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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