TOPS Home E-Zine
Issue #27 - May 2004
May 2004: Inside TOPS Home
1)
Welcome to TOPS Home!
2)
How to Counter Those Cost Objections
3)
The Facts About Online Dues Payments
4)
New Features on Your Web Sites
5)
GW & Associates, Inc.
6)
Tips for Using the Community Mesage Board
7)
Private Home Page Popup
8)
Internet E-Mail: Tips for Premium clients
Read this issue and archived issues of the TOPS Home E-Zine online at:
http://www.topshome.com/topshome/Administrators/TOPS_Home_ezine.htm
Welcome back to TOPS Home, the web site e-mail magazine (e-zine) for the TOPS Community Web Site Service. This month everyone has gone ga-ga over online payments. We have been so busy implementing the new online payment interface for so many of you, we have hardly had a chance to breath! Well, one thing we have managed to do is write a fact sheet about the online payment system that you give to your owners when your communities sign up for the new service. Read all about it in our Monthly Download article.
GW & Associates is our featured customer this month, and they have some great things to say about TOPS Web Sites. If that isn't recommendation enough, Susan offers some help on overcoming Board's cost objections.
Our support department went a little crazy this time, and gave us three articles chock full of helpful tips! First, in Getting the Word Out, we have a great 'How To' article for your homeowners on the message board. We encourage you to copy it into your own email bulletin or community newsletter. Next, some helpful tips on setting up your own popup window for your residents to see when they log in, and we round it off this month with two helpful tips for those of you who use our email server. After all, vacation season is right around the corner!
So, once again, we have managed to use up all of our allotted space and then some, with more tips, tricks, and helpful information than you can shake a stick at! So let's get to it shall we? As always, enjoy your reading, and if you have any questions or concerns, feel free to contact us. We look forward to speaking with you!
TOPS Web Sales: (800) 556-7852 WebSales@topssoft.com.
TOPS Web Support (800) 899-5689 WebSupport@topssoft.com.Portfolio Managers: How to Counter Those Cost Objections
Every minute without the Community Web Site service being used by each of your associations is a minute of wasted precious volunteer and staff time and expense. We've heard a Board Member or two make the comment that the cost for a web site is too high. We think they're right, some designers charge an arm and a leg for a pretty, yet static, community web site. But what if you could offer an amazing integrated service that allows residents the ability to receive email updates from their association on late breaking news such as pool closings or snow removal? It's not too much to pay for increasing resident awareness of topics important to association living, not too much to pay for increasing communication in the neighborhood, not too much to pay for residents having access to reliable vendors recommended by their neighbors. The features that come standard in the association web site service are almost overwhelming.
We encourage Managers to work with their Board to compare the costs of the association web site service for the whole year to the cost of a year's landscaping of the common areas, a year’s worth of pool maintenance, a year's worth of newsletter printing. The value is truly in the web site service.
If pricing still discourages a Board, remind them that with a little effort, the site can actually be a revenue source for the association. Similar to hard copy newsletters, associations are able to sell advertising to local vendors. We've seen associations post menus, coupons, discount certificates that residents can then print out and use as if it was taped to their mailboxes. We all have those signs at the front of our entrances "No Soliciting" but it never seems to discourage some vendors, these are the ones your associations should be calling and selling them the ad space. Vendors love it as their ad is available for the whole time frame, not just the one day they put the flyer on the mailbox. Residents are happy because they know where the coupons are when they need them and Board Members love it because no one is calling them complaining about flyers blowing through the neighborhood. A Win-Win-Win for everyone involved.
To help you educate your boards on the feature set available and functionality built right in to the service, we've got some great marketing materials available at: http://www.topshome.com - just click on Downloads. Here you'll find community sign-up forms, as well as board flyers to print out, and even sales materials you can customize for your management company. Or give us a call at 1-800-556-7852 and we'll send you customized community sales kits!. We can also design a custom Community Web Site Demo CD for your management company, so if you’re interested in receiving these, just give us a jingle or email websales@topshome.com!
The Facts About Online Dues Payments
So many of our customers have been signing up for online payments that requests have been pouring in for something to give to owners to let them know about the new online payments, and how they work. This month, we have created a very simple document called "The Facts About Online Dues Payments". This document answers the questions that owners typically want to know about security, sign up process, costs, and more. You can post this document on your web site, send it directly to owners, or print it in your community newsletter.
The document is located under the sample documents heading in the downloads section of our web site:
www.TOPSHome.com/topshome/Administrators/downloads.htm.(PS. If you still haven't filled in the application for online payments for your communities, go to the link above and print out the application. Managers, did you know you can even use this feature for those communities that do not have a community web site? You can provide the service right on your TOPS management site! so what are you waiting for? It's free and easy! Fill in your application today!)
New Features on Your Community Web Sites
- Added the optional ability to set the primary address fields in the User Profile to 'Read-Only' status. Please email us if you wish to have this activated for your site or if you have questions.
- Administrators may now delete individual eForm Submissions from the list of eForms that have been submitted.
- Resolved some color conflicts that arose in the Message Board and Chat Room features under certain color schemes.
- Moved all 'phone' fields to be listed together towards the top of the resident profile.
- Changed default lockbox file name for online payments to MMDDYY[ID].LBX.
- Made adjustments to lockbox processing for online payments.
GW & Associates, Inc., Lawrenceville, Georgia
GW & Associates, Inc. is a full service property management operation with administrative offices located in Lawrenceville, Georgia. The office is central to the geographic area within which the majority of client properties are located. The company started business in 1984 and has seen a steady growth by referral of satisfied clients. We are known for our professionalism, integrity and ability to provide timely honest service to our clients.
Being an early adopter of Internet technologies, GW & Associates, Inc. was the first management company in Atlanta to have a web site. Initially we used it just for marketing purposes. In the last two years though we have used our ability to offer association web sites as a value added service to attract additional associations to our service. Each month we bring additional communities online and the residents just love it!
We promote the web sites as a communication tool for all our communities while we receive the benefits in our back-office. The integration between the TOPS modules and the association web sites is truly revolutionary. Residents can see the status of their own account when it is convenient for them, submit online work orders and even participate in neighborhood surveys. By providing this Internet based communication tool, our office is available to residents 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Customer Service at its finest - all due to the association web site service!
Offering the TOPS Web Site Service to our associations was definitely the right move for our company. You should consider it for yours.
Would you like your web site to be spotlighted in the TOPS Home E-Zine? Send us a two or three paragraph email. Be sure to include a description of your community, tell us what led you to getting a Community Web Site, and let us know what features you like best. Send your spotlight to websupport@topssoft.com.
Keep Them Coming Back!
Many associations publish a community newsletter for their residents on a regular basis. In this section of the TOPS Home Ezine, we provide an article each month that you can publish in your newsletter (or in an email bulletin) to help promote your web site and let your residents know just how great their web site is, and how easy it is to sign on and get informed! Just customize the article by inserting your community web site domain name and cut and paste it right into your newsletter! (You can find login statistics for the first paragraph in the statistics menu under Admin Only.)
TIPS for Using Our Community Message Board
Are you logging on to the community Web Site at <<WebsiteURL>>? Over _____ of the homes in our community have! In the past 30 days we've had over _____ hits. It is the primary communication tool for our neighborhood so we encourage you to visit it often.
One of the best ways to communicate with other members of the community is through our community message board. Any member of the community may create a message board topic and post a message.
To create a message board Topic
- Click on Message Board on the Menu Bar
- Click on “Add a New Topic”
- Complete the “Add a New Message Board Topic” screen
- Click Save Message Topic
The message is stored on the web site. The message is also sent via email to all members who have included their email address in their User Profile and who have “subscribed” (elected) to get these email notifications.
To “Subscribe to” or “Unsubscribe” from message board postings
This facility allows each member to choose to receive or not to receive a copy of each message board posting in their own email “inbox” The choice applies to all message board postings – a member elects to get all message board postings, or none.
- Click on “Message Board” on the Menu Bar
- Scroll to the bottom of the screen
- Click on “Click here to Subscribe or Unsubscribe to the Message Board”
- On the following screen, choose the “Subscribe” or “Unsubscribe” option
To “Reply” to a message board posting
- Login to the web site (if you are subscribed, the email will contain a link to the community web site)
- Click on “Message Board” on the Menu Bar
- Scroll to find the appropriate message board
- Click on the message board
- Scroll to the bottom of the screen
- Click on “Add a New Message Under This Topic”
- Complete the “Add a New Message” screen
Note: You cannot reply to a message from the web site from your email program.
So come visit the web site today at <<WebsiteURL>> and be sure to post your comments and suggestions on our community message board!
If you have a method of drawing visitors to your site that has been successful for you, please take a moment to share it with your fellow community web site administrators. You can send your tips to websupport@topssoft.com.
Private Home Page Popup
Did you know that you can have a popup window appear each time your members log in to your web site? This can be a great way to direct residents to important web site content such as meeting dates, events, announcements, surveys, etc. The private home popup window is completely customizable, and can be updated very easily.
Activation
The Private Home Popup is available to administrators only, and may be accessed from Feature Descriptions under the Admin Only section of the menu.
- To activate the popup, simply choose to edit the 'Private Home Popup', and type your message into the feature description.
- To deactivate the popup window, simply delete everything (including hidden codes and spaces) from the feature description.
Content
Anything you can put into the rich text editor can go in the popup window. Some of the common things that other administrators are doing include:
- Pictures - A great way to illustrate a section or an important item.
- Click in the rich text editor where you would like your picture displayed and click the 'image' icon (looks like a yellow mountain sunrise photo).
- This will take you to the image dialog, where you can choose a photo you have already uploaded, or upload one from your machine.
- If you are looking for some good clip art and stock photos, check out the sites listed in this article: http://www.topshome.net/topshome/Administrators/EZine/TH21.htm#tips
- Links - A great way to point a resident to a particular survey, announcement category, or document is to link directly to that item. You can place a link to any item on the web site from the rich text box with a few steps.
- First go to the link that points to the item you wish your new link to open. (i.e. if you want to link to your pool regulations document, click Documents, the category, and locate the link to that document.)
- Right click on the link and select properties. This will give you the actual location of the item.
- Click and drag over the full name (i.e. http://www.URL/community/documents/poolregs.doc) and copy it (right click and choose copy or CTRL+C).
- Now go into feature descriptions, edit your Private home popup, and type the name of the link (i.e. Pool Regulations) into the rich text box.
- Next, click and drag over the text and click the hyperlink button. (It looks like a globe with a chain link)
- Right click in the URL field and select paste.
- Set the target to 'Blank'.
- Click Insert Link.
- Marquee - Another way to make something stand out is with scrolling text. One simple HTML code that you can use is called Marquee. This code will cause the text to scroll across the screen. (Note: Marquee does not work in Netscape based browsers.) To use the marquee, follow these steps:
- In the rich text box, type the text that you want to have scroll across the page. It should be all on one line (do not press the return key).
- Switch to the Source view. It is the second tab at the bottom right of the rich text editor.
- Find the text you typed in. It will probably look like this:
<P>This is the text I want to scroll</P>- Replace the Ps with the word MARQUEE. It should look like this:
<MARQUEE>This is the text I want to scroll</MARQUEE>- Click the preview tab at the bottom to see what it will look like.
- If you wish, you can set some modifications to the marquee to make it do fun things. Check out this article for more information: http://www.htmlgoodies.com/tutors/marquee.html
The contents of your popup page are only limited by your imagination. Just remember not to make it TOO long, or your visitors will just ignore it (some will anyway).
Is there a feature that you would like to learn more about? Send an email to websupport@topssoft.com with your suggestions for our next Feature Teacher.
Internet E-Mail: helpful tips for our Premium clients
If you use TOPS' mail servers for your organization's email, then we have some great tips for you this month!
Check Your Email Online
Did you know that you could check your e-mail from any machine, anywhere, without installing an e-mail package? All you need is to be connected to the Internet! Here are instructions for accessing your e-mail on the mail server, via the Internet:
- Open a web browser.
- In the address bar, type http://mail.domainname.com/ (where domain name is the URL of your web site)
- Enter your complete email address as the User ID of the email account you are checking.
- Enter the password of the account you are checking.
- Click Login.
Set a Vacation Message
Did you know that you could set vacation messages for your e-mail on our Internet Mail Server? (This is also useful as an auto responder for an email account that eforms are sent to.) Here are instructions for defining a vacation message on the Mail servers, via the Internet:
- Open a web browser.
- In the address bar, type http://mail.domainname.com/ (where domain name is the URL of your web site, i.e. mail.domainname.com)
- Enter your e-mail address.
- Enter your password.
- Click Login.
- Once the mail account comes up, locate the Personal Account Options. This may be a link on the bottom of the page, or a pull down menu at the top right.
- Select Change Vacation Message from the personal account menu.
- Enter the text of your vacation message and press save.
- All new e-mails received in your account will automatically be responded to with the new message.
Don't forget to remove the vacation message when you are back from your vacation! To do so, follow steps 1-7, delete the contents of the text box, and click save.
Note: If you are not a Premium client and wish to upgrade to receive email services, please contact our web sales team at 800-556-7852 or websales@topshome.com. Indicate the name of your community and state that you wish to upgrade to our Premium Plan with email services.
Did you know that TOPS Software will provide you with a free
community web site CD demo? Follow this link to apply for your free demo today!~ + ~ + ~ + ~ + ~ + ~ + ~ + ~ + ~ + ~
Here is a list of some of the most common contact data for TOPS Software:
Department
Contact
Phone
Software Sales
Nicole Sezov
800-760-9966
Web Site Sales
Susan Sanders
800-556-7852
Technical Support
Jeanne Plennert
800-899-5689
Web Site Support
Brandon Kelley
800-899-5689
Accounting
Cande Estrella
301-869-8144
Designed by TOPS Software, LLC. Copyright© 2001-2004 TOPS Software, LLC, 364-C Christopher Ave, Gaithersburg, MD 2879. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
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