LIVEXPLORED
HOA Websites
I voluntarily participated in AppFolio's Analytics Research Community's (ARC) Q2 Customer Insights Challenge. The broad theme centered around customer empathy.
For the challenge, I decided my goal would be to determine the effectiveness of AppFolio’s websites in meeting HOA/CA customer goals. Historically, AppFolio's website offering was developed and tailored to meet the goals of Property Managers even though we had already began to move into the HOA and CA markets.
Since the websites team had never talked with our HOA customers about their experience, I thought this challenge would be a great opportunity.
PROCESS
-
Hold Discovery Calls / Interviews with existing HOA/CA customers with AppFolio websites (1,000+ units)
-
Usability test our websites
RESULTS
DISCOVERY CALL FINDINGS
What are CA & HOA Customers trying to accomplish with our websites?
-
Provide homeowners access to online portals - pay online
-
Share association documents - free up time on their end
Who are our CA & HOA Customers targeting?
-
Homeowners
What is the primary reason they chose to use an AppFolio website?
-
Integration with APM*
What are the essential features or capabilities our websites should have for HOAs?
-
Clear path to online portal
-
Document sharing/downloads
EFFICIENCY GAIN OPPORTUNITIES
Through interviews, I learned that many of the issues our HOA customers were facing with our process was bigger than just websites. Many of their pain points stemmed from limitations they were facing within the AppFolio Property Manager product - specifically uploading and sharing documents with their homeowners and board members as well as using the platform to contact them.
Though I was unable to complete the usability testing by the end of Q2, these findings were adopted by AppFolio's team spearheading improvements to the platform for HOA customers - Beth Gilbert and Elena Lengberg.
