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 An out of date services listing?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.

Tenants, Tenants, Tenants

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Scott Sidman, VP Sales & Marketing

At the intersection of Commercial Real Estate, Corporate Real Estate, automation and technology, is Realcomm, showing CRE professionals how and why to integrate technology into their business. A proud panelist on Realcomm’s next webinar, Building Engines’ Scott Sidman, VP Sales & Marketing, will show examples of how technology can help attract new tenants, and keep the ones you’ve got.

WEBINAR DESCRIPTION:

With the real estate market problems far from being over, operators around the globe have been reintroduced to the concept of tight management. While decreasing expenses is important, keeping your space occupied takes on an even higher priority. Real estate companies are quickly learning that automation can play a key role in effectively managing and retaining existing tenants and can also be a success factor when competing for new tenants. Join us as Realcomm’s panelists discuss using technology to maximize occupancy!

You’re ready to lower operating costs and increase the value of your building. You feel the need, the need for LEED. Now, how do you get buy-in from your team?

LEED certification can be an extremely beneficial tool for a company.  While it can be a hassle to implement, especially in existing buildings, the benefits are plentiful and far-reaching.  Our newest on-demand webinar, LEED EBOM: 101: Essential Tips for the Greening of Existing Buildings, discusses how management should go about gaining LEED certification, and showcases the many positive effects LEED certification has on a building. But just because you recognize the benefits, doesn’t always mean you can realize them.

Here are the steps to build support for LEED Existing Buildings within your organization:

Communicate the Key Selling Points

LEED-EB is good for the environment, leads to tenant retention, reduces operating costs, is a marketing & branding tool, and offers low cost options for achieving sustainable performance.

Address Common Barriers to Implementing LEED

Be Prepared to acknowledge and address common concerns from your team such as:

• Lack of funding- LEED-EB can be done incrementally, is flexible, and offers credits that require little or no capital investment.
• Perception of Extra Expenses- LEED-EB helps solve building problems and reduce operating cost, resulting in saving that mitigate and often exceed the cost of implementing sustainability measures.
• Lack of Human Resources- LEED-EB certification offers flexibility to meet requirements through the efforts of internal staff, outsourcing, or by some combination of both. Gradual implementation means that you can start slowly at any time and kick the procedure into high gear once the time is right for your organization.

Educate Your Team & Increase Understanding of LEED-EB

LEED-EB is a new product from the USGBC. Lack of exposure to these concepts can be a barrier to its adoption. There are numerous resources that provide basic information to help you inform those around you about LEED-EB on the USGBC Web Site: www.usgbc.org.

For more practical information on the proper steps to gaining LEED certification, visit the LEED EBOM: 101 Resource Center. To learn how to manage energy more efficiently and reduce operating costs, check out The Green Spot.

People are busy, and not only their lifestyle, but their workstyle reflects that. A client, tenant, prospect, colleague are “on” so long as their phone is. Today, that is how you should expect to reach them.

Mobile’s multiple communication channels, burgeoning App marketplaces, usability, and well… mobility are why property professionals are increasingly turning to mobile devices for work, marketing, networking, tenant relations, and news. People want to complete tasks with a few clicks wherever they may be. See how Building Engines makes that possible with its mobile application.

Illustrating the trends of a mobile workstyle, here’s an infographic from Gist:

View more..

To learn about how a property management professional should use mobile technologies, watch The Impact of Mobile.

You want to keep tenants in your buildings. At least, if you care about NOI you do. Increased concessions and vacancy loss days come at a cost to your company. And with the ease and ubiquity of social sharing on the internet, happy tenants can equate to free marketing.

So here’s how to ensure that you are being tenant retentive. To optimize your tenant retention strategy, include these general items in your Tenant Retention Plan: (click here for the Checklist and complete Tenant Retention Kit)

A Friendly & Curteous Staff: All property management staff should operate in customer service mode all the time. Attire should be appropriate and staff development training opportunities should be ongoing and include maintenance, janetorial and security staff.

Rapid Response: Set up an online, automated system to respond to all tenant service requests and issues within 1-2 hours. Tenants should be able to track the status of all requests.

Surveys: Every six months, ask tenants to evaluate the property — ask about such matters as cleanliness, maintenance, exterior areas, amenities, noise, parking, and management.

Inspections: Schedule annual inspections to your tenants’ spaces. Make a point to find something small to repair or update during each inspection…especially if a rent increase is imminent.

Building Website: Create a tenant-facing website where tenants can schedule building resources, view building announcements, or access their Tenant Handbook and other building documents.

Preventative Maintenance: Set-up an aggressive, proactive PM Program. The less equipment breaks down, the more satisfied your tenants will be. A web-based property and operations management system can automate this process.

Energy Efficiency: Improve energy efficiency and then make sure to promote these operational savings to your tenants. I.e. “We installed X number of energy efficient lighbulbs in the building.” or “We saved X $ in energy costs this year.”

Tenant Profile: Create a profile of each tenant that inlcudes include a history of maintenance and service activities, especially those actions that might have been extended as a courtesy beyond the scope of the lease.

Learn more about the top factors that keep tenants happy and renewing leases in a complimentary webinar: Full House- Strategies for Tenant Retention. Presented Tuesday, September 13th at 12 EST by tenant representation specialist Patrick Braswell and operations veteran Brett Lazar, this Webinar delivers practical information on tenant retention best practices.

If you are in the US, odds are that one of the last six minutes you’ve spent online was spent on social media. And you might have been hard at work! Best-in-class property owners and managers use social media as an essential component to managing their online brand, building tenant loyalty, and attracting new clients.

Social media is more than a means of oversharing the minutiae of your life and stalking people. It has become a powerful tool for professionals in the real estate industry. Here’s how property managers and building owners are using two popular social platforms to reinforce their brand and stand out amongst the competition:

Blogging

Blogging is used for marketing purposes by almost 40% of US companies. Whether you use Wordpress, Tumblr, Squarespace, Posterous, Blogger, or any other blogging platform, blogging is a great way to create a steady stream of content and increase traffic to your website.

How to use:

Establish yourself as a perceived expert. The more you write, the more knowledgeable you will become about the issues and status of your industry. You should aim to post blog entries a few times a week or a few times month, depending on your resources.

Struggling to come up with content? You should think about some of the kinds of issues that tenants run into and the topics that your peers are concerned with. Browsing discussions and questions on LinkedIn can give you a good idea. You also can reformulate other content you have, be it from the transcript of a podcast or your take on an article. Honest to Blog, just have fun and get the creative juices flowing.

LinkedIn is the most popular place for professionals to network on the internet. The majority of individuals use Linkedin as a way to find jobs, post jobs, maintain professional contacts, and discuss professional issues. Property owners and managers can use it for more.

How to use:

First off, here’s how not to use it: don’t connect with anyone and everyone just to increase “contacts,” this will only cloud your LinkedIn experience.

Linkedin can be an effective prospecting tool. Change the people search to company search, and find the companies you want to get behind. You will be able to see how you’re connected to a company, whether you have a first-degree connection to that company (meaning you are connected to somebody in that company), or whether you have a second-degree connection. Reach out to these connections via LinkedIn message, e-mail, or phone and  request an introduction.

Additionally, set up groups within LinkedIn. This may be a group for your tenants to talk with each other and see what’s going on within the building. Make announcements within that group to send an e-mail to its members. Open up forums of discussion, and give a voice to your tenants. Join commercial real estate representation groups and interact with your peers.

Bloging and LinkedIn are two of the most prominent social platforms used by CRE professionals. In an industry as competitive as Real Estate, social media can help reinforce your brand and give you a competitive edge.

Learn more about how to harness the power of social media in Property Management in our upcoming Webinar, Casting a Wider Network. Tuesday, September 7th at 12pm, Patrick Braswell will discuss using social media to strenthen your online brand, reinforce tenant relationships, and reach prospects!

In recent months, Google Android has expanded its reign over the US smartphone market to 40.1%, according to a MarketingProfs article. Next in line, Apple also increased its share of smartphone subscribers, positioning itself as No. 2 with 26.6% of the market share in June. RIM, Microsoft, and Symbian all lost smartphone market share.

Source: MarketingProf

With approximately one third of Americans 13 and older owning a smartphone, mobile applications are more useful and relevant than ever. To help our customers stay connected to critical building information at any time, Building Engines offers a mobile application, compatible with Android, iPhone, or Blackberry devices.

Read the rest of the article here!

There is no doubt that we have entered the era of sustainable real estate.  While a Green focus can lead to dramatic cost savings and facility improvement, it’s often difficult to sort through the deluge of energy management information at hand.

Please join us on Tuesday, March 29 at 7:30am for an exciting panel discussion focused on sustainable initiatives and energy management best practices aimed at helping you create an Energy Roadmap for success!

Moderated by: Chris Liston, Director of Energy and Sustainability, CB Richard Ellis.

Panelists include: Gregg Dixon, SVP of Sales and Marketing, EnerNOC; Kevin Johnson, CEO, OutSmart Power Systems; David Peck, President, Impact Energy Solutions; David Pratt, CEO, LoraxPro; and Tony Shaker, Founder and CEO, ENfinity Partners.

This event is for executives only, and space is limited. For more information or to register, please contact Sarah Fisher at sfisher@buildingengines.com.

Next week, we will attend and exhibit at the Building Owners & Managers Association (BOMA) 2010 International Conference in Long Beach, CA. This is our 8^th year at the event which serves the primary market we operate in.

When everything these days is driven by a need to justify expenses and deliver an ROI, there is a lot of discussion within the marketing departments of any business on the value of attending and exhibiting at association trade shows. There is a substantial cost both in real dollars and resource focus for a company to attend these shows.  In addition to the direct costs, there are opportunity costs.  Where else could you be spending these dollars and your time to more effectively reach your target audience?  These are valid concerns that should be evaluated.

However, that hard dollar evaluation doesn’t account for the ancillary benefits you receive by attending and exhibiting at a trade show.  There are also intangible costs for not attending that should be considered, including:

• Meeting your customers in a “neutral” environment and having the opportunity to get to know them on a personal level.
• The value of having many conversations in a single place.
• Seeing what your competitors are talking about.
• Meeting and developing relationships with potential partners.
• The possible perception created by not being there.
• Hearing firsthand what the issues are that your clients and prospective clients are concerned about.

A perfect example relates to the last point and being in the “know” in regards to client and industry concerns. We know that difficult economic times, coupled with an overall emphasis on “Green” operations over the past several years,  has lead many of our clients to consider energy data management systems to help them understand and better control their energy costs.  We have worked to support that effort by sponsoring a recent Webinar presented by eSite Energy on “Energy Management Systems that Reduce Costs”  and have released a White Paper this week called “It’s all about the Data: Demystifying Energy Data Management.”  Additionally, we have partnered and integrated with companies like Mach Energy for mutual clients like Normandy Real Estate Partners to take their energy use spike alerts and turn them into actionable requests delivered to a building engineer.

All of these actions resulted from conversations and information we picked up attending industry events over the past year.

So, while the hard dollar questions certainly need to be answered and will continue to drive many of our decisions, don’t forget to consider and balance those costs against the harder to measure, but often equally important “soft benefits” of attending and participating in industry trade shows.