HOA Communication Tools and Best Practices

How HOA Communication Tools Connect Homeowners with Their Management Company

Communication is at the center of running an effective association management company, but it’s also a potential source of trouble. There’s a constant need for clear lines of communication between management companies, residents and homeowners association board members — but keeping everyone informed can be a massive drain on time and staff attention.

Finding a way to simplify communications benefits everyone, and for today’s management companies, there’s one method that stands out above the rest: adopting efficient portal technology.

The automated and streamlined communication enabled by homeowner web portals and mobile apps creates a win-win situation: residents are able to quickly file requests, reserve facilities and contact their neighbors, while community association managers and other staff recover more time to focus on value-adding work rather than manually responding to inquiries.

Technology has simplified countless aspects of daily life, both in and out of the office. Association management companies shouldn’t let this wave pass them by when they have so much to gain from upgrading their HOA communication tools.

Why Implement Modern HOA Communication Tools?

When deciding whether they need to update their HOA communications tools, management company leaders should ask themselves:

When residents need to get in contact, what do they do?
Are there staff members tasked with manually fielding requests for information or facility reservations?
Is the management company’s website hard to use or cumbersome on mobile devices?
Can residents submit requests and pay assessments in a single location, with no extra steps or accounts to create?

If there are any such speedbumps stopping residents from having quick and efficient interactions with your company, then there’s room for improvement. In today’s digital age, everything is available online or through mobile devices — finance, fitness tracking, shopping and much more. When communities don’t have effective digital portals, homeowners may not know where to look to stay informed about their requests, events in their community, and the status of their last payment. These run the risk of the management company seeming old-fashioned, inefficient, and tough to deal with.

Example: Reserving an Athletics Facility

A simple, everyday interaction can show the difference between automated communication and an older model. For instance, what is the procedure if a homeowner wants to reserve use of a community athletic field for a certain time?

If there’s no automated communication tool in place, the resident may have to call an office or submit an application via email to be reviewed by a member of the management company staff. Processing the application and giving approval takes time, and it might not be clear in the first place whether the field is already reserved at that time, or what channels the resident should go through to make the request.

When there’s a digital portal and mobile app in place, the resident can simply take out their smart device, navigate to the community calendar view and see if the facility is free. Upon seeing that it isn’t reserved at the given time, they can file a request, saying how long they need the field for, how many people will be there, and more. If the management company has set an auto-approval, a request that fits rules regarding time and number of participants may be approved without an employee ever having to interact with it.

HOA App and Web Portal Use: A Matter of Trust

Management companies that use mobile apps and web portals can create clear lines of communication between residents and the business. This is especially true when management companies co-brand their HOA app, presenting a consistent appearance online and offline that residents start to know and trust.

The seamless, one-stop experience, whether accessed through a mobile device or the web, is convenient and encourages users to keep interacting with it over time. A communication portal that also manages homeowner payments can provide an especially compelling experience, giving peace of mind by allowing residents to settle their bills without ever leaving the site.