Short Time on the Board – Large Impact on the Association

On the Light SideBy Larry Gilligan Customer Service ManagerA large part of customer service success at Rossmar & Grahamis creating a seamless experience. Customer needs areanticipated, systems are in place, and employees are trained.Rossmar & Graham’s customer care center runs like a well-oiledmachine. But what happens when the unexpected happens?When a homeowner has an “unusual” request or they simply callus in panic mode? Here is one such actual case.Ring ring… Hello, this is Jennifer in the care center.How may I help you?Homeowner... I have a cat running after my dog in the back yard!Jennifer… Are they at play?Homeowner, with a panicked scream… Oh no, my dog andthe bobcat just came into the kitchen through the doggie door!Silence…Jennifer escalates the call to the care center supervisor…Hello, hello? No response…A minute later the homeowner comes back on the phone...Whew! That was a close call.Supervisor... Are you and your dog okay?Homeowner... Thank you, yes. I grabbed a broom and chasedthe bobcat out of the kitchen into the back yard and I saw itjump the wall.Supervisor... Okay. I will contact your community manager andwe’ll send out a voice and email alert to all homeowners in yourcommunity via our RossmarConnect software system.Homeowner... Thank you for taking the call and thank you foralerting my neighbors. Good-bye.A Message Fromthe CEOHaving spent most of my life inthe Pacific Northwest, I am one ofthose Arizona residents who can’tget enough of the summer heat.Growing up, if the temperature wasin the mid-70s we would be headingto the beach. This May has beenunseasonably cool, with some rainshowers and cooler temperatures.Make no mistake, however, the heatis coming and that can create largesummer expenses for communityassociations in the form of landscape,water, and electricity bills.There are many green initiatives that can help us conserve onnatural resources and save money at the same time. This isimportant, as I predict that the price of utilities and water willonly increase. In the desert, most green initiatives are relatedto water and electricity usage.To Conserve Water:• Convert grass or high water consuming areas to desertlandscape. For every square foot of grass removed, youwill save an estimated 33 gallons of water annually• Ensure water pressure regulators are set correctly, as toomuch pressure can cause unwanted leaks in the system• Reduce watering time to the minimum. Irrigation systemsshould deliver enough water to maintain healthy plants,and no more. Consistent over-watering will weaken theroot structure and leave it too close to the surface,making the plant weak and vulnerable to wind storms• Irrigation systems need regular checks to ensure properoperation and to pinpoint any leaksTo Conserve Electricity:• Adjust pumps and other equipment to run during “offpeak” times, if possible• Re-evaluate your pool heater. Lower the temperature,or if you have two pools, heat one and leave theother unheated• Equipment maintenance: Change filters and ensureequipment is working properly with a regular tune up.This is especially important for A/C units. Ensurerefrigerant levels are OK• Change out incandescent light bulbs for new energyefficient compact fluorescent bulbsAs you can see, some of these steps are very simple. Byconserving resources and adopting green initiatives, wecan be not only wise stewards of our natural resources, butthrifty consumers saving money at the same time. Help yourcommunity take advantage of these steps, bring it up at thenext community meeting and encourage your group to startadopting some of these items today!Jason ProudfitChief Executive Officer

R&G Quarterly Review The Summer ISSUE 4|5Community Spotlight:Sunset VistaBy The Board of Directors of Sunset VistaSunset Vista joined Rossmar & Graham’s family ofassociations in May 2008. It is a beautiful communityof 298 homes located in Buckeye, approximately 25miles west of Phoenix and five miles south of InterstateHighway 10. A new community built by Elliott Homes,construction began at Sunset Vista in 2004 and has onlyrecently been completed. The homeowners associationwas turned over from the builder to the residents in 2007,and a new board of directors was established.The first year of operations presented the new board withsignificant challenges, as a crashing housing market left thecommunity with unexpectedly high vacancy rates and acorresponding reduction in monthly assessment fees. Theassociation was faced with maintaining the community’s lushlandscaping with dwindling financial resources, strugglingevery month to pay for professional landscaping servicesand exploding irrigation bills. For a period of time the boardmembers, together with volunteers from the community,pitched in and worked weekends to help with pulling weeds,trimming shrubs, and removing trash from the common areas.Working closely with Rossmar & Graham’s managementteam during the summer of 2008, the board restructured itslandscape contract and hired a new landscape company, begana strategic reduction in plantings throughout the community,and reduced its irrigation requirements. By February 2009 theassociation’s finances began to improve, as did the landscapingand general appearance of the community. The attitude ofthe community’s residents, which had suffered along with thelandscaping, also began to rebound.Today the association is actively involved in rebuilding“community” at Sunset Vista. Though the struggling housingmarket and the economy have continued taking their toll,the actions taken by the board to maintain and improve theneighborhood are paying off. Most homes that come onto themarket sell quickly, as potential buyers see the well maintainedparks, walking paths, and private lots throughout thecommunity. The association regularly hosts community events,such as picnics in the park and community yard sales. Additionalevents are also planned, including sunset workshops held inthe early evening hours to provide residents with informationabout yard maintenance, irrigation system management, homerepairs, and other topics of critical importance to many of thecommunity’s first time homeowners. Recently the board evendiscussed setting up a community Facebook page with a “wall”available to all residents for comments, suggestions, and theposting of information.Sunset Vista, originally a diamond in the rough, is coming into itsown and shines brightly from the southwest reaches of the valleyof the sun. The board of directors is pleased to work closely withthe professionals at Rossmar & Graham to make Sunset Vista thefine community its residents want, expect and deserve.Operation Benevolent Heart RecipientsRossmar & Graham has a charitable program called OperationBenevolent Heart, which helps our homeowners in need. Boardmembers nominate deserving families in their communities,and each month we draw one name from all the nomineesand pay up to $300 in delinquent assessments, fines or feeson their behalf. Last quarter the following communities had ahomeowner who benefitted from the program:March – The Foothills Community AssociationApril – Mountainview Ranch Homeowners AssociationMay – Maricopa Meadows Homeowners AssociationPlease contact your community manager to nominate ahomeowner in your community!

High-Rise Continued from page 6are offset, the assessments become much more appealing inrelation to the added amenities they also include.Gary Schulte, another Mark resident, enjoys the carefree lifestyleof high-rise living. “We want for nothing here. Lots of everydayneeds are attended to by the staff that would otherwise burdenthe owner. Their friendliness and smiles put the first impressionforth to anyone visiting. Also, the location is extraordinary -everything is within walking distance.”That’s a key component of this style of living - the location. Thehigh-rise communities Rossmar & Graham manages are walkingdistance from all the hotspots in the valley, from KierlandCommons and the new Scottsdale Quarter, to Biltmore FashionPark, to Old Town Scottsdale and Scottsdale Fashion Square, todowntown Tempe.Compared with Chicago or New York, Arizona may still be a minorplayer in regards to high-rise living, but this exclusive group hasbecome a premier destination in the Valley of the sun.Rossmar & GrahamParticipates inSurprise CommunityPride DayOn Saturday, April 2Rossmar & Graham’s employeesparticipated in the 4th AnnualSurprise Community Pride Day. Aspart of our Rossmar Gives program,our employees volunteered theirtime to work side-by-side with othercommunity members to removeweeds, clean up trash, and generallypitch in to beautify the communitieswithin the city of Surprise, of whichRossmar & Grahammanages several.Rossmar & GrahamCongratulates Mary Tanner,Vice President ofClient AccountingWe are pleased toannounce that MaryTanner has beenpromoted to VicePresident of ClientAccounting, and is nowa member of Rossmar& Graham’s ExecutiveManagement Team.Mary Tanner joined Rossmar & Graham in 2007, and brings morethan 20 years of experience in real estate development and realestate management to the Rossmar & Graham team.As Vice President of Client Accounting, Mary is responsiblefor overseeing all aspects of Client Accounting Services. Sheis responsible for the timeliness and accuracy of our clients’financial reports, for establishing and maintaining our clients’system of internal controls, and for the day-to-day accountingactivities for our clients.Prior to joining Rossmar & Graham, Mary spent many yearsin the real estate development and commercial propertymanagement industries in Virginia. Within those industries,Mary served as a Vice President and as a Controller. Marybrings valuable real estate experience and expertise inaccounting, operations, systems, finance, and IT.Mary received her Bachelor’s degree in Accounting from OldDominion University and is a Certified Public Accountant.Outside of work, Mary takes every opportunity to pursue hercurrent passion for golf.Congratulations, Mary!

9362 East Raintree DriveScottsdale, AZ 85260www.rossmar.comConnect with Rossmar & GrahamA FirstService Residential Management CompanyR&G Quarterly Review The SUMMER ISSUE 8Rossmar & Graham’s Customer Care Center SpeedsResponse to Homeowner Inquiries By Larry Gilligan Customer Service ManagerRossmar & Graham’s customer care center serves as a directand immediate point of contact for our homeowners. Intoday’s instant gratification society, a response time of 24hours or the next business day is no longer fast enough. Thehomeowners in the community associations we managewant their questions answered quickly and by a live person.Our customer care center provides our homeowners withinformation in regards to billing, statements, work orders,architectural requests, violations, insurance policies, CC&Rs,and much more.The majority of calls from residents are related toaccount inquiries or requests for basic information,and do not require the attention of acommunity manager. Our customercare center reduces the number ofcalls to our managers, giving them thetime necessary to focus on the otherimportant aspects of managingtheir communities.time populating a database of answers to every conceivableresident inquiry. This includes general questions aboutpolicies and procedures, as well as specific issues related toour communities. The database works like a Google interface,in that when a customer care representative enters a keyword or phrase, the answer pops up immediately and theinformation can then be relayed to the homeowner.All calls are logged and maintained in our RossmarConnectdatabase. Therefore at any time our community managerscan quickly access the history of all calls for a specificproperty, including the response that was given and anyfollow-up issues.Our customer care representatives’goal is first call resolution - answeringour homeowners’ calls at the timethey come in. Over 94% of inquiresare resolved on the first call. Oursuccess is due to our customer carerepresentatives having instant accessto hundreds of information pointsspecific to our communities, whichprovides timely, consistent andaccurate information. Our communitymanagers have spent considerable