Building & Facilities Operations

The Tenant Commandments

So your company signed a ho-hum SLA with your tenants. It outlines the level of services that are expected and details around your company’s standards to preserve and maintain the property and its related services to the occupants. You’ve set the parameters of your responsibilities and deliverables and the tenant is reassured and content to enter an agreement. Sounds like the basis for a good and fruitful partnership, no? Not if you can’t guarantee all those services you outlined are being met.

Think about this: if a tenant asked for data proving that you’re meeting expectations, could you produce it? Unless you have a robust work order system in place, and a staff who takes it seriously, then probably not.

Typically after the lease is signed, most property managers don’t give it much thought unless they notice a decline in tenant satisfaction, or worse, fewer lease renewals. Unfortunately, by this time a substantial amount of damage has been done. There isn’t much that can be said that will undo the negative impression your tenant may have of your staff’s actions (or lack thereof).

Perhaps the SLA outlines a timeline for responding to occupant concerns. Our Service Responsiveness Survey indicated that 74% of the “top performers” in property management have set standards or performance targets for responsiveness and completion times. Yet, far fewer actually track response and completion times, and even fewer take informed action based off that data.

So what can be done? How can you put the SLA in SLAM DUNK?

1. You can start by implementing a real-time, highly configurable work order system.

2. You can improve that by finding one that is actually easy to use and can provide that extra layer of insight.

3. Don’t stop there – proactively measure and analyze the information the system provides you.

4. Using dashboards and rich reporting, assess your service quality and operational performance.

5. Now it’s time to answer: How well are you meeting your SLAs?

Mobile technology has come a long way.

32% of employees around the world rely on more than one mobile device during the typical workday. Modern real estate organizations have dialed into this opportunity. The burgeoning mobile face of building operations has got us mobilizing – on gathering educational content to help the on-the-go professional define and implement a successful mobile program.

Learn how building operations teams are picking up the “phone” to improve service, equipment maintenance, worker efficiency and response time with our latest and greatest in mobility resources to improve building operations.

The Top 5 Resources to Get Your Team Mobile

1. Video (8:11)

Mobile Operations: The Future of Mobile

Mat Brogie of MobilityCIO forecasts the future of mobility, exploring voice-based systems, location and proximity awareness, inter-device communication and HTML5.

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2. Microsite

Mobile Strategies for Modern Real Estate

View the complete Building Operations in Your Pocket webinar presentation, bonus videos, a whitepaper on Wireless Operations, resource links, and more on mobility!

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3. Video (8:41)

Mobile Operations: Comparing Devices

You’re thinking of going mobile. You need to know which device to choose for your team and where mobility is going. Watch MobilityCIO’s Mat Brogie discuss mobile trends and compare devices.

4. Blog Post

4 Areas Mobility Will Impact Your Business Operations

The goal of a mobile strategy is to make teams and workers more efficient and effective with their operations, but before you start yelling Kanye’s “Stronger” lyrics at your team, think about how mobility will specifically impact the different areas of business operations by reviewing the four places mobile solutions can help improve operations.

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5. On-Demand Webinar (47:21):

Building Operations in Your Pocket

In this complimentary webinar, three panelists share their insights into defining and implementing successful mobile programs for better service, improved equipment maintenance, and efficient operations.

Want to stay connected to critical building information at any time? Take a walk through Building Engines’ Mobile Platform.

HTML5 is to mobile applications what Jackson 5 was to Motown – pretty jazzy. Web applications have been written in HTML or derivatives of HTML for years now, but HTML5 is busting onto the scene as the latest and greatest in development standards.

What’s so great about it?  Its enhancements allow web applications to look, act and behave more like a native application than ever before. Maybe that doesn’t mean much to you, but don’t Blame it on the Brogie: we recently spoke with MobilityCIO’s Matt Brogie to get the breakdown of why HTML5 matters to CRE professionals.

First, wipe that quizzical look off your face. Here’s an easy explanation of web-based vs. native applications for mobile devices:

A native-application, or onboard application, is an application created for a specific mobile device and then downloaded to that device. It runs on that device whether or not you have internet connectivity.

A web-based application, or browser-based application, is exactly like a web application you would use on your desktop computer. It runs somewhere in the cloud and can be accessed from any internet connected device – iPhone, Android, Blackberry, tablet, you name it.

And now, from the wisdom of Matt Brogie, here are HTML5’s Four Major Mobile Advances for CRE:

1. CSS Styling

HTML5 has better styling than a Beverly Hills salon. HTML5 helps to standardize the user interface across multiple devices. Whether you’re on an iPhone, Android or Blackberry, you can use an HTML5 based application that functions identically across all of those platforms. HTML5 homogenizes the experience across all the devices, creating a unprecedented standard for user interface.

What does this mean for your team? There are fewer training and adoption issues for web-based applications on mobile devices. Now how to get HTML5 for puppies…

2. Onboard Storage

Nice for a flight, nice for a mobile device. HTML5 gives you the ability to have data stored locally on your device through the browser. If you lose your internet or network connection from your phone, the application isn’t just dead in the water.

Up until HTML5, there was no way for a web application to store information locally on the mobile device. Now with HTML5, you can store data locally so when you do have an internet connection, you have access to whatever is on the back end. You can pull information for service calls, for example, and store it locally on your phone or tablet. Thus, if you lose your internet connection, you can still process against that locally stored data and the application lives on!

3. GEO Location Support- “The Machine Knows”

You know that scene from The Office where Michael follows the GPS directions into a lake? Well, in most cases, GPS’s help you keep your head above water. GEO location support gives the web-based application access to location components and other tools on your phone – such as storage or a GPS reader.

Imagine a worker standing 30 feet from a piece of equipment that is three months overdue for its service. With access to GPS, the worker’s phone and application is aware of its surroundings and can beep, text and text-to-speech until its owner is too. Now you can finally know where you stand!

4. Extended Video and Audio Support

No one wants to rely on a third party when they don’t have to, and the same is true for streaming video and audio. Extended video and audio support without third party components is emerging very quickly in the HTML5 standard.

For a property management organization, this means that training videos, for example, can stream down to people’s phones through a basic web application. Send or watch a video of instructions for performing service on a complex piece of equipment without worrying what kind of phone the viewer is using.

In sum, the advances HTML5 gives to web-based applications brings them to a level where the experience is as good as a native application.  When you take all the other benefits of web-based applications and pile it together, it exceeds the need for native applications. Decision Makers take note: because of the advances in HTML, web-based applications will likely overtake native applications, like Jackson 5 and the charts.

Watch Matt Brogie discuss more mobile trends and forecasts in this clip from our recent webinar, Building Operations in Your Pocket:

The Future of Mobile (8:11)

There is an endless limit (oxymoron?) to the specific mobile capabilities that you can bring into the building management space. However, you can’t just drop a piece of technology into someones hands, say: “faster, better!” and expect optimal results. A better approach is to consider the role perspectives and how mobility can solve your problems based on the business need and the business function.

The goal of a mobile strategy is to make teams and workers more efficient and effective with their operations, but before you start yelling Kanye’s “Stronger” lyrics at your team, think about how mobility will specifically impact the different areas of business operations.

Here are the four places mobile solutions can help improve operations:

1. Tenant Management

A property manager walking the floor may need to answer questions that come to him from a tenant. Instead of having to make a phone call or go back to the office to respond to the tenant, he can go right into his tenant management system from a tablet based application that he carries around with him. Mobile device in hand, he can answer questions about lease details, work orders, building schedules, etc. without having to get back to the tenant later on.

This provides a higher level of service to the tenant and fewer “tied fingers” for the property manager. It leaves an impression on the tenant that management knows what’s going on and has their finger on the pulse (or at least the touch screen).

2. Incident Tracking

The property manager is out on the floor again when there is a slip and fall in the lobby (darn that stylish slipper-mop combination footware!). The property manager can get that recorded and documented in real time using mobile technology. He can also notify the necessary people for that particular incident. The ability to document critical information and notify others wirelessly and through mobile applications enhances the process for addressing the issue and getting resolution quickly.

3. Service Request & Maintenance Management

One of the key areas where you will see the most dollar savings is in service request and maintenance management. Now there is a maintenance worker out on the floor. She can get notified of new emergency situations requiring immediate attention as they come up or get a continuous listing of maintenance service items that need to be completed.

The associated paperwork that comes with service and maintenance records can be completed on a mobile application, reducing the amount of time she needs to spend sitting at a desk at the end of the day, completing forms. In turn, she now can reduce her amount of overtime and sign up for that after-work Jazzercize class she’s been eyeing.

4. Work Distribution

A few years ago, it was very common for maintenance workers to have to walk up to a central location and go to a printer or fax machine to pick up service tickets. Once they picked up that service ticket, they would go to manage whatever needed to be managed about that ticket.

Now, when they’re mobile-enabled, the work can be electronically sent to them, at which point they can decide if they are too busy and reassign the task to someone else or bump it back up to a supervisor to reassign. This allows for work to be put into the hands of someone who can quickly get that work done. As response time decreases and efficiency increases, it helps building management organizations comply with service level agreements that they may have in place on a lease.

See what a mobile strategy can mean for your real estate organization in Building Engines’ free, On-Demand Webinar: Building Operations in Your Pocket.

Every field and occupation comes with its set of preconceptions and stereotypes. Yfrog gives a visual break down of the various impressions of the glamorous profession that is Commercial Real Estate:

If this seems like an accurate reflection of what your customers think you do, here’s a lesson on romancing your tenants.

If society’s impression of you is something like George Costanza’s father, you might want to work on your presence in the media.

If what you’re really doing is holding your head in your hands, it’s time to take the Einstein approach to property & tenant management.

You’re on your own with winning mom’s approval.

Do you know the Fiery Five? No, they don’t occupy an attractive, elite table in cafeteria, but checking them out will be much more rewarding. They represent our latest and greatest in educational resources to help you properly assess and optimize your Fire & Life Safety systems. Not lighting your fire? The importance of Fire & Life Safety improvements can be summed up in four words: property loss and occupant injury.

The Fiery 5 in Fire & Life Safety:

1. Video (1:38)

3 Must-Do Fire & Life Safety Activities

Peter Harrod of RJA outlines three important steps to take when assessing your Fire & Life safety system, features and compliance.

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2. Microsite

Assessing the Condition of Your Fire & Life Safety Systems

View the complete Conquering the Code webinar presentation, bonus videos, a sample Fire & Life Safety Assessment Report, resource links, and more Risk Management tools!

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3. Video (2:07)

Potential Costs of Not Following FLS Best Practices

Peter Harrod of RJA speaks to the risk involved when fire life safety due diligence isn’t achieved.

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4. Blog Post

10 Biggest Mistakes People Make with Fire & Life Safety Systems… And How to Avoid Them

Fire & Life Safety systems are in place because unplanned incidents and mistakes happen. Those mistakes shouldn’t be the way you use your system. See if you’re guilty of the 10 common mistakes building owners and managers make with their Fire & Life Safety systems.

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5. On-Demand Webinar (35:40):

Conquering the Code with Peter Harrod, Fire Protection Engineer at RJA

This complimentary webinar will share how to recognize deficiencies in your equipment, identify code violations, and plan the retroactive and forward thinking changes that will attract and retain tenants, mitigate risk and positively position your property for resale.

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Manage fire & life safety, visitor access, incidents, certificates of insurance and more with Building Engines Risk Management Tools.

Roses are red,

Violets are blue,

When occupancy is down,

So are you.

Feeling a little lonely in your building this Valentine’s Day? Not quite the tenant magnet you’d like to be? Experiencing unrequited love for your customers?

This Valentine’s Day, spend some time examining how to woo tenants into your building and build a deep and meaningful relationship with them. (Cue Tony Bennett music)

1. Look Online

Today’s tech-savvy tenants expect an online option to interact with building management. You should assume ALL your tenants are online, and that is where they like to do their research and get things done. According to Sirius Decisions, 70% of all B2B buying decisions are researched and made online before a company representative is ever involved. Tenant expectations have changed.   They expect property management to provide them with modern, online communication tools that mirror the way they do business- online and in real-time.

Additionally, you can and should control your online brand.  When prospective tenants search for your building online what do they see? Good reviews? Bad reviews? An out of date services listing?  CRE firms will help themselves  in the battle to attract tenants and keep them by embracing technology that enables them to find you, as well as following and controlling their brand online.  The brokerage side of the business has embraced this, and management should too – taking care to align information, messaging and tools between the two.

LinkedIn and Twitter are the eHarmony of property management. Tweets, status updates, and group discussions can position you as an industry expert and create another venue for tenants to reach you. Make a company LinkedIn page and encourage your employees to create a profile. Provide an internal process document that governs language to use on profiles so that they are consistent with the corporate page. Identify groups employees should belong to and the conversations they should monitor. Personal accounts on Twitter and LinkedIn create a more accessible and humanized image than a corporate profile alone.

Blogging is another way to attract and retain tenants.  While 40% of all companies utilize blogs, CRE has been much slower to adopt. Don’t count blogging out- it is a powerful tool to get in front of prospects, demonstrate your knowledge, build your brand, and give customers some lovin’.

2. Meet Their Expectations- Real-Time Access to Information and Service On-Demand

Don’t be a wallflower! Get yourself out there – be visible, transparent, and informative. We’ve already established that tenants are online, and that they expect to control access to information and make value judgments before ever picking up the phone to speak to you. Some of those value judgments are going to be related to how “tech savvy” you are as an organization and building/management team. Tenants also expect the option to interact with building management in real-time. The elements and tools you should have in place to help influence those judgments include:

• Corporate and Property websites: Your property website is the perfect place to make announcements, showcase building services and garner feedback
• Online Resource Scheduling: Enable your tenants to book conference rooms, elevators, and loading docks- freeing you from repetitive scheduling tasks and allowing you to focus on more valuable tenant interactions.
• Tenant Handbook: Bring your handbook and other building documents online. This will increase management visibility and improve occupant safety, service and communication.
• Visitor Access: Tenants in secure buildings expect to quickly and easily pre-authorize visitors for entry into the building and a have a real-time connection to the security guard check-in station in the lobby
• Online Work Order Management: Tenants want to be able to submit requests, access information and receive communications online (from a web browser or mobile device), quickly and easily. The availability of information and insight into progress ensures tenants feel better about the service they receive and professionalism of the property.
• Social Media presence: LinkedIn, Twitter, etc. (these provide an invaluable way to both personally interact with tenants, but also proactively take their pulse). Tools like dlvr.it and Hootsuite allow you to manage, sync and update your social media outlets.
• YouTube: Ever thought about showcasing videos of that fancy new lobby renovation? How about vacant space?

3. Master Communication

Communication is a two-way channel. A communication system includes both tools and philosophy. You need a way for tenants to communicate their issues, including a Tenant Service Request Work Order System. You also need a way to share building information, emergency notifications, and new initiatives or changes.

Here is how you should align your tenant communications with distinct systems and tools:

• Emergencies: Broadcast messaging, Emergency Messaging Systems
• Non-Emergency Events: Tenant Portals (property websites, tenant handbook, online building documents)
• Green Initiatives, Personnel Information, etc.: Blogs, Social Media
• Building Amenities, Instructions, Vacant Space: Video! YouTube

Email is not enough. A phone call two hours after a service request has been made is not enough.

4. Stay Connected – The Honeymoon Isn’t Over

Give your tenants a reason to renew their vows leases.

Proactively Monitor Tenant Satisfaction. Schedule, document and capture all visits and calls with the tenant contact on site and the lease renewal decision maker. All this information should be stored in a single location – a Property and Tenant management system allows for this capability. It is only valuable if it is easily retrieved and web-based.

Do smaller surveys. The annual Kingsley survey is fine, but you should utilize regular surveys to ask your tenants questions regarding service or decisions you are contemplating. Base decisions on data!

Provide outlets for feedback. People prefer to share information in a variety of ways and it’s important to try to accommodate them. Beyond phone calls and emails, think about things like community forums accessible through your corporate or building website, as well as live help or chat links from your website.

Feeling the love? Read more about Using Technology to Maximize Occupancy.

Would you listen to property management professionals who could boast over 90% occupancy in their buildings? We would and we did and we’re here to share our results!

We surveyed top performers in property & tenant management for their general beliefs, current processes and opinions of best practices around service responsiveness. What we found might surprise you!

It was no surprise that the vast majority of top performers consider tenant service and responsiveness a market differentiator – 92% agreed with that statement. Service responsiveness is not only critical to tenant retention and attraction, but also to protection against litigation. A fast response time means fast advice, fast action and fast damage mitigation. You know it’s important, so how do you now improve it?

From our compilation report and inspection of top performers, here are eight best practices demonstrated by the best-in-class buildings:

Get the full Service Responsiveness Benchmark Report for free with industry standards and best practices!

You may also be interested in:

Retaining with Responsiveness, Be Our Guest

Here’s a Resolution: Improve Responsiveness to Tenant Requests

How to Rock Occupancy with Technology

You heard it here first folks, the New England Patriots will win the super bowl this year…at least if historic Commercial Office Vacancy Rates have anything to say about it.

According to Bizmology, Jones Lang LaSalle claims that NFL teams are two-thirds more likely to win the Super Bowl if they are based in cities with a high percentage of empty office space. So while a city’s real estate may be depressed, it’s sports fans won’t be.

Just remember when making your winning pick this Sunday that commercial office vacancy rates are lower and have decreased in greater New York in Q4 2011 compared to the increased rate in Greater Boston. Oh, and I would also factor in Tom Brady’s knack for winning and perfect spiral too!

Go Pats!!

He may be on the sidelines, but he’s caught our attention! Property owners and managers, take note. Here’s 6 reasons why you should be like this ball boy:

1. He keeps all his balls in the air.

2. Talk about preparedness!

3. He has no problem with retention.

4. He’s all about good service and fast responsiveness.

5. He’s improved net operating [income].

6. With over 2 million YouTube hits in a day, he’s a social media marketing maven!

One way you should not emulate the ball boy: leave out the silly hat.

Watch him steal the spotlight from Nadal and R-Fed: