As the pandemic is pushing condominiums into the future, they are now looking for digital solutions due to the challenges it has introduced. In this increasingly volatile world, selecting a digital solution with future-ready capabilities is the right choice to make.
Adaptability is at the core of providing a great resident experience – and during the pandemic, condominiums have faced challenges they’ve never faced before. Condos have implemented social distancing and adapted to staff working remotely – all in response to conditions that no one could predict.
Because social distancing between staff and residents are mandatory in many condos, digital communication has gone from ‘nice to have’ to a necessity. Our research indicate that SMS, email and automated phone notifications are increasingly in demand.
Before investing in any digital solution, board members and property managers should think about the future and what other changes it may bring. The solution should be able to adapt with whatever ‘new normal’ it brings, and this is possible only with future-ready capabilities. Thus, the solution should be able to integrate and not be a static website, which is what most condos have today.
As the pandemic has pushed residents to avoid physical interaction, touchless services are now in demand. Below are some examples of how our resident experience management platform is helping property managers and residents to connect with each other digitally.
Service Requests
Paper-based forms are unfortunately still being used in condominiums and that makes managing your operations very difficult.
With our Service Requests feature you can create a completely customized, online form which can be accessed from any desktop computer, tablet, or mobile device. Your form can be customized with as many fields as you need to get the right information and help save you time in dealing with each request. Residents can complete your service request form and submit their information from wherever they are. Once submitted, the request gets added to your building’s queue, so you can always see the status of all requests. Requests are always tracked by unit, so you’ll always be able to access a history of what happened. And full reporting features mean you can very quickly generate all of the information you need to update your board, your manager, or anyone else who is asking.
Amenity Booking
Many condominiums that have amenities which previously did not need reservations (such as gyms, pools, etc.) are now faced with how to handle controlling how many residents can access them at a given time.
Our new Multiple Simultaneous Amenity Bookings feature allow residents to create multiple, simultaneous bookings. This same multiple simultaneous amenity booking functionality can be used to allow residents to register for classes, or any other similar activity. You can set limits to the number of residents that can book a particular time slot or all-day amenity and thus encourage social distancing. You decide how many residents can register to be in a given space at a given time and if you want to close your amenity between resident use for cleaning or another purpose, just set the time blocks to have a gap.
Visitor Parking Management
We often get contacted by property managers who are having parking management issues. With our Parking Management solution you can quickly set parking control options to limit how many times a resident can request a visitor parking pass in a given week or month; what times and days, or for how long, passes are valid; and ensure that residents are not requesting parking passes for vehicles registered to their suites. You can even differentiate between daytime and overnight passes.
Smart parcel lockers allowing for contactless collection are in high demand. Our solution can send automated notifications and follow up, informing residents that packages have arrived. This is especially important during holiday seasons when condos have mountains of packages waiting to be picked up by residents. We offer text messages, email notifications and an automated phone call ensuring that residents don’t miss being notified. Upon receiving the notification, residents can retrieve their parcel from the smart locker without having to physically meet with the staff.
Research shows that elevator screens attracts residents’ attention the most. They are an excellent communication tool where you can push through important messages to residents. These screens provide relevant and up-to-date content like news and weather and enhances the resident experience.
Traditionally, digital signage has been used by advertisers in Out-of-Home environments to entice audiences or used by exhibitors at events to create unique branding experiences. However, condos have begun to embrace digital signage to deliver contextual information such as building announcements, community messages, board meeting schedules, and other pertinent updates alongside advertising to keep residents informed. Our platform can integrate with any digital screen so that you can keep your residents in the loop.
The pandemic has changed the formula for effective residential property management and will require condominiums to rethink nearly all aspects of their on-site services. If condominiums haven’t already accepted these changes (and more to come) as part of what will emerge to be the “new normal,” they must do so now.
Also, approaching technology the right way is important. We highly recommend selecting a solution with future-ready capabilities that can evolve with time.
Learn how to communicate with your residents in an age when we are practicing social distancing. Watch our webinar titled Community Association Technology.