Should your Community use Text Messaging?

The number of community associations is constantly growing with more residents desiring a sense of community and shared responsibility. To ensure that a community runs smoothly and to improve the resident experience, communication with residents is critical. Residents expect to receive information about HOA dues, meetings, events, policies, maintenance, emergencies, and other important community information at the tip of their fingers. With many businesses using texting/SMS to connect and engage with their customers, should your community start using text messaging too? In this article, we’ll describe the 4 ways text messaging benefits your community.

Cost Savings

Traditional communication methods such as postal mail can become expensive over time. More modern means such as texting can improve operations and staff efficiency. Because text messaging is a lot quicker and easier to implement, it can save communities hundreds or thousands of dollars each year.

Convenience

According to Pew, 1 in 3 Americans prefers to receive text messages from a business, irrespective of what the message is about. Studies also suggest that 85% of individuals prefer a text message over a voice call. A majority of adults own a mobile phone, making text the most preferred way to receive a message.

Highest open rate

Making sure that residents receive your messages on time is vital to your community’s communication efforts. Postal mailings often take time to reach residents, and even so, residents may not open their mail consistently every day. Sending an email is a very cost-effective way to reach your residents; however, 20-30% of them are opened. Text messages by far have the highest open rate than any other medium of communication. 99% of text messages are opened and read within three minutes of receiving them, making them one of the most effective ways to reach your residents.

Vital in emergencies

When there’s an emergency or a situation where residents need to be notified at short notice, such as roadblock or maintenance work, there’s no time to waste. While email and phone calls are effective methods, there’s nothing as immediate as a text message. Where it may take days for residents to receive physical mail or a few minutes to send out a voicemail, they’ll receive text messages instantly.

Conclusion

Although various modes of communication such as postal mail, email, and phone calls all have their own advantages, text messaging is a faster and more direct way to reach residents. It’s a cost-effective alternative to postal mail. With the highest open rates of any mode of communication, you’ll see increased resident engagement and improved operations.

Original article posted on Pilera.com: "Should your HOA use Text Messaging?"