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Trestle Puts Clients and Employees First by Proactively Right-Sizing its Client Portfolio

Trestle Community Management today announced it is releasing over thirty valued Clients in an effort to right-size its Client portfolio in response to current day demands. This effort is being proactively undertaken to ensure Trestle’s Team Members maintain reasonable workloads and can deliver superior services to Trestle Clients, thus advancing Client and employee satisfaction.

“Industry trends over the last 2-years have put greater workloads onto our Community Managers and Team Members which, if not addressed, would impact our ability to provide the superior service levels we expect,” said Bob Brencic, CMCA, AMS, MBA, President of Trestle Community Management.  “Historically, firms in our industry have accepted a decline in service delivery while attempting to contain the resulting losses in their Client base. I am not aware of any other firm in our industry that is willing to proactively make such a difficult decision to release valued Clients in order to focus on improving service levels and employee satisfaction; however, this is what makes Trestle unique and a leader in the industry.”

Since the emergence of COVID-19, several key dynamics have concurrently surfaced that are impacting the Community Association Management industry.

The COVID-19 shutdown in 2020 created a large backlog of regular and reserve maintenance work at many communities. Further, many vendors are short-staffed, resulting in extended and/or delayed work schedules. This dynamic makes it significantly more difficult for Community Managers to execute efforts in a timely manner and demands higher coordination across all community and vendor parties for bidding and scheduling efforts.  

Meanwhile, with many people working remotely and having an increased access to email, response time expectations have become shorter, with some people seeking near-immediate response and service to a rapidly increasing flood of communications and requests. And as frequently seen in the media, temperaments of some have become aggressive and disrespectful.

Combined, these trends have increased the workloads and stress levels of Team Members at a time when hiring experienced, high-quality employees has become a challenging task. Additionally, professional workers are now making lifestyle choices to balance work demands and personal lives.

As a result, Trestle is undertaking a proactive, strategic effort to reduce the Client loads on our Team. The twofold intent is for Trestle’s Team Members to reasonably deliver higher service levels to Board members and Homeowners while improving Trestle’s employee satisfaction.

Bob Brencic added, “It’s proactive efforts like this that have earned Trestle being named 2021 Business Partner Company of the Year by the Washington State Chapter of Community Associations Institute (WSCAI) and to Washington’s Best Workplaces in 2020 and 2019 by the Puget Sound Business Journal. Trestle has also been frequently recognized for being one of the fastest growing private companies in Washington state because we have always believed in superior service quality. This effort validates that.”

What Services Does Trestle Offer?

Trestle is a firm exclusively dedicated to community association management services. Through specialized Practice Areas, every community type is able to work with an advanced Team who is fully prepared to help them succeed. Trestle does not stop there. In addition to this unparalleled approach to community association management, Trestle also tailors its services to its clients, offering three different scopes of work – Full Management Services, Management On-Demand, and Financial Only Management – each customizable to best serve its Client Associations.

What is Trestle’s Full Management Service?

With Full Management Services, Trestle provides proactive financial and management services for its Client Associations within their strategy, guidelines, and approvals. Trestle becomes the regular interface to membership, freeing the Board to focus on the planning, projects, and activities they want Trestle to accomplish on their behalf throughout the year.

Clients have access to Trestle’s comprehensive My-Community Web Portal, and work with an experience Community Association Manager within a Practice tailored to their community. Board Members enjoy the support of a knowledgeable Manager who provides guidance, manages the Association’s financial obligations, oversees maintenance projects, coordinates, and prepares meetings, conducts site reviews and compliance enforcement, addresses architectural requests and more. This option allows a Board to be involved in their community while working with a trusted partner to oversee the timely execution of the Association’s obligations.

What is Trestle’s Management On-Demand Service?

Trestle provides proactive financial management of its Management On-Demand communities within their guidelines and approvals at a fixed monthly charge. Trestle serves as the regular interface to their membership, freeing the Board to implement planning, projects, and activities they want to accomplish throughout the year, while providing an experienced assigned manager who is available and chargeable only when they need additional help—on-demand property management services can save associations money while still providing the services and back-up they need.

With an assigned Community Association Manager and access to Trestle’s My-Community Web Portal, Management On-Demand clients get the services they need most while maintaining the ability to use Trestle’s other resources, such as maintenance management, site inspections, investment guidance, and insurance and risk management, at an hourly rate when needed.

What is Trestle’s Financial Only Management Service?

With Trestle’s Financial-Only Management program, Trestle provides financial services for its Clients’ communities within their guidelines and approvals. The Board serves as the regular interface to their membership for total control and the Board implements planning, projects, and activities they want to accomplish throughout the year.

Trestle’s Financial Only Management option is perfect for cost-conscious communities interested in retaining a financial expert to ensure invoices are paid in a timely manner, assessments are collected when due and audit-ready financials are prepared on a recurring schedule. Board Members can rely on a knowledgeable assigned Community Association Manager to provide guidance and distribute accurate resale documentation to buyers and sellers.

What are Trestle’s Management Practices?

In order to best meet the needs of its Client Associations, Trestle has created specialized Practice Areas. Each Practice is dedicated to a specific Client-type. Through this model, Clients receive a high level of service provided by a devoted and specialized Team of experts.

Trestle has six dedicated Practice Areas:

How Does Trestle Support its Clients?

To best serve its Client Associations, Trestle has established partnerships both inside and outside of the community management industry. Through these well-nurtured working relationships, Trestle has identified trustworthy service providers. Proactively anticipating the future needs of Washington state’s community associations, Trestle has also established relationships which allow it to access industry-leading technologies. These partnerships allow Trestle to implement exclusive and advanced technologies, meeting and exceeding its Clients’ needs. The value of these efforts is passed along to its Client Associations as they access vetted and dependable service providers and the most advanced services in the industry through Trestle.

Trestle understands the value of Board Member and Homeowner education, and as such, has prepared its own educational ongoing offerings. Trestle began releasing live Webinars and Webinars On-Demand for community members in 2021. An overwhelmingly positive response has shown the value in extending accessible resources to Clients. Through the full deployment of Trestle’s My-Community Web Portal, the firm provides comprehensive access to endless resources including its webinars, detailed management reports, and user-friendly services for architectural request processing, compliance monitoring, and more.

Trestle continuously invests in Team education and skill building. All of the firm’s Team Members attend continuing education courses offered inside and outside of the industry as well as conferences and educational seminars on an ongoing basis. Trestle approaches education holistically, ensuring that all Team Members are well-versed on the intricacies of the community association management services industry.

Through this approach, the firm holds one of the highest number of prestigious community association management credentials in Washington State including the Certified Manager of Community Associations (CMCA), Association Management Specialist (AMS) and Professional Manager of Community Associations (PCAM) designations.

Connecting with Trestle

In addition to Trestle’s website, the firm regularly connects on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter.

Please contact Bob Brencic, CMCA, AMS, MBA, President of Trestle Community Management, at Bob@TrestleCM.com or (425) 454-6404 for additional details.          

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