525,600 minutes,

525,000 moments so dear.

525,600 minutes

How do you measure, measure your response time?

Unfortunately, few will appreciate it if you try to measure response time in love. Like most people, the higher ups, prospects, and tenants like to hear numbers – real numbers. This makes maintaining accurate response time metrics is a high priority for most property managers.

Let’s take minute to think about this. Are you certain your data is truly representative of what is happening in the field? Unless your engineers are updating their work orders at the time of their work, there is a good chance your data is not as accurate as it could be.

Turkey's red flag

In order for a response time report to be truly representative of what is happening in the field, the engineer overseeing the work order needs to be updating it in close proximity to their actions. Unfortunately, teleportation still hasn’t been invented [NASA, what have you been up too??] and in the real world, property managers frequently bear witness to a complex work order progressing from new to complete in a matter of minutes. This should raise a flag redder than Turkey’s.

This all too common scenario is typical of an engineer who has waited to update their work orders until the end of the day. In all reality, unless you’ve provided your engineer with a viable way to stay on top of their workload, and maintain accurate times for their work, can you really blame them?

This is where the mobile application comes into play. If your engineers currently have smartphones, than there is little barrier to spot on metrics. Recent advancements in smartphone application technology have given engineers the ability to regularly update work orders, see the latest comments, and receive new work orders, all in real time. This enables not only productivity**, but also quick work order turnaround and accurate metrics.

So forget Rent’s “in daylight, in sunsets, in midnights, in cups of coffee,” measure in real time – with mobile!

**So long as users resist Words With Friends

Like Rent references? There’s more where that came from: Echo-Boomers’ Booming Impact on Rental

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

It’s a new year and new you – with the same needs to enhance operations and customer service. As we shelf 2011 and delve into 2012, here’s a look back at our most popular educational content and resources from the past year.

The top topics enjoyed by your peers:

Checklist: Implementing a Successful Emergency Response Plan

How ready are you for an emergency? How do you track and document incidents? What sort of emergency preparedness training do your employees have? When was the last time you practiced a tabletop exercise? Time to assess your readiness?

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Webinar Executive Summary: From an Owner & Investor- Metrics That Matter

Senior Real Estate Investor, Timothy Donahoe shares his perspective on identifying key areas for metrics and visibility to mitigate risk and enhance investor returns. Watch the full webinar or just the highlights of Donahoe’s insights into quantifiable operational performance metrics. Take measures to measure!

CRE Quick Take: Proving Your Value to Your Manager, Owners, Clients… and Yourself!

This article shows you how to keep all your balls in the air AND prove your value to the owner, interested in the highest return from the property, and your tenants, interested in the best service and value for their money.

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Building Engines Kit: Tenant Retention

Is your tenant retention program building loyalty and increasing retention? Does it accurately document tenant meetings, service requests and other important state-of-the-tenant information:? Download the Building Engines Tenant Retention Kit and start assessing your level of tenant service today!

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Get ready for the year to come!

Register free for the 2012 Real Estate Operations Masters Series and receive automatic registration for webinars, on-demand content, and best practices on a variety of operations topics.

The Einstein Principle:

Accomplish More By Doing Less

Einstein’s theory of relativity was born from a work ethic principled on narrowing one’s focus (for him this unfortunately left out distractions like hygiene, social decorum and his wife). Property owners and managers should take a page from his book (no, not The Evolution of Physics). They should re-engineer their processes to allow them to focus their attention on select meaningful and productive pursuits.

Today, even the best property managers and owners likely aren’t developing one of the greatest achievements of the past century, but they are being more selective with with their endeavors. OK, so they don’t want to spend their time juggling, but what to do with the other balls?

The most successful organizations select a technology partner to provide the critical information, systems, and support competencies that are not central to a property management organization. Enabling technologies help companies accomplish more with fewer resources, improve service levels, attract and retain tenants, manage assets more effectively, and lower business and financial risk.

The adoption of information collection and reporting tools allows managers the time to apply their skill and experience to more meaningful tenant interactions, decision making, outreach, and brand management. Just don’t pull an Einstein and forget to wear socks.

Maybe you’re better than others. Do you know it and how can you show it? Maybe you’ve some catch-up to do in key operational areas. Do you know where and how you should improve?

Get off the bench and get on the benchmarking track! Being a competitive player in CRE demands a comparative analysis of your performance to both that of your peers and best practices in the field. Luckily, we’ve the equipment to start your warm up!

There’s an easy way to measure and benchmark your operational performance. We’ve created a short benchmark survey  that allows for property management professionals to assess their performance across several operational areas and receive immediate feedback based on their responses. Take ten minutes to complete the Operational Assessment Survey and instantly receive a personalized Benchmark Report.

More importantly, you will gain a better understanding of your property’s processes compared to real estate operational best practices. Where do you shine, and where do you need some polishing?

Benchmark the state of your operations for:

1. Tenant Service & Satisfaction
2. Maintenance & Assets
3. Risk Management & Exposure to Liability
4. Online Real Estate Operations

Start the Operations Assessment Survey!

Like the topic? You may also be interested in:

• ON MANAGEMENT: Where Do We Go to Find Best Practices?
• ON MANAGEMENT: 10 Steps to Simple Benchmarking
• Keeping Some Metrics up your Sleeve: 5 Questions you Should Ask
  

Before you can answer the question, “How is my property performing?” you need to ask a few questions. An understanding of property performance is rooted in operational data that is documented, visible, and accessible. However, collecting and managing this data can often feel like searching for the Holy Grail, and wholly fail.

To satisfy and attract investors and tenants, develop easily consumed data around the areas of operations you should have insight into. But first, figure out what those areas are.

Here are the 5 questions about operational metrics you should ask:

Besides the obvious and easy to identify occupancy and retention/renewal numbers, how do you understand underlying indicators such as Tenant satisfaction?

This may encompass accessing and assessing information around your property’s:

• Management team
• Services performed
• Quality of the environment
• Amenities
• History of tenant activities and interactions

How do you assess and understand whether your management team is properly managing operational risk?

Assess your property’s level of:

• Planning and documentation processes for access to information from any location
• Information organization to ensure the ability to defend in the event of a legal matter
• Active certificates of insurance for all tenants and service providers
• Compliance with all life safety requirements (code compliance, inspections, documentation, etc.)
• Reduced insurance costs through a pro-active risk management program

How well is my asset and the equipment being maintained?

Your operational data should reveal that:

• Maintenance is documented
• Access to that information is easily available
• Capital planning is associated with maintenance activities
• The long-term capital effects of deferred maintenance are known
  
• There is NNN tenant compliance with maintenance requirements
• There is a noticeable reduction in energy costs with increased scheduled/preventative maintenance
• The amount of work performed by on-staff personal vs. outsourced service providers is documented
  

How do I receive information on the operational performance of my property?

Ensure that there is:

• Consistency and a standard format
• Frequency of information
• Enough information at a high level to clearly show the data that matters
  

How is one property comparatively performing in key areas?

Analyze how a property is performing in comparison to:

• Other properties in the management portfolio
• Other like-properties using a similar system
• Internally set targets of performance, including ownership target objectives
• Accepted industry standards

To hear an owner and investor’s perspective on the Metrics That Matter, sign up for a free webinar!

Date: Tuesday, October 25th, 12:00pm – 1:00pm EST

Register Now!

From an Owner & Investor: Metrics That Matter

Quantifying operational performance for CRE’s new reality!

Date: Tuesday, October 25th, 12:00pm – 1:00pm EST

Guest Speaker: Timothy Donahoe, Senior Real Estate Investment Adviser

Peter Drucker’s modern management principle says it all: “If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it.” With a greater demand for accountability from management teams comes a new emphasis on quantifiable operational performance metrics.

Join us as senior real estate investment professional, Timothy Donahoe, shares his perspective on identifying key areas for metrics and visibility to mitigate risk and enhance investor returns. Learn more!

In 20 minutes, learn how to understand and assess:

•   The key areas of business you may not be measuring
•   Underlying indicators of operational health
•   Management of operational risk
•   Delivery of property performance information
•   and more insights!

“Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.” – French Proverb.

Interesting article in the Wall Street Journal this week about information monopolies, how they grow, how powerful they are and how long they can last.  By way of background, it looks as though we are in the grip of several emerging  monopolies (a single entity dominating an industry, vertical or channel) – think of Microsoft, Facebook, LinkedIn or Google, or oligopolies (a few entities) – Verizon, AT+T, Sprint in the wireless space.  These have grown very rapidly, fueled by the expansion of the Web and wireless networks and developed incredible market dominance.

“Do away with Google? Break up Facebook? We can’t imagine life without them—and that’s the problem.”*

These network monopolies get their traction for a three reasons:

1. They leverage disruptive technology that leapfrogs existing channels;
2. The power of their network increases exponentially as it grows; and
3. Once at critical mass, they are very hard to dislocate.

We have examples of this through history, notably the penny post, launched in 1680 in England, Western Union (The telegraph) and the venerable “Ma Bell” (AT+T), which ran the telephone service in America from 1914 until its breakup in 1984.  Those of us over 50 will remember the simple telephones, originally black, then available in a few non-colors (wow, that’s innovation!) that you rented from the telephone company – you didn’t own them.  Of these, the oldest survive as the government run postal service – 330 years old and still going strong.  Not bad for an old geezer!

These information monopolies can last a very long time and frequently are impediments to innovation.  The Wall Street Journal article notes that:  “In the 1930s, AT+T took the strangely Luddite measure of suppressing its own invention of magnetic recording, for fear it would deter use of the telephone.”
Now think about some of the technology that you work with day to day:1. Operating system on your PC or Laptop – Microsoft has a 92.2% share of this market2. Wireless – Three companies have this market locked up and voice and data rates in North America are some of the highest in the world3. Social networks – Facebook has 500 MM users; if it were a country it would be the third largest in the world (after China and India)4. Your local cable TV provider – I haven’t heard anyone that has anything good to say about it.

The growth of these monopolies has been masked in part by the rapid pace of technological change in the last 20 years. Facebook didn’t exist seven years ago, high speed Internet access, something we now consider essential at home and in the office, really only got going nine years ago and, when I got into business in the late ’80s,  my PC ran off dual floppies, had a bright green screen and was very, very, very slow.

What does this mean for you and me?  Well, in part, you should take what techno pundits say about the glorious benefits that will accrue with technological change with a grain of salt.  Technology and change can be amazing but are best when served in a bed of stiff competition.  Competition may not be the only answer – sometimes government or the courts have to step in and break things up (e.g. AT+T) – but it can help.  It is interesting to see how Microsoft is acting more and more like a utility (a classic, old line monopoly, paying dividends), and is losing ground in its core market (productivity applications) to Google and isn’t sure about how to react to this.

And, let’s hope that, in 10 years, we are not all using Facebook’s version of the old black land line telephone.

*In the Grip of the New Monopolists, Wall Street Journal. N0vember 13, 2010.