Hiring The Right Vendor For Your Community Can Be A Tough Task
As the end of the year draws closer this signals the process of considering vending options for many communities. From landscaping, to electrical work, and pool maintenance to painting and so much more, there is a lot that goes into keeping a community in tip-top shape.
How do you know who to hire? What budget's do you have? The cost and quality of a service offered is the most important factor of course, but what else must be considered?
Reliability
If a hurricane strikes and scatters the roads in Palm Tree branches, will your landscape team be there the next day to tidy up, or will they show up two days later leaving your residents to do the cleaning up? When meeting with potential vendors you should discuss availability of their team and if they can meet the potential demands extrinsic factors such as the weather can place on communities at any time of the year.
Communication
It is important to establish good communication lines between the vendor and a point of contact within the community. You don't want to hire a vendor that is almost impossible to get in contact with when issues arise during your contract.
Reputation
Whether you are simply renewing a venders contract or hiring a whole new one it is important to do your research. If your re-hiring then you should have a good idea already of the standard of their work, if it is a new vendor then researching their past is no bad thing. Seek recommendations from other association managers or community boards so that you can make an informed decision.
Price and Quality
Like we have already mentioned these two factors should be considered the most important when selecting your vendor. No association wants to overpay for work that isn't up to scratch. The association holds all the cards here, the vendor is competing for your business, make a deal but be wary. You don't want to lose quality to save on cost but you want to be careful on low cost deals that seem to good to be true. Consider all of the previous factors above and then let the negotiations begin.
