How does your community maintain good communication? In light of recent global events, there have been fewer and fewer in-person interactions. This goes for people living within a community as well as every day interactions on the street. Has your community, including property managers and homeowners, adjusted their communication methods to account for these changes?
Today we are taking a closer look at how communications can (and should) occur within a community. Often homeowners will have building maintenance issues or property managers may have notifications that they would like to pass on to community members. That open and transparent line of communication is critical to keeping a community running smoothly.
How Property Managers Can Foster Good Communication
Property management is a partnership between homeowners/renters and management… with communication as the bridge between both.
Property managers or even landlords can do a few things to help foster this communication bridge. Here are a few suggestions:
- Make it easy for tenants or community members to get in touch with you or your team. A published list could help immensely.
- Create multiple channels for community members to use for communication including: email, online tools, and have regular call hours where an actual person can be reached to handle problems. You may also want to include an emergency number for after hour emergencies.
- Respond quickly to issues. You may want to have a policy of answering emails or online requests within a certain time period. Responsiveness is the key to fostering good communication.
- Make it a priority to communicate regularly. You may not feel the need for a monthly email newsletter, but the more informed your community members are, the better relationship you will have with them.
How Tenants/Community Members Can Foster Good Communication
On the other side of this partnership are the homeowners/tenants/community members (depending upon your situation). Here are a few ways for people in this position to increase communication.
- Prioritize your communications. In other words, if you have a list of maintenance issues be sure to state in writing what is most important. Less pressing issues may need to wait.
- Put all communications in writing, if possible. Phone calls are a different story, but you may want to note what day and time, as well as the person you spoke to, when you called to report a problem for future reference.
- Give as much detail as possible for your requests. For instance, what is the problem, how long has it been happening, and details about the problem that could help resolve it.
Transparent communication, whether it happens in writing, virtually, or over the phone is a hallmark of a great partnership between property management companies and their owners.