eNeighbors Blog

As we embark on the new year I’ve noticed that a lot of HOAs are looking for ways to save money. As I’ve mentioned before, the number one way that we save HOAs money is by replacing their paper newsletter, but more recently, it seems that HOAs are reconsidering their paper directory too.

Most paper directories are actually distributed free of charge in exchange for the right to sell advertising. However, advertising is shrinking for many companies in the “paper medium” and it seems that neighborhood directories are also feeling the squeeze, so they are scrambling to change their business model from free to subscription. To avoid this new fee, many HOAs are simply relying on their online resident directory with eNeighbors.

What is your neighborhood doing? Do you have a paper directory? Are you keeping it? Please comment below.

Here’s an example from one community:

When considering our service, many board members ask for references from our current customers. Recently, one customer took the time to put together a review of our services. The following is an unedited email from Trudy Moffitt (Nottingham by the Green) to a board member from another neighborhood currently considering our website for their community.

Hi Miles,

As Dan stated, I am on the Board of Directors for Nottingham by the Green/Knightsbrooke subdivision with 733 homes in south Overland Park, Kansas. Prior to joining eNeighbors, we had another website that had limited features, and most of the content was managed through a third party making it very cumbersome to use for timely neighborhood communication.  We truly needed a better communication vehicle with our residents and eNeighbors provided the optimal solution. Not only can the board directly communicate to our residents, our residents can communicate with the board and with other residents. 

The fact that residents actually post their own news articles and classified ads, and freely communicate to the board through the Community Feedback feature is testimony that the eNeighbors website is very user-friendly.   eNeighbors website also requires very little maintenance/monitoring which is an important feature considering our HOA Board of Directors is comprised of elected volunteers and not paid positions. 

The responsiveness of eNeighbors to any questions, concerns, and suggestions for improvements is truly phenomenal, not only when we first joined but throughout our 2 ½ years association.   They are dedicated to providing a superior website which is evident by the numerous enhancements they have made over the years.   

Speaking on behalf of our board and residents, we have been very pleased with the eNeighbors website.  Feel free to call me at [removed] any time if you have any specific questions that I can address about our experience with eNeighbors, their website features, or our start-up process or experience.   Best wishes as you assess your website considerations.

Trudy Moffitt

HOA Board of Directors

Nottingham by the Green/Knightsbrooke

We are now utilizing a larger photo (450 pixels wide by 335 pixels high) on your public neighborhood page to showcase your neighborhood. We are also displaying them on our homepage and on our search results page.

To see your photo, go to http://www.eneighbors.com/ and search for your neighborhood. Click your neighborhood name to see your page.

• If you see a photo of clouds, that is the default photo and you have not uploaded a photo yet
• If you see a fuzzy photo, this means that we are using the photo from your “old” site that needs to be re-uploaded
• If you see a clear photo that you like, then no action is necessary

To upload a new photo, sign in to your account, click “Go To Admin Tool”, click the “Browse…” button next to “Neighborhood Photo” to select a photo off of your computer. Click “Open” and finally, click “Save Changes” all the way at the bottom of the page.

Screenshot of public neighborhood page with default photo of clouds:

Screenshot of public neighborhood page with photo of entrance monument:

Screenshot of search results for “nottingham”:

Our registration process is proven to get at least 50% of your neighborhood registered and using eNeighbors to communicate. While this is the average across all of our neighborhood websites, one neighborhood was able to get 98% of their residents registered. However, the process by which residents register is primarily driven by direct mail and word of mouth and we think we can do better.

We now have a third mechanism to help you get your neighborhood online with a new feature called “invite your neighbor” that relies on currently registered residents to invite other residents to join.

To check this out, sign in to your neighborhood website at http://www.eneighbors.com and click the “Resident Directory” tab. Then click “See who’s not registered”. This will return a list of all the addresses in your neighborhood that have not joined yet. If you know someone who lives in one of these homes, just click the link that says, “Invite them to join” and a box to enter their email address will display. Enter their email and click “Send Invite”. They will receive an email with instructions on how to register.

Another way to do this is to search for your neighbor’s street address. Let’s say Bill is a good friend and neighbor and he lives two doors down. Just enter his street address into the search field in the resident directory and click “Search”. If he’s registered, his name and contact info will display. If he’s not, you’ll see the “Invite your neighbor” link that you can use to invite him to join.

I believe that this feature will bump up the average registration well past 70%.

Screenshot is below.

We set out to improve the eNeighbors.com homepage in the following ways:

1. Make it easier/quicker to sign in
   • We added a sign in module to the homepage in the upper-right hand corner. When you first load the page the cursor defaults to the email address field so you can just start typing.
   • We added a “Keep me signed in” check box. When you check this box, you won’t have to sign in when you come back to the site, unless of course, you click the “Sign Out” link or remove cookies from your computer
   • We increased the visibility of the “Forgot your password?” link so if you forget your password or it doesn’t seem to be working, you know how to quickly reset it
2. Make it easier to find neighborhoods
   • Before, you could only search by ZIP code, but what if you don’t know the ZIP code or you would rather search by name. Now you can search by neighborhood name. Give it a try. Go to http://www.eneighbors.com/ and search for “Nottingham”.
   • Expanded the search box, put it in the center of the page
3. Make it clear as to what eNeighbors does, in one sentence
   • Added short value proposition statement “eNeighbors connects you with your community.”
4. Help first time users get to the sign up form
   • Added text near the sign in module with a link to Sign Up form
   • Added large call-out for users who received a PIN in the mail
5. Make it more inviting
   • Added “Featured Neighborhoods” section to showcase neighborhood entrance photos, which gives it a more neighborhood feel
6. Make it easier to read
   • We increased the page width and font size across the board

We wanted to do all this but at the same time, keep the design consistent with our old design so users would feel that it was familiar. One final note, we also added a link to “Email Support” in the footer of every page so users would be able to reach us quickly.

New and old homepage screenshots for comparison are below.

NEW

OLD