With Eye Toward the Future, The Management Trust Invests in Tech, Diversification

By Lynette Bertrand, Communications Manager, CACM

Bill Sasser launched his career in community management in 1986, joining Transpacific Management, a company his father started 10 years earlier. Just two years later, he suddenly found himself in a leadership role when his father passed away. He remembers gathering the entire company around a conference room table to let them know–less than 20 employees at the time.

Thirty five years later—after navigating multiple mergers, acquisitions, an ownership change to an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) in 2005 and 18 months later, the merger of Transpacific, CDC Management (Washington), Northwest Community Management (Oregon), Kocal Management Group (Northern California), Goetz Manderley (Central California), and Monarch Management Group (California desert) into The Management Trust—Sasser, now CEO, leads a company that employs hundreds and serves community associations in Arizona, California, Colorado, Oregon, Washington and Nevada.

He admits that while the services the company provides are the same – holding board meetings, preparing financial statements, conducting site reviews – the tools have changed, and the way the company services its customers has evolved.

“This industry is harder than ever,” he said. “The consumer has changed. We approach the business from the perspective of the consumer and why they’re grumpier than ever.”

This grumpiness is something he attributes to a decline in social capital – what he defines as trust, reciprocity, engagement and mutual respect in how people relate to each other.

“The result of cultural, social and technological changes is that we don’t want each other as much anymore and we don’t give the same value to relationships,” he said. “My main thrust at the company is to focus on the experiential aspect as well as tactical aspect. Too often our industry has been focused on the tactical and not the experiential aspects of what we do … we’ve defined ourselves by violation letters we send rather than the service we can provide our clients.”

One new way The Management Trust is addressing the customer experience is through technology, ironically. The company is rolling out an automated process through which homeowners can text requests and questions and receive immediate answers. The artificial intelligence product is called “Text Trusty,” and is a homeowner’s digital assistant.

“While that seems on the surface to be contrary to forging relationships and creating social capital, the intent is to create an experience on one level for the immediate need to allow staff to develop a relationship on issues that require it—a more complex need,” Sasser said. “We’re not so frantically working to try to get off the phone.

“If you see the nature of requests, they’re usually something the homeowner needs now and doesn’t want to have to send an email or call to leave a voicemail,” he added. “At the same time it creates a friction-less experience for information they need right now and calms things down in our world.”

“Trusty” would answer simple queries like what’s my account balance, when’s the next board meeting, how do I reserve the club house or how do I get a parking pass. Programmed with conversational language, “Trusty” even uses emojis in its responses. If “Trusty” can’t answer the question, it elevates the request to the assigned community manager or customer service representative for that property. “Trusty” also learns from every interaction.

The AI program is already live in communities The Management Trust services in Arizona, Colorado and Nevada markets and Sasser said the company is in the process of rolling it out in Washington and Southern California in the coming months. With about six months running, it’s catching on gradually as usage increases. What if any impact it will have on the company’s bottom line is still to be seen, but Sasser’s hope is that ultimately this technology will offer a better experience for The Management Trust’s customers as well as its staff.

Sasser said The Management Trust is still growing and making opportunities for growth to happen. Already this year, it opened a new office serving Reno, Nevada, acquired Advanced Association Management Services in Ventura, California, and Sasser’s team is eyeing other acquisitions in markets like Oregon and Nevada.

Outside of acquisitions, he sees diversification of services as key to growth over the next five to 10 years. The Management Trust has already taken steps in that direction hiring from the hospitality industry and expanding its services to include event planning, human resources support, I.T. support, country club operations, facilities maintenance, food and beverage operations, branding and concept development, spa operations and seasonal resident home care among other services.

“A diversification of services offered by management companies is an economic necessity to battle commoditization,” Sasser said.

In his view, one of the industry’s biggest challenges right now is the downward pressure on management fees as a result of commoditization and a highly price-competitive market. This not only affects company margins but also the ability to recruit and engage new people in this business, he said. “Those two issues go hand in hand and that’s an existential threat to the industry,” he added.

“A diversification of services offered by management companies is an economic necessity to battle commoditization.”

Despite these challenges, and his lifelong career in community management, Sasser continues to search for and develop creative ways to grow and add value to the business. And employees are part of that process, too.

“Business is a game of chess and you’re always planning a couple of moves ahead,” he said. “One thing I always do is try to understand outside influences and how they affect internal operations.”

It’s something he also encourages his employeeowners to do. He asks staff to review the news and in groups discuss how current events affect The Management Trust and what the company should do to respond.

“We encourage staff to scan the horizon and understand the big picture and understand how it impacts us,” he said. “Our success is everybody’s success. We go to great lengths to help them understand – here’s the company, how their individual role affects the office, the division and organization, how The Management Trust grows and succeeds, and how ESOP value is created.”

Bill Sasser, CEO of The Management Trust, is one of the founding members of CACM. He served as chair of the association from 1999-2000. He recently spoke to CACM about today’s challenges, how the company is evolving and where he sees The Management and the industry headed.