Once upon a time, only a few months ago, when a board member wanted to find a new management company for their community, they would “google” it. They would have potentially pages of results, and 20 to 30 companies to investigate. Some of the results were paid ads placed by management companies, and other might be organic and caused by SEO (search engine optimization). The holy grail of every company looking to grow and add more associations, was by SEO and organically. The paid results show up as “sponsored” and are easy to identify, but percolating to the top of the results, without cost and just due to the content in the company’s website was the ultimate marketing goal. Now Artificial Intelligence, AI, is changing the game.
Before, whether the results were sponsored or organic, the person initiated the search, still had work to do. You had to visit and navigate each website, go to their Google or even their Yelp reviews, and still do your due diligence. It could take hours to find the “right” company that checked all the boxes. But with AI, all the heavy lifting can be done by the software. Type in “best association management company in Anaheim Hills that has the best reputation and lowest owner delinquency rate” and AI spits out four results: Cardinal (now owned by Keystone), Powerstone (now owned by Associa), Progressive (us) and Allstate (located in Santa Monica). It has done quick but extensive research by reviewing the website, reviews, blogs and online content related to these companies to come to this result. Their algorithm is not a secret, it is all about the E.E.A.T. (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness) of the company. Let’s go over what Google is most interested in:
- Experience – This covers not only the time and qualifications of a company, but specific examples of the company successfully managing associations. One way is through documented “case studies” that are shared on their website or in articles. For example, an association may have had over 15% of the owners in delinquency due to a recent special assessment levied. What actions did the management company take to reduce that delinquency rate and increase the reserves of the association? For one community in a similar situation, we negotiated with the vendor for a 3 time to pay the invoice and then worked with the board to offer a 3-year payment plan for owners. This reduced the delinquency rate down to 3% and saved many owners the cost and aggravation of being sent to collections.
- Expertise – This is a large area of information which includes not only education of their boards and owners, but also the knowledge they share of association management with the public. Like this blog post, Google wants companies to be transparent not only about their business model, but also about the entire business. To this end, we will also be starting an Association Management Podcast, where we will interview vendors, experts, boards, owners and everyone that touches or is touched by an association. We intend to interview attorneys, insurance brokers, reserve study experts, CPAs, Community Managers, management company owners, and of course boards. We will share our expertise with the public.
- Authoritativeness – Anyone can write a blog or film a podcast, but those blogs and podcasts are more reliable when conducted by someone who is a leader in the industry. Being an authority means, someone who leads in the industry. For example, not only do we belong to the California Association of Community Managers (CACM), but I am also the Co-Chair of a Committee at the California Association of Realtors to investigate legislation to make both boards and management companies more transparent and accountable. I also have developed and am rolling out the HOASnapshot report, a “Carfax” for homeowner associations.
- Trustworthiness – The best indicator of how your future experience with a management company will be is how they have performed in the past with other boards and associations. Trust is earned. At Progressive, we survey every board every to obtain feedback on our performance. We track our Net Promotor Score (NPS) and understand that boards who are satisfied with our service will promote our company to other boards. They can do this with testimonials, but most commonly we encourage them to leave positive reviews. Between our Progressive Property Management and Progressive Association Management Google sites (they don’t differentiate between the two often) we have almost 750 five star google reviews.
At Progressive, we promise (marketing and sales), deliver (operations and everyday management) and document (Google reviews, Net Promoter Scores, survey and feedback mechanisms from our boards and owners) superior customer service. We need to share that promise, delivery and documentation through E.E.A.T; because, if we don’t, boards looking for that superior customer service won’t be able to find us and experience it.
