As a community association manager, voice broadcasting can be a helpful tool to push urgent information to your communities. They’re great for upcoming snow days, boil advisories, and board meeting reminders. However, too much of a good thing can be a bad thing. If overused, voice broadcasts can create a boy who cried wolf situation. Residents may feel spammed if they receive multiple broadcasts multiple times a day. Once residents feel spammed, they may unsubscribe reducing the efficacy of the association’s broadcasts. This can cause residents to miss important alerts, warnings, and reminders creating issues for both the board and management company.
To avoid residents mislabeling association broadcasts as spam, we compiled some tips to improve the reception of voice broadcasts.
Timing
For timing, it’s important to know your audience. A 3:00 pm voice broadcast might be perfect for a 55+ community, but a community of working professionals might not appreciate the disruption. No matter the audience, try not to send messages after 8:00 pm or before 9:00 am. No one likes to wake up before their alarm; residents could be upset which may sway them to unsubscribe.
Length
Any message over 30 seconds can cause residents to miss important information. After 15-20 seconds, residents start hanging up if they aren’t getting the information they need. On average, residents hang up at 32 seconds on a one-minute voice broadcast. Keep your voice broadcasts short and simple. When longer messages are required, opt for email instead.
Frequency
Too many messages, too often annoys residents pushing them to unsubscribe. Constant updates can feel like a non-stop bombardment. In addition to annoying homeowners, you may cause issues with the vendor as well. Some Voice Broadcasting companies block incessant messaging regardless of the message length. The company itself may label you as spam due to the high volume of calls. To avoid souring those relationships, decide if the message would be better received as a single email with more information.
Content
Introducing the company or association is a best practice that helps catch the resident’s attention. In the age of never-ending spam robocalls, 50% of all mobile calls are robocalls. Its important to establish credibility immediately. As for the message, keep it as short, clear, and simple as possible. At the end of the message, depending upon the content, you may want to thank the resident.
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