What Board Members Want from Management

As an association management business, it’s critical that you’re meeting the needs of your boards and providing great service to your associations. Ultimately, the board will determine if your business is serving the community to the best of its ability and will choose whether to continue working with you.

To find out what board members look for in an association management company, reasons why they may switch management companies, and the kinds of technologies they use or expect, AppFolio partnered with HOA-USA to survey current and former community association board members. Read on for some of the findings.

Board members expect their management company to handle financial management. When we asked survey respondents to rank the top three responsibilities they thought were the most important for their management company to handle, 75% ranked funds management and financial reporting in the top three, with 29% ranking it as number one. In addition, 54% expect their management company to provide information to keep homeowners informed, and 51% expect them to collect assessments.

Most boards would not recommend their management company. Surprisingly, only 23% of board members said they would recommend their current or most recent management company. That indicates there’s room for association management businesses to improve.

Board members have several reasons for switching management companies. The majority of board members (66%) cited unresponsiveness/long response times as the reason why they switched management companies in the past or were considering doing so now. This was followed by failure to follow through on projects quickly and accurately (65%) and overall poor customer service (61%).

Technology is extremely important for boards. Board members expect to be able to carry out tasks and stay connected from anywhere on any device. In fact, more than half (57%) of respondents said it was extremely important or very important for an association management company to use modern technology and self-service tools.

To find out the rest of the results— including what influences board members’ decision most in choosing a new management company—and to learn how you can leverage the data to improve your customer service strategy, download the full report.