Over the last 12 months, Kokoda Residences have achieved some remarkable results in building a vibrant and thriving community. We spent some time with Allison Prusina, Resident Support Manager and Kam Ghimire, Facility Manager, to unpack their amazing efforts in creating a very engaged community with their very own Kokoda community app built on the Pluss Communities platform.

Michael: Allison. Tell us a bit about Kokoda where it is. How many apartments? When did you open etc?

Allison: So our company is called Vasey Communities, we're a not for profit. And Vasey Communities were started by Jessie Vasey 61 years ago. Kokoda Residences is our latest project and it's a retirement living building on Sydney's North Shore. We have 117 apartments and their combination of one-, two-, and three-bedroom apartments. Our first residents moved in August last year, 2022. And one of our sales consultants loved the building so much that she bought an apartment herself. She has a beautiful three-bedroom apartment.

Michael: That's fantastic. Obviously if somebody who's selling the apartment loved it so much, she moved in herself, it's a great testimony to the quality of the community and the facilities.

Allison: Absolutely. Yes. She loves it so much. She still says every day how blessed she feels to be living at Kokoda Residences.

Michael: Why did you want an app for the Kokoda Residences community and what were you looking for in choosing a community communications app.

Allison: So really, we wanted to streamline communication with our residents, we wanted to provide options for the residents, to be able to create a community, and this is what the app did for us. It provided options for us to customize the app to fit our needs. It's a platform that allows our residents to become part of the community. And to be informed of everything that goes on and Kokoda Residences. This was the biggest thing for us. We wanted to create a beautiful community at Kokoda Residences, and this is exactly what the app did for us and also the app is extremely easy to use for the residents and for the team.

Michael: Roll back to June 2022. You're opening a brand-new community. What role did you see the app playing and launching your new community and what were some of your guiding principles and processes in rolling out the app?

Allison: All of our residents were provided with onboarding experience by a Kokoda Residences team member.  What we did is during this onboarding experience, we provided training for the app, so every single resident was shown how to use the App? We helped them log in and we showed the residents exactly what the app will be used for. So, they were very well aware from day one, all the benefits of using the app. We also provide ongoing training as well. So, the app is very easy to use. There's not much ongoing training that's required. But if there is someone who needs a bit of a refresher, that's what the visiting do.

Michael: Allison just unpack a little bit more. How did you train them one-on-one? Was it part of an induction process?

Allison:. Yes.

Michael: How did that work?

Allison: Every resident before they moved in, the onsite team did an onboarding session with them. So, every single resident, whether they were a single person or a couple, we would sit down with them. We would go through amongst other things, we would go through the app.  We would physically help them to log in with their login details. And once they're logged in, we would go bit step by step, what's available on the app. What exactly is on there now and what we will be using it for in the future, which is mainly our communications with the residents. We show them the benefits of having a section for the news posts, having a section for activities, coming up and so on. So, this is what we've done in that initial training even before residents moved in. That way they knew exactly what the app looked like. They knew how to log in and have a look and play with it before they even moved in.

Michael: Tell us a bit about the app. What do you use it for? What features do you find most helpful for your residents?

Allison: Absolutely. For us it's mainly about communicating with our residents. Our building, Kokoda Residences, has 117 apartments. That's a lot of residents in one building. We really wanted to use the app for communication and communicating things like urgent and non-urgent posts. We can post alerts, we can post information about activities coming up, news posts and then, of course, one of the most important ones, especially in the early days, is maintenance requests. The residents can lodge maintenance requests on the app. It's a more efficient with managing maintenance requests this way. We can provide updates for those maintenance requests that come through, we can leave comments for the residents and residents can leave the comments for us as well.

Michael: So, what communication problems or community management problems does an app solve compared to other ways of communicating in your community?

Allison: One of the biggest things is, as we all need to do our part in saving our beautiful planet, it removes the need for paper notices. With 117 building apartments in a building, to create content and then print it on paper and deliver it to each residence. It's not sustainable for us. To be able to create the content and upload it on the app within minutes, it's really important for us from the very beginning. For instance, it was a very busy time for us. When we opened the building in August last year, we started off by moving 4 residents in a day. Having an app, at that time to communicate with our residents was really helpful because it was, as I said, creating  content within seconds, post it up on the app and within seconds and minutes all residents, no matter where they are, whether they're moving in and they moved in already, or they're getting ready to move in, they had access to that content. It really did streamline the communication.

Michael: Tell us what kind of content. Do you share on your app and often are you posting? And what do residents like about the content?

Allison: We post daily sometimes multiple times a day and the app is really wonderful because it has different sections for different types of posts. So, we would post things like welcoming new residents into our Kokoda Residences community. We post notices regarding the upcoming activities. And for example, this could be happy hour, or we have weekly information about dance class or upcoming meditation classes, walking groups and so on. We also have a cafe at our building - we would post things like cafe menu, and cafe specials. Even things like updates about the hairdresser and the beautician - if the hairdresser and the beautician have specials or if they're hours of operation change, we can communicate those updates and changes.

We also communicate building updates, local community events. The residents will come up to us and let us know about certain local community events. We then post that information for other residents as well. The app is really, handy and for important alerts. These things come up from time to time. And this is something that by the time, we would normally print the notice and deliver and by the time the residents get to see the notice, it may be too late. So sometimes we post important alerts.

The residents really like using the app because they get to see what's available to them. Also, they have the option. Once they see what's available, what activities are coming up, they have the option to choose whether they want to attend or not, they can make a comment on whatever we post. Other residents can then see the comments, but we also have an option of disabling that function. If we want comments to be seen there, we allow that to happen. If we don't want the comments on there, we don't need to have it on there.

Another really great option that residents have is they can send direct messages to each other on the app, whilst the privacy is all there. This is especially helpful in the beginning when there's no other information, they can see but they can reach out to one another. Where not many residents know one another so they can just reach out by a message. And then from there they can exchange details and personal details and so on.

Michael: I'm going to turn to Cam now as the facility manager, the app is really important in your day-to-day operations of the village. I also know that facilities management of a new building is really important to get right. How do you and your team use the app and the portal to manage resident requests?

Kam: In terms of maintenance and facility management any questions come via the app directly to our team and this provides efficiency on managing the request and increases the productivity to the facility management team. To be more specific we get notified as soon as the request is submitted by the residents. And we can act in a timely manner, and we can decide hours and allocate the task at the same time. We can always view the submitted request when we need to, also the resident can view the submitted request and leave a comment to the staff and the staff member can reply to the comments and provide them updates, and this really helps us on the meeting, our residence demands.

Additionally, we use the app features for reminding residents of any building updates and overall. This helps greatly on managing the requests.

Michael: Do you involve your contractors? What team members are involved in the app in facility management?

Kam: We have our Community Coordinator and the facility management team. We use the app to provide updates or any notices about the contractors attending site, or into their apartment and also for other day-to-day communications with the residents. So, in that regard, it's really helpful.

Michael: Thank you Cam. Allison from a staffing perspective, How do you manage the community app? Does everyone have a role to play?

Allison: Yes, everyone has a role to play. The good thing is the app is really easy to use. So, anyone we pick in the team to handle the app. It's fairly easy. So, what we do is anyone can create a content and then what we do is we send that content off to a person who will then proofread it and approve it before we upload it.

Michael: Yeah, great. So, you're making most of the approval processes to make sure the content is as good as it needs to be in your community. So, you have achieved remarkable engagement up over the 85% mark with your residents on a regular basis. What are three or four reasons as to why you think you get such high engagement?

Allison: Absolutely. So, from day one, even before the residents moved into the Kokoda Residences, we have been educating the residents on the option of having an app, we have been promoting an app and we have been encouraging residents to continuously use the app. We have been doing that from day one. And we still encourage our residents to use the app because of the benefits and residents can see the benefits as well. Also, what we do is we make sure that whatever we upload, that it's relevant content. And we make sure that the content is engaging.

Our building has a really strong sense of community and so for a village that's not even 12 months old, we have an exceptionally strong sense of community from the moment, you walk through that door, and this is all thanks to the residents using the app and thanks to us encouraging residents in promoting the app.

Michael: Fantastic. So as managers of the Kokoda Residences app, what advice would you give to other organizations looking to get residents more engaged with their community app? And are there particular strategies or best practices that you would recommend for getting the most out of the app?

Allison: I would say keep encouraging your residents to use the app. Keep providing training as necessary. And whatever content you create to go up on the app, add some creativity and keep the content fresh and simple.

Michael: Would you recommend other retirement villages, and over 50s Lifestyle Resorts User Community in their community?

Allison: We would definitely recommend the app to anyone.

Michael: Allison and Kam. Thank you so much for your time. Such great insights that you have shared with us.  We really appreciate it.

Kam: Thank you.

Allison: Thank you, Mike.

Summary of the keys to success

1. Streamline communication with residents using an app.

2. Provide training for residents to use the app as part of their onboarding.

3. Encourage residents to continuously use the app and provide relevant and engaging content.

4. Keep providing training to residents who might be struggling.

5. Use the app for communicating urgent and non-urgent posts, activities, news posts, and maintenance requests.

6. Don’t resort to paper notices or newsletters. Keep all the communication in the app. It’s much more environmentally sustainable and saves so much time.

7. Post daily updates on the app, including welcoming new residents, upcoming activities, building updates, local community events, cafe menu and specials, and hairdresser and beautician updates.

8. Inject creativity into your posts and keep the content fresh and simple.

9. Allow residents to book into events in the app.

10. Allow residents to choose whether they want to attend activities and make comments on posts.

11. Enable direct messaging between residents on the app. They love it for building personal connections.

12. Use the maintenance requests system to allow residents to submit their requests to the facility management team. Residents love how easy it is to use and the communication they can do and receive about the request.

13. Involve community coordinator and facility management team in using the app for updates and communications with residents.