Communicating service charges clearly

Communicating service charges clearly is crucial if you want the right messages to come across...

At Ad Esse Service Charges, we talk a lot about effective communication and customer experience and, at the heart of it, transparency. How you communicate, the information you provide and the clarity of that information are key to helping customers understand their charges. Here are some key considerations for your service charge related customer communication:

• If service charges are going up, explain why. Provide some rationale for the increases, and where there are outliers, provide as much context as you can.

• Remove unnecessary information. Residents don't want a bunch of descriptions for services they don't receive. Make it as easy as possible. Zero cost lines for services not provided only frustrate residents as it can mislead them into thinking they are paying for services they are not. Even better, bespoke information to individuals or their developments.

• Everyone wants different levels of information. Some only want to know what they need to pay and an action they need to take. Others want fine details. Allow the information to be accessible to all - give the important basics first, but provide the context in the backing information. Creating communications that are layered in this way is helpful in giving everyone what they need in the easiest way possible.

• Communicate in more ways than just your demands. Information that comes to you in a year which is important to service charges should be communicated as quickly as possible. If you realise that the budget is wrong, or needs work, communicate that and provide options for solutions wherever possible - great service charge management (and indeed property management) is a peer to peer relationship with your residents.