COMMUNICATION MANAGEMENT
LEVERAGING TECHNOLOGY
FOR EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION WITHIN ESTATE COMMUNITIES
SAN LAMEER
THE WORD‘ COMMUNITY’ HAS MANY DEFINITIONS; HOWEVER, WITHIN THE CONTEXT OF THE RESIDENTIAL ESTATE COMMUNITIES, THE FOLLOWING SEEMS AN IDEAL FIT:‘ AN INTERACTING GROUP OF PEOPLE WITH SIMILAR CHARACTERISTICS AND INTERESTS, RESIDING IN A COMMON GEOGRAPHIC LOCATION’.
Where you have an organised group of people, such as a residential estate community, co-existing within a common environment according to certain agreed guidelines, effective and efficient communication is essential.
New technologies and digital innovations are, at breakneck speed, disrupting many of our old ways of doing things. However, the desired outcome or end result usually remains the same – we want to get from A to B, or purchase a particular item, or in this case communicate with individuals or groups within our community. A thriving estate community consists of many different stakeholders and role players, including Homeowners’ Associations( HOAs), residents, managing agents and service providers, to name but a few. Generally speaking, an estate community needs to consider two broad channels of communication – internal and external communications.
We are more connected now than ever before in our history, with a wide variety of digital communication mechanisms at our disposal. The question is how estates can best leverage and take advantage of these technologies to maximise their effectiveness across these two broad communication channels.
Here are two options to consider:
Internal Communications
These include daily or weekly communications from, to and between HOAs, managing agents and residents( owners and tenants), as well as with estate service providers such as security, maintenance, registered estate agents and the various facilities and amenities offered within the estate community, such as restaurants, the clubhouse and the gym.
Usually these communications happen through a combination of an internal database and some form of email service and, while this is a convenient and widely accepted means of communication, it also has several inherent limitations.
A better option is to create an official estate communication channel in the form of a dedicated online community portal. This mechanism provides estate administrators, residents and other stakeholders with a secure, easily accessible communication environment as well as a host of other benefits, which may include the following:
•• Real-time estate communications
••
Direct notifications via SMS or mobile app
•• General interest group forums
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