Service coordinators in affordable housing communities spend a significant part of their day making sure residents receive, understand, and act on important information.
The challenge is rarely as simple as sending a notice. Residents may speak different languages, have difficulty reading small text, miss phone calls or text messages, forget appointments, lose printed notices, or need information when staff are unavailable. Service coordinators may also need to communicate urgent schedule changes, inspection dates, transportation updates, food programs, community events, benefits, paperwork deadlines, and other time sensitive information.
When communication breaks down, the result is often more work for staff: repeated phone calls, additional reminders, door knocking, manual translation, missed appointments, low program attendance, and residents asking questions that have already been answered.
The following are 50 common resident communication problems service coordinators encounter in affordable housing and senior communities
- Last minute messages
- Important messages that cannot afford to be missed
- Residents who do not use email regularly
- Residents who do not have smartphones
- Residents who will not download another app
- Residents who miss texts or delete messages
- Residents difficult to reach through one channel
- Different communication preferences
- Residents who are not comfortable with English
- Residents who have difficulty reading
- Residents who have difficulty hearing
- Staff having to translate messages manually
- Residents needing written and audio information
- Residents who may forget
- Residents forgetting appointments
- Recertification deadlines
- Residents needing multiple reminders
- Inspection dates
- Missing documentation
- Information needed when staff are unavailable
- Information needed away from the property
- Lost printed notices
- Outdated printed notices
- Difficulty finding current information
- Important instructions needing repeated access
- Finding information without calling staff
- Information available 24/7
- Repeated resident questions
- Staff answering routine questions
- Repeating the same message
- Service coordinators overloaded with communication work
- Upcoming events
- Low program attendance
- Residents feeling disconnected
- New resident orientation
- Community resources
Schedule a demo and see how Witlingo helps communities communicate easily and effectively, track delivery, and document outreach.