Starting the New Year Off Right in the Association Management Industry

The new year always comes with a new resolution. It's typically a time for a change or “reset.” New year's resolutions are just as common in any business, especially in the association management industry. 

With the start of a new year comes the goal for increased success over the previous year. As is the case for anyone with a new year’s resolution.  It's easy to implement at the start, but as time goes on, sticking with the goal grows harder. 

In this article, we will be dishing out a few tips to help association management companies stick with their new year goals, such as:

• Increase communication;
• Implement a multi-community management software;
• Set new quarterly goals;
• Help existing and prospective homeowners feel welcome.

If you find any of the tips below useful, be sure to share this article with your colleagues.

Increase Communication

As is often the case for any business, success is built directly upon the communication practices utilized in the given company. Healthy and collaborative communication is not an easy thing to implement successfully. It takes a good amount of trial and error in terms of processes, and it often requires negotiation with other people to find something that works best for everyone. 

With that said, for an association management company, communication between managers, community board members, and homeowners is priority one. When homeowners aren’t kept in the loop, confusion, and frustration easily set in.  If a board member isn’t given proper direction by the management team, they will be left to make decisions that may end up going against the grain of the management team’s goals. Inadequate communication between the various levels of association management leads to dissatisfaction and, at the worst, decreased revenue.

So how do you streamline and increase communication between managers, board members, and homeowners? 

1. Go digital: Instead of relying on in-person meetings or sending a million emails, utilize an app or software that makes it easier to get in touch with the people in your HOA organization. For example, with TownSq, one of the leading HOA communication apps on the market, users can communicate directly with a manager, board member, or neighbor with just a few clicks on their smartphone.
   
2. Include everyone in decisions: With a digital approach to HOA communication, it becomes straightforward for managers, boards, and homeowners to make decisions together. Digital voting environments are available to help include everyone on a new finding for discussion in an HOA.
   
3. Defined processes: Half the time a homeowner lives in an HOA, they don’t get involved. If a homeowner isn’t getting involved in their HOA, they can become frustrated when a new decision or development manifests. If homeowners had a clear defined path for communication with their baord and community, they would probably get more involved! But a lot of times HOA boards don’t take the extra step to try and encourage their homeowners to get involved. That is why having a clearly defined communication process in place for new homeowners is incredibly important.

Implement a multi-community management software

Software is used for almost everything nowadays. From scheduling meetings to ordering food, and, software technology is a part of our everyday lives. So, with that in mind, why shouldn’t it be a part of association management?

When an association management company gains the power of software that can build more robust processes, increase communication, and streamline revenue, their business snowballs. With the power of association management software, managers, boards, and homeowners increase visibility into community operations, build satisfaction, and increase the quality of life within an HOA. 

The capabilities of this type of software are virtually limitless:

• Online accounting;
• Document storage;
• Task management;
• Community forum;
• Online architectural review;
• Inspections & violation modules;
• Digital voting environments;
• And many more…

With association management software, businesses increase their power by multiple factors and help build better HOAs and happier homeowners. What's more important? There's no better decision that a management company can make than to implement software that can streamline their operations rapidly.

Set new quarterly goals

One of the most important things you can do for your association management company at the start of a new year is to set clearly defined, strategic goals for increasing success. Now, it takes a bit of leg work to develop plans that are actionable and can be shown via metrics.

Have you ever heard of a SWOT analysis? This is a great exercise to find a direction to run in. A SWOT analysis is “a framework used to evaluate a company's competitive position and to develop strategic planning. SWOT analysis assesses internal and external factors, as well as current and future potential.”

To set strategic goals for growth within your organization, start by performing a SWOT analysis of your business. Then, use the information you compile to create actionable, metric-driven plans that help measure your success in the new year.

Help existing and prospective homeowners feel welcome

This tip is perhaps the most important of everything mentioned in this article. Setting a homeowner within an HOA organization up for success is essential. If an individual has just purchased a home in one of the HOA’s your organization manages, ensuring that they have the tools and knowledge to navigate the HOA governing policies properly can make or break that new homeowner's HOA experience.

This is where starting the new year off right comes into play. If managers and boards can communicate to their homeowners about clearly defined processes on the front-end, long-term success is accessible. If homeowners know where to access information or navigate specific strategies, their satisfaction, and relationship with their community will increase.

TownSq is a unique example of an association management software that can help management companies and individual HOA boards accomplish all of the tips listed above in just a few short weeks. Interested in implementing the information we’ve gone over in your HOA to start the new year off on the right foot? 

Book a meeting with a member of the TownSq team below and begin your association management companies journey to success in 2022. We look forward to speaking with you.

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