Brevity isn't Always Clarity

Winter is a season of notices. From shorter hours, to resident events, to cap and maintenance projects, to emergency notices... there is a lot of paper floating around out there.  (I keep telling clients to decorate their properties with snowflakes, but for some reason, they seem to use notices instead.  Trust me, the effect is not the same.) For a lot of residents, notices are often better received if they're sent to them via email, or in the case of something short, even a text message.  When communicating with residents through a written format of any kind, I frequently encourage people to follow a few rules:

• Keep it brief

• Keep it clear

• Keep proofreading

• Keep it human

These are pretty easy rules.  And honestly, these are pretty good rules for any and all communication that you might do in your day to day life - particularly the proofreading part.  Remember that proofreading isn't just about catching syntax or grammatical errors, or an occasional misplaced comma.  Proofreading also extends to the message content and making sure that it says what you think it says.  I was reminded of this concept this morning by a status update on Facebook from a friend I went to high school with who frequently sees the world in a phenomenally funny and enlightening way.  To say I felt compelled to share it would be an understatement.

ThurstonStripperStatus

Please remember to keep it clear in all your messages this season, no matter how brief you think they should be.  There's nothing worse than a landlord who's a tease via mis-communication.