Did you know you can use certain features within FRONTSTEPS to drive more residents to use the platform? FRONTSTEPS is a powerful tool for property management companies and communities, however, it’s only beneficial when residents actually use it. If you’re having a tough time getting residents to login and engage with the platform, we recommend using our custom newsletter tool to drive residents to use FRONTSTEPS. Try promoting at least one feature each month. Need help getting started? Promote these four features first.
Digital Payments
According to NPR, the number of check payments declined by more than 50% as payments by credit card, direct deposit, and other services more than tripled between 2000 and 2012. Seeing that check payments are on the decline, why is it that so many residents pay their dues and fees via paper check? It could be because they don’t realize there’s another option. Last year we made some exciting changes to our payment tool, making it even easier for residents to make payments on any device. Be sure to remind them about this tool, and how convenient it is in your next newsletter.
Community Bulletin Board
The best way to get people to keep coming back to FRONTSTEPS is to have an active community bulletin board. Post updates frequently and work to get residents to engage with each post in the comments section. From providing quick updates about scheduled community maintenance to promoting upcoming community parties, find ways to keep your bulletin active. We recommend creating a realistic goal for weekly posting. Commit to a certain number of posts each week, then put together a list of posting ideas when you don’t have events or news to share.
Classifieds
From newspapers to Craiglist, people have always loved browsing classifieds. Craigslist alone receives 50 billion pageviews and 80 million new ads posted each month. While people love Craigslist, there are downsides to using the tool including the potential to meet sketchy characters or getting scammed. That’s why we built our own community classified tool to help residents buy and sell items to their neighbors. Be sure to promote the classifieds section in your newsletter. Even better, work to organize a neighborhood garage sale and encourage residents to post their items within the classifieds section to help people plan which houses to visit come garage sale day.
Reservations
Is your team struggling to keep up with resident phone calls? Look for ways to drive them to FRONTSTEPS to self-serve versus having to make a phone call. One simple way you can do that is by encouraging residents to use FRONTSTEPS to reserve amenities. Let them know which amenities they can reserve online, as well as how this process works. To help seal the deal, inform residents about how this is the best way to ensure proper reservations and only guarantee reservations made through the tool.
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