Every HOA needs to enlist the help of various vendors. Your Fisherville HOA, for example, might already engage with property maintenance companies, bookkeepers, or software partners. But to groom those vendor relationships ongoing, it’s important to have a strategy for vendor management. You’ll need to keep your budget in check and ensure you’re receiving quality services from these providers. And here are a few HOA tips to help you do just that and enjoy those best vendor partnerships for the long term.
1. Evaluating to Ensure You Have the Highest Quality Vendors in Place
Start by first evaluating your bench strength in terms of vendors. If any providers are falling short or over-charging, it’s worth exploring new partnerships. And most HOA veterans will suggest it’s probably best to re-evaluate your vendor lists annually, to not lose sight of costs and standard deliverables. Communicate your evaluation process with all new vendors, too, so they know your Fisherville HOA revisits partnerships regularly. It will set the tone for performance expectations moving forward. And you don’t want to develop a strategy to manage poorly engaging partners. Instead, keep your vendors improving and develop a management strategy around working with the best.
2. Manage Your HOA Expectations
Because who your Fisherville HOA works with is likely a group decision, it’s important to remember for everyone to have same-page expectations from each contracted partner. Opinions on quality may vary, for example, with landscaping standards. One member might insist on a certain grass length or line patterns. But if the landscaping vendor doesn’t know about those expectations, he or she may fall short of delivering the best final product. Be transparent with everyone about what each vendor is expected to provide and have clear guidelines and benchmarks for quality performance that everyone can agree to keep.
3. Leverage All Available Referrals & Resources
Procurement processes or RFPs (requests for proposals) can help keep the playing field level for any new vendors interested in working with your HOA. These tools and others are available to help make the decision-making process more straightforward and measuring performance fair. Don’t be afraid to network for referrals either, especially if you have other real estate professional connections who can recommend quality contractors for ongoing work.
4. Continuous Communication with Your Fisherville HOA Vendors
Almost every nightmare vendor story has one thing in common – at some point, there was a breakdown in communication. Avoid unnecessary headaches and drama with your Fisherville HOA vendors by ensuring continuous communication regarding schedules, job orders, payment, and processes. It’s best to also have lines of communication open with more than one HOA contact for contact after hours and emergencies. Keep an open-door policy to groom great working relationships with all of your vendor partners ongoing.
5. Timely Compensation & Professional Negotiation
Nothing turns a vendor relationship sour faster than delayed payment or shoddy negotiation tactics. Keep the respect and professionalism at the highest level, including with payment and rate negotiation. Vendors will know where their “bread is buttered” and will go above and beyond for those HOAs that respond quickly, engage professionally, and pay on time every time. Disputing payment or delaying compensation will only create animosity and discourage vendors from working with your organization.
There is often tons of advice out there about how HOAs can take care of members and properties. But it’s also essential to know how to take care of your vendors. It’s these critical partners that will ensure your Fisherville HOA continues to run and operate efficiently. And if you need help reassessing your current vendor roster, let the professionals at PMI Louisville help get your partnerships on the right track.
