategy

An automated HOA solution can save money in your budget and improve your communication strategy by offloading manual tasks and reducing costs.  When we surveyed our clients, we found that managers save 7 hours per week with Pilera’s communication software.  This equates to $14,000 of staff wages in regained efficiency each year.  With Pilera\’s HOA communications software, you can reduce:

1. Labor Costs – Automate phone, email, text, and PDF letter generation; sync data through your accounting platform; and create templates to save time.
2. Liability – Frequently communicate through a variety of channels and track all outgoing communications in one place.
3. Operational Costs – Provide your residents with a self-service portal to access all community information and update their contact information and preferences. Also, the ability for unlimited managers to log into Pilera keeps everyone on the same page and improves efficiency.

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About Pilera

Pilera Software is the premier property management software that has helped thousands of community managers and back-office personnel improve communication and customer service. Request a personalized demo so you can learn how Pilera’s community management suite can increase work efficiency for your company.

Communication is vital to a community’s success.  It enables boards and managers to operate the community more efficiently and increase transparency with residents.  However, boards and managers often struggle with keeping residents informed in an ever-changing world.  Which HOA communication tools can you use to meet your resident’s expectations? How do you choose the right tools for your community\’s unique needs?

The importance of having multiple HOA communication tools

It’s important to have multiple communication channels in your community outreach. Let’s first dive into the reasons why this is important. 

Increase Reach

Your message will get across more effectively when you utilize tools that resonate with your residents.  It’s a good idea to let your residents choose how they prefer to hear from you.

Increase Engagement

Residents will feel included when they are informed in a way that works best for them.  They are more likely to tune in to what is going on in the community and become engaged.  Using multiple communication methods to keep your residents engaged makes you more likely to reach a quorum in your annual board meetings.

Meet Different Needs

Different needs call for different communication methods. For example, some of your residents might like to receive text message reminders for upcoming board meetings.  You may also have different groups of residents who would like to receive newsletters in an email format vs print.

Protect

The lack of communication or not using the right channels can increase your community\’s risk of getting sued by homeowners.  Your community can save thousands of dollars in litigation costs when communicating frequently and clearly.

Comply

Every community’s governing documents or state laws differ, so it’s important to understand what they require to comply. For example, a Florida law that went into effect in 2019 requires condo associations with over 150 units to post documents on a password-protected site or portal.  By contrast, Nevada now requires all community associations to send postal mail for all communications and other electronic means they already use.

10 HOA Communication Tools

Now that you understand the role of good communication in your community, we’ll dive into various forms of communication you can use.  You can click on any communication method in the table of contents to learn more about it. 

8) Resident Discussion Board/Forum

As we mentioned earlier, many communities use Facebook Groups or Nextdoor to communicate without the oversight of management or board members. If the board and management aren\’t seeing complaints, they can\’t address them before it gets out of control. If your community is looking for a better way to facilitate resident discussions but also manage community issues internally more effectively, a Discussion Board is a good choice. Discussion Boards are available within a password-protected resident portal where residents can communicate with each other and managers/board members gain better oversight into community issues.

Use cases for discussion board in your HOA:

• 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.
• Gain insights on issues or topics that matter most to your residents, how they feel about it, and ways to improve the resident experience.

With Discussion Boards such as Pilera\’s, you can assign moderators to oversee conversations, remove inappropriate topics or comments, submit private comments for other managers/board members to view, and publish rules to create a more enjoyable experience for your community.

Conclusion: HOA Communication Tools to Inform & Engage Your Residents

When boards and managers can effectively communicate with residents and one another, they can improve operations and increase resident satisfaction. Using various HOA communication tools enables you to reach every resident in the best way for them. It’s important to clearly inform your residents what you will use each communication method for. 

All of the HOA communication tools we highlighted have their own unique uses:

• Email is a diverse tool for sending updates, reminders, and even more detailed information in an e-newsletter. 
• Phone calls are essential during emergencies and for resident demographics who do not have text or email.  
• Text messages can be instrumental during emergencies and can be used for non-intrusive reminders and updates. 
• Postal mail is useful when a resident doesn\’t have electronic means of communication and for non-urgent, transactional communications.
• Community websites and resident portals provide a one-stop shop for residents to access all community information. 
• Social media, discussion boards, and virtual meeting solutions take resident engagement a step further when everyone can have productive conversations about the community in real-time.  

When there are so many HOA communication tools available, it’s easy to become overwhelmed.  However, you don’t need to use every tool out there.  It’s more essential to use tools that cater to your residents’ needs and comply with your governing documents and local laws. Try a combination of these tools today and you will surely see increased resident satisfaction.

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About Pilera

Pilera Software is the premier property management software that has helped thousands of community managers and back-office personnel improve communication and customer service. Request a personalized demo so you can learn how Pilera’s community management suite can increase work efficiency for your company.

Communication is a vital part of managing a community, but it is oftentimes challenging and time-consuming.  When sending out messages or notices to your community it’s important to ask questions, such as:  

• How effective are your current communication tools in saving you and your staff time?  

• Is your communication tool flexible enough to meet each communitys\’ diverse needs?  

If you are using outdated technology or processes, it’s likely that your staff are burdened with repetitive tasks that impact their productivity.  When management companies leverage a communications platform that is both easy to use and flexible, it makes a manager’s job easier.  Pilera\’s communication platform offers many ways to manage your community outreach more efficiently.  We recently surveyed our clients to learn how they save time with Pilera.  In this post, we share these insights with you. 

How Pilera’s Communication Platform Saves Time & Increases Productivity

Our clients have seen many improvements to their team’s productivity as they transitioned to digital communications.  From our survey, 67% of managers saved 7 hours per week, on average with Pilera’s communication tools.  89% of managers also stated that these time savings freed up their staff to address other important issues or provide additional services for their clients.  Let’s dive into the top ways our clients save time with Pilera’s communication tools and how you can as well.

Automate mass communications

Many of our clients shared with us that communicating with residents before using Pilera involved hand-delivering letters or posting notes on doors.  Shifting to automated digital communications allows them to save time while reaching residents instantly.  By automating phone, email, and text, managers can reduce manual work. Pilera makes 80 phone calls a minute. Let\’s say that a manager can make one individual phone call every two minutes. That\’s 5.5 hours saved that a manager could dedicate to other important issues!

Mindy Barclay at Axiom Property Management says, “Using Pilera saves on paper and time for someone to post messages on doors. I can send out a message right-a-way to the buildings, the entire property, or to an individual [within short] notice.” 

We automatically maintain your recipient lists 

Residents frequently move in or move out of a community, which means your recipient list needs to be up to date.  Some of our clients previously used an email marketing service like Constant Contact or Outlook to manage their recipient lists.  Managers would manually add or remove residents from the list, and then copy/paste the contacts in the BCC field.  Pilera’s distribution groups are self-maintaining, which means that when a resident moves in or out, the list is automatically updated.

Segment your lists with distribution groups

Managers often need to only message certain groups of residents, not the entire community.  With email BCC or other email platforms, managers needed to either categorize contacts beforehand or individually select contacts that need to receive the message.  Pilera’s distribution groups are designed for the property management industry. This makes it easier to send more targeted messages over contact-based email platforms.  You can create any combination of location and/or residents to form a message group such as a landscaping committee or homes with a basement.  Simply choose the streets, buildings, floors, units, or residents that you want in the group and start messaging them.  

Our clients especially like the ease with which they can create these groups and reuse them.  Carly Melius from Professional Association Services, Inc. in California, says “I have been able to single out stacks for water shut offs and ease of sending to just certain people within an HOA, or an entire HOA if needed, I am able to duplicate and send out multiple of the same for reminders that has helped for when doing inspections and need access to units.”  

Scheduling communications ahead of time

Scheduling messages in advance helps you to stay ahead. Especially if a message needs to go out after-hours or when you\’re out of the office. With Pilera, you can schedule messages up to 2 weeks in advance to ensure timely delivery.   

Save frequent messages as templates

If you need to communicate important information on a frequent basis such as water shutoffs, templates can come in handy.  Our clients like that they can save their email, text, phone, and PDF letter content as a template to reuse when needed.  It saves staff time by eliminating the need to copy and paste content from another source every time they need to send the same type of message.  Templates also help to keep the message consistent if you have multiple staff handling communications. 

Email residents across your entire portfolio

For companies that manage a portfolio of HOA, Condo, or Apartment communities, the Multi-Community Announcement feature is a massive time-saver.  You can send out bulk email announcements to your entire portfolio or a handful of communities.  To send more targeted messages, you can segment your recipients by type of user. Many of our clients use this feature to send an email blast to board members across their portfolio, but you can email owners and tenants too.

Recap

When your communications platform offloads time-consuming activities such as managing your lists or sending out messages, you can free staff to address other important issues.  Pilera’s communication platform enables your staff to improve community outreach and efficiency at the same time.  Here’s a recap:

1. Automated communications – Send out mass email, phone, and text messages to your communities with just a few clicks.  
2. Distribution Groups – Create message groups with any combination of residents and locations that you can reuse when needed. The self-maintaining nature of our distribution groups keeps your list up to date. 
3. Advanced scheduling – Stay ahead of your outreach efforts by scheduling messages up to 2 weeks in advance.
4. Templates – Create templates for frequent messages you need to send and reuse them when needed.
5. Multi-community announcements – Send an email blast to your entire portfolio or a handful of communities and segment by the type of user. 

Video: Improve Your Community Communications with Pilera

Pilera has helped thousands of communities to increase communications with residents, while also improving staff productivity.  If you’d like to learn more about how Pilera can work for you, book a personalized demo, or contact us at [email protected].  

Greetings! We are back this month with some quality of life enhancements for our newest PDF Letter Generation feature, as well as other communication and support ticket features!

Enhancements

PDF letter generation update

Last month, we introduced a new feature where managers can generate PDF letters to mail to their community.  In this month’s release, we’ve enhanced the header and footer settings for the PDFs.  You can now upload your header and footer once and share them across all of your communities.  You can set this up by going to the Communication Settings and uploading your header and footer in the “Global Postal Mail Header & Footer Area”.  Each community can then override the company settings if they wish. The global settings are especially useful when a management company uses the same header and footer across all their communities to keep their branding consistent. It saves managers time and reduces errors.  

Manage support tickets directly from the occupant detail page

Managers can now track and manage resident support tickets directly from the occupant detail page.  Filter tickets by the state, view or update the ticket, or create a new ticket all within this page.  This feature is great for assisting residents during a phone call or tracking previous interactions with them.

Generate PDF letters through the Send Message functionality

In the Send Message functionality, you can select occupants even if they have no communication preference.  Then, you can generate PDF letters to mail to these occupants.

Sending a test message

Previously, when sending out a test email to yourself, message monitors and announcement monitors would receive a copy of the email.  Now, only the individual who generates a test email will receive it.

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About Pilera

Pilera Software is the premier property management software that has helped thousands of community managers and back-office personnel improve customer service. Request a personalized demo so you can learn how Pilera’s community management suite can increase work efficiency for your company.

Community associations are constantly growing, with more residents desiring a sense of community and shared responsibility. Communication with residents is critical to ensure a community runs smoothly and improves the resident experience. Residents expect to receive information about HOA dues, meetings, events, policies, maintenance, emergencies, and other important community information at the tip of their fingers. With many businesses using texting/SMS to connect and engage with their customers, should your community start using text messaging too? In this article, we’ll describe the 4 ways text messaging benefits your community. We\’ll also briefly talk about the benefits of HOA texting software.

Vital in sending emergency or urgent notices

There\’s no time to waste when there’s an emergency or a situation where residents need to be notified at short notice, such as roadblocks or maintenance work.  While email and phone calls are effective methods, there’s nothing as immediate as a text message.  Where it may take days for residents to receive physical mail or a few minutes to send out a voicemail, they\’ll receive text messages instantly. 

It’s important that your communication software can handle sending a large volume of emergency messages at short notice.  Pilera’s communication platform is designed to stand the toughest tests.  Our platform has fault protection and retry algorithms to ensure fast and reliable delivery.  Features like reverse 911 functionality allow you to send emergency text messages to residents, bypassing their communication preferences.  

Cost savings

Traditional communication methods, such as postal mail, can become expensive over time.  More modern means like texting can improve operations and staff efficiency. Because text messaging is much quicker and easier to implement, it can save communities hundreds or thousands of dollars annually. With HOA texting solutions, it takes only a few clicks to message a group of residents or your entire community. Features in Pilera, such as templates and unit-based distribution groups, save you time when messaging the same group of individuals.

Convenience

According to Pew, 1 in 3 Americans prefers to receive text messages from a business, irrespective of the message.  Studies also suggest that 85% of individuals prefer a text message over a voice call.  Most adults own a mobile phone, making text messages the most preferred way to receive a message. HOAs can use text messaging by encouraging residents to choose how they want to hear from you. With Pilera, residents can receive messages like text, email, phone, or mail. Additionally, Pilera\’s language translation capabilities allow residents to choose from over 100 languages to receive their text messages.

Highest open rate

Ensuring residents receive your messages on time is vital to your community’s communication efforts.  Postal mailings often take time to reach residents, and even so, residents may not open their mail consistently every day. Email sending is a cost-effective way to reach your residents; however, 20-30% of them are opened. Text messages, by far, have the highest open rate than any other medium of communication. 99% of text messages are opened and read within three minutes of receiving them, making them one of the most effective ways to reach your residents. 

Your communication platform should confirm that your residents have received your message.  In Pilera, confirmation delivery analytics on whether someone opened a message will be available to you after you send a message.  

Improve your communication efforts with HOA text messaging software

Although various modes of communication, such as postal mail, email, and phone calls, all have advantages, text messaging is a faster and more direct way to reach residents. It’s a cost-effective alternative to postal mail.  With the highest open rates of any mode of communication, you\’ll see increased resident engagement and improved operations.

Pilera\’s automated communications platform lets you quickly send text messages and know with confidence that your residents have received them. If you\’d like to learn how Pilera can improve your communications today, email us at [email protected] or request a demo.

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About Pilera

Pilera Software is the premier property management software 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? Contact us so you can see how Pilera’s community management suite can increase work efficiency for your company.

 

Improving outreach to your community residents has been a constant goal and now, you\’ve made a decision to use a communication tool to automate the process. Keeping in touch with your residents means sending regular community updates and oftentimes, time-sensitive information. A reliable solution to send your messages quickly to the right people at the right time is vital.  With many communication tools available in the market, where do you start?

Communication Platform Types and Features

Upon researching the web, you find that there are a few different types of communication tools to choose from:

1. Generic mass communication tools such as Onsolve providing phone, email and text but service a large number of industries. These include nonprofits, government, education, healthcare, and others.
2. Email marketing tools that focus mostly on features to grow your business, such as Active Campaign, Constant Contact, or Campaign Monitor. These platforms also service a large number of industries.
3. HOA communication tools are built specifically for associations and management companies. These platforms include our own solution Pilera, as well as other competitive products such as Comweb and Frontsteps.

While you were doing your research, you probably noticed that generic communication, email marketing, and HOA communication tools, at their core, have many similar features:

• Contact lists
• One or more ways to send messages
• Company branding
• Segmentation
• Message delivery analytics.

The main difference is in how Pilera\’s HOA communications tool will help you achieve a greater return on investment, save your staff time, and gain peace of mind. Read along and let us walk you through how! 

Pilera\’s HOA Communication Tool vs Generic Communication Tools

Language translation

With diverse communities comes a need to communicate in a way that is most effective for the resident.  Are you able to translate your email and text messages to other languages to meet your resident’s needs?  Many generic communication providers can translate emails and text into 20 languages, but you may find the need to expand on those capabilities.  An HOA tool such as Pilera can translate email and text to more than 100 languages. Additionally, Pilera can translate phone calls into Spanish.    

Segmentation: Street, building, floor, unit, and user type

Community managers track data on a unit level to stay organized and efficient.  Since generic communication platforms cater to the needs of many industries at the same time, they deliver messages only at a person-level.  This means that they can’t easily accommodate segmenting your communications by an entire street, a building, or unit without you spending enormous time and effort.  HOA communication tools are designed to segment your list and send messages at a unit level.  Most other HOA technology providers aren’t able to segment lists at a person and unit level at the same time.  Through Pilera’s distribution groups feature, you can create any combination of unit and people-based groups to send messages. You can also segment your communications further by filtering the user type. This means that you can send messages to board members, tenants, owners, and other occupants in the system.

Automated list maintenance 

Managing move-outs and move-ins is vital to make sure the right people are notified.  Associations could face legal liability if a homeowner decides to sue because they are constantly receiving messages despite not being a part of the community anymore. However, the removal of people from lists is often a manual and cumbersome process when using a generic communication system. After removing the previous resident and adding the new one in, you then must make adjustments to every list the previous resident was a part of, manually.  With Pilera\’s HOA communication tool, managing your list is a painless process.  After adding the new resident to the unit, they are instantly added to any list they are a part of. The previous resident is automatically removed from the list, so you don’t have to worry about accidentally messaging them.  Most other HOA platforms don’t automate list maintenance.  

Built-in fault protection and increased delivery rate

During emergencies, it’s vital to get your message out quickly to keep your residents safe and informed.  Other generic communication platforms provide emergency messaging but what if the power is down and cellular service is low?  Pilera takes the delivery of your messages seriously.  We\’ve built-in fault protection into the system which means that we make multiple attempts to get your message through.  

Speed & reliability

When you need to send out a time-sensitive message, such as during an emergency, the speed and reliability of your messaging platform are key. It\’s critical that your messages are sent timely and accurately. As you evaluate communication software, ask the providers what protocols or best practices they have in place to send your messages quickly and reliably. Pilera\’s communication platform is built on one of the most advanced server technologies, Amazon Web Services (AWS). This means you can send messages to hundreds of residents in Pilera within just a few minutes. Other providers in the HOA industry or the generic communication market are using their own servers to send out messages. This means there\’s a greater chance for lag and managers experience delays to the tune of hours.

No email send limits

Generic email marketing tools or email providers often place daily or monthly email restrictions. Depending on the email client you or another service provider uses, managers can send only 500 to 2,000 emails per day. While the send limit may be sufficient enough for self-managed associations, they are restrictive for management companies. Management companies handling over a thousand units need to send emails to multiple communities or their entire portfolio, so these restrictions decrease productivity significantly. These email caps can also be very restrictive in a situation where a management company needs to send time-sensitive information or emergency messages to their residents. With Pilera\’s communication tool, there are no limitations on the number of emails that you can send. You can also send an email message to your entire portfolio or multiple communities at once, increasing your team\’s productivity.

One HOA management tool vs Multiple, Disparate Systems 

HOA communication tools are a component of property management software, which consists of multiple, integrated features to manage your operations. Generic communication platforms do not integrate with accounting software or any resident database software in the industry.  Going with a generic communication tool means that your staff is working off of multiple, disparate applications to manage other community tasks such as maintenance, customer support, architectural requests, violations, document management, events, and dues payments.  A complete HOA management tool helps to unify your entire organization under a single platform. It\’s a single shared resource for your staff members to log in and handle various facets of community management. This means that as a community manager, you don\’t need to ask your marketing staff about messages they\’ve sent as you would have otherwise in a generic communication platform.    

Consider the following ways to increase the productivity of your staff with one integrated community management solution in Pilera:  

• Send automated email, text, and phone calls in one click with dynamic distribution groups. 
• Streamline your maintenance process with resident submitted tickets, automated notifications, ticket assignment, vendor tracking, and more. 
• Restore efficiency in your customer support team with activity tracking, a 24×7 knowledge base, and troubleshooting tools.  
• Provide your residents with a secure, central login to access important information and connect with their community. 
• Increase accountability and help the board improve compliance with tasks, violations, and ACRs. 

Save time with Pilera\’s HOA communication tool

With a variety of options at your disposal, it’s important to know which tools will help you get the most out of your investment. While generic mass communication and email marketing tools have a variety of features, their systems can\’t easily segment your list by location-level automatically.  They also miss out on allowing unlimited emails and speed while sending a large number of messages. An HOA tool like Pilera has locations built into the system so that you can communicate at a street, building, floor, or unit level easily.  Additionally, since an HOA communication tool is part of management software, there’s an additional benefit of organizing all of your community’s work in one platform. Would you like to learn more about how Pilera can help you automate communications and save your staff time?  Contact us to learn more or sign up for a personalized demo.