“FAQs Can Defuse Volatile Issues” by Michael G. Rouse
(Excerpt published in RMC-CAI’s February 2007 “Common Interests Magazine”)
For years, businesses have used Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) as a tool to help answer consumers’ questions regarding products or services. Community management companies and boards can use FAQs to help reduce the number of phone calls on issues such as snow removal and assessment increases. Boards can use FAQs to reduce the number of residents that show up at meetings with questions that can potentially turn a meeting into hours of complaining.
The community manager is in the perfect position to collect questions from residents through incoming phone calls and emails. Board members can get a sense of hot button issues when interacting with residents on a daily basis. Once potentially hot button issues are identified, the board and manager can start compiling a list of FAQs and answers. FAQs can then be used to defuse volatile issues that could negatively impact the upcoming homeowner meeting. The objective of FAQs is to address the issues before the meeting and head off residents whose only reason to attend is to complain and be disruptive. If you do not have time to mail out FAQs before the meeting, the board president and manager can address these issues in their reports at the beginning of the meeting and take some of the wind out of the complainers’ sail.
At a recent January meeting, following an assessment increase and several back to back blizzards, we were expecting to get hammered with complaints. Our management company had been bombarded by phone calls regarding snow removal. Board members had heard that some owners were complaining about snow removal and the recent assessment increase. These two topics could have potentially brought out a larger than normal number of residents and turn a normally tranquil two hour homeowner meeting into a stormy one.
Several weeks prior to the January meeting, a list of about a dozen FAQs and answers addressing both the assessment increase and snow removal concerns was put together. The FAOs were mailed out about a week before the homeowner meeting. On the evening of our homeowners’ meeting, the turnout was normal and, to our surprise, there was not one complaint about snow removal or questions regarding the increase in assessments. FAQs worked! Instead of a long drawn out volatile meeting with complaining owners, we were able to conduct business as normal. Homeowners who had intended to make a scene regarding snow removal and the assessment increase stayed home.
FAQs need to be tailored to each community, but here are examples of a few we used.
Q. When does snow removal start?
Ans. Snow removal will normally start when there are 3 or more inches of snow on the ground after it has stopped falling. If the storm appears to be large, the snow removal company will start earlier to get ahead of it.
Q. How much does each owner pay for snow removal?
Ans. Our snow removal budget is $25,000.00 per year. Each resident pays $62.81 per year or $5.24 per month. It currently costs the HOA $1000.00 per inch to remove snow. In a normal year, the HOA spends about $18,000.00 to $23,000.00 in snow removal costs.
Q.Since we had a dues’ increase why aren’t we getting better service?
Ans. Dues’ increases are to cover the cost of inflation for current expenditures, needed maintenance, and future projects (Reserves). Increases due to inflation do not necessarily improve or increase quantity or quality of a service or product. HOAs are not immune to inflation; therefore, the cost has to be passed on to its owners.