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How to Communicate with Residents About Re-Opening Amenities
PROPERTY MANAGEMENT
In many areas, local businesses are re-opening and more people are leaving their homes to shop, eat out, and access entertainment. In some areas, local politicians and community leaders are actively encouraging people to get out and back to business as usual, albeit with some restrictions and limitations in place to help prevent the spread of COVID-19.
That may mean that your rental community is also ready to begin resuming something closer to normal operations. But you need to be cautious and maintain open lines of communication with your residents as you proceed.
Take a look at some tips about how to communicate with residents about re-opening amenities.
Get Your Facts Straight First
Before you make any changes, it’s important to do your due diligence. Re-opening looks different depending on where you are. Even in states that are broadly encouraging re-opening, certain cities may remain more locked down because they have higher rates of infection, and even within cities, more vulnerable communities may need to be more cautious for longer.
Before you start re-opening amenities, check the CDC guidelines and any specific guidelines for your state and city. This is not only important for the health and safety of your residents and staff, but it’s also important for liability reasons. If your community isn’t following the current guidelines in your area, you could be held liable for any infections if your amenities are open.
So don’t rush! Make sure that you know what the current guidelines are and have a plan for keeping up with changes as they occur. You’ll also want to be able to refer your residents to the source of the information you used to make decisions about re-opening.
Utilize Multiple Means of Communication
Posting a sign outside of the newly-opened amenity may not be enough to get the word out that things are re-opening, so make sure that all of your residents get the message by utilizing multiple means of communication. Some residents prefer to be contacted by email or text message. Some might prefer a phone call, while others will be most likely to read a physical letter.
Hopefully, you already have a record of how each of your residents prefers to be contacted so that you can reach out to each of them in the way they’re most likely to access. If not, it wouldn’t hurt to send out multiple messages to all in multiple formats. The worst thing that can happen is that someone gets the message twice.
Although signage on its own is not enough, appropriate signage is important as well. You can’t assume that every resident will get the word about re-openings, no matter how you reach out. Signage is important for making sure not only that residents know that an amenity is open, but also for making sure that they know about any restrictions and limitations. If you’re going to open the pool up to residents, for example, but you’re only going to allow ten people to use it at a time, you need signage explicitly stating that.