Date: Wednesday, February 29 at 12:00pm EST

Presenters: Matt Brogie, Owner of Mobility CIO  •  Tim Curran, CEO of Vela Systems  •  Lisa Panzenhazen, Medical Leasing & Property Manager of Kirco

Building Operations in Your Pocket

Must-have mobile strategies for modern real estate organizations

Mobility has become an essential component of efficient building operations. Real estate organizations that provide property managers and field personnel with mobile access to applications and wireless data are more productive, deliver better customer service, schedule more timely maintenance, and respond more nimbly to changes in their operating environment. Learn more.

In this free webinar for senior management and operations executives, our panelists will share how to utilize mobile technologies to:

• Alleviate key business pressures: reduce costs, maximize worker efficiency, and increase the longevity of capital assets
• Improve tenant service by proactively monitoring tenant needs and addressing them quickly through mobile technology
• Maximize Productivity

In the property management and building operations space, management is expected to be out there with tenants- not tied to their desk- answering questions and solving problems in real time.

-Matt Brogie, Owner of Mobility CIO

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 An out of date services listing?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.

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

Get the most out of every tenant meeting!

Creating a great tenant experience that builds loyalty and fosters retention is essential in today’s economic climate. Yet, measuring tenant satisfaction is tricky and often requires a three-pronged attempt:

1. Formal measurement through surveys
2. Informal face-to-face interaction
3. Proactive, scheduled tenant meetings

Explores the key ways you can utilize tenant meetings and measure satisfaction to get informed, improve satisfaction, and preserve income.

Read the full article: Happy Tenants, Healthy Building!

Use tenant meetings as an opportunity to showcase your service. Point out any services that might have been extended at no cost and as a courtesy beyond the scope of the lease.

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**Remember** The most effective retention plans are proactive and documented!

Learn how Building Engines can help you improve tenant service.

Ever taken advice from a candlestick? Odds are, your service can’t hold a candle to that of Beauty and The Beast’s Lumière. Afterall, how often do you urge tenants, “put our service to the test!”

That is the one major, elastic characteristic tenants consider when looking for a space: exceptional service. My advice for keeping tenants in your building is to leverage the factors you can control: service response time and quality.

You don’t need to sing and dance for tenants à la Lumière, but you do need to respond to their service requests. Here’s how to maximize the process:

Insights from industry expert Patrick Braswell:

Video (2:08): Improving Responsiveness to Tenant Requests

Presented by Patrick Braswell, Tenant Representation Specialist

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Want more? Read Improving Responsiveness to Tenant Requests. If that doesn’t work, try the gray stuff – it’s delicious.

Visit our website for more information on tenant retention strategies, managing  service response times or bringing your program online.

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.

It’s four days into the new year. Maybe you’ve already made  your resolutions, maybe you’ve already broken them, maybe the only resolution you care about is measured in pixels. Regardless, here’s one for business-sakes it would pay to heed: Improving responsiveness to tenant requests.

Here’s why:

Tenant Service is Elastic.

Service response time plays a key role in determining the involvement tenants have with a building manager. Longer waits and slower responses lead to an overall negative experience and vice versa. Being the most controllable aspect of any building, the speed of service with which a building manager can successfully complete required tasks, could make or break a tenant relationship.

This stems directly from two things. First, the rate at which an owner must charge a tenant more or less cannot be changed. Second, the location of the building will not change no matter how much you may want it to. This leaves one major, elastic characteristic tenants consider when looking for space to rent: the service provided.

Why do Tenants Choose to Stay?

Here’s How:

Be Effective, B-E- Effective (Automate)

Service must be provided efficiently and effectively. One of the major issues today with responsiveness falls back to the owner. Whether the tenant cannot get in touch with the building manager, or the building manager has not made available an effective means of solving issues, the tenant rarely is the one at fault. See if your company is putting its best face forward with effective customer service.

Allowing tenants the ability to submit work orders easily only quickens the response time. Automation, therefore, becomes crucial. Implementing a system where tenants have the ability to electronically submit service requests allows them to save time, which subsequently leads to a better experience.

Don’t Just Have a System, Use It!

Many things can be fixed quickly, and consequently should. Requiring someone to call the maintenance office every time a light bulb goes out never proves to be an efficient way of handling a situation. Automation is great, but it does not work if no one knows about it. Tenants need to be informed about the utilities they have access to in order to make the most of them. Simply having an online system is not enough if no one uses it. In order to effectively and efficiently vanquish service requests, the tools available to tenants must be used.

Find Out How Your Service Stacks Up

Know where your service level stands compared to that of your peers and industry top performers. What are other property owners and managers offering that you could adopt? What response times and service performance are standard? Take Building Engines Service Responsiveness Benchmark Survey for a compilation report identifying Best Practices you may want to consider.

Want more? Read about How to Rock Occupancy with Technology!

In our last survey, only 22% of respondents reported occupancy levels above 90%. Odds are, most property managers and owners could use a lesson on the components of tenant retention and attraction. In the age of echo-boomers, digital natives and social media mavens, the strategic application of technology is a key component to maintaining and raising occupancy levels.

While the primary factors of location and price are significant, they are not as easy to control as service and technology. For most CRE firms and properties, there are some essential technological tools that will aid their ability to  retain and attract tenants.

Following our recent spot as a panelist in Realcomm’s recent webinar Tenants, Tenants, Tenants – Using Technology to Maximize Occupancy, we decided to share a summary of recommendations for using web-based tools to fill a building. With the time-sensitive professional in mind, we compiled the webinar’s highlights into an Executive Summary!

Executive Summary (1:34)

Using Technology to Maximize Occupancy

As one of Realcomm’s panelists, Building Engines’ Scott Sidman summarizes his recommendations for using technology to maximize occupancy:

For your Tenant Retention Efforts:

1. Automate as many of your day-to-day operational practices as you can through web-based tools.

2. Apply a strategic objective to their use. One possible goal: tenant retention through responsive service.

3. Set clear targets and use your tools to measure performance against those targets.

4. Make that information easily accessible organization-wide and transparent to your tenants. The culture of service and accountability will pay tremendous dividends.

5. Use communications and data collection tools like Surveys and CRM applications to aid in meeting preparation and data driven decisions based on real tenant need.

For your Tenant Attraction Efforts:

1. Develop a social media and content strategy. Align brokerage and management through managed use of LinkedIn and blogging.

2. Re-think your website, or build one. It is an external and internal sales tool. Make it interactive, engaging and consistent with clear messaging.

3. Create new positions (e.g. content manager or social media strategist) or distribute tasks. This will require an acceptance of change management.

4. Foster a top-down organizational commitment to leveraging technology effectively.

5. Start with objectives, create the strategy and measure everything you can.

For more tenant retention see the steps in our Tenant Retention Strategy!

In a recent sample, 83% of Building Engines clients considered tenant responsiveness a market differentiator. How does your responsiveness stack up to that of your peers and industry top performers? Take the Building Engines Service Responsiveness Benchmark Survey and receive a compilation report aggregating responses and identifying Best Practices you may want to consider.

This 5 minute survey will provide comparative analytics to help you answer and understand:

• How your performance compares with other property owners and managers
• Where your perception of the value of responsiveness relates to others
• If response time standards should be set and included in the lease SLAs
• Real data on performance standards you may want to adopt