Building & Facilities Operations

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.

Real estate companies are not known for being highly collaborative; quite the contrary, most are run by deal makers whose transactional focus and sales orientation is about as far from a collaborative mindset as one can get.  Couple this with the fact that building teams operate largely autonomously and are physically separated from one another, and one can see how a culture with a “silo” mindset develops.

Collaborative organizations benefit of sharing information, strengthening company culture, developing best practices, driving innovation and improving efficiency.  Frost & Sullivan, a research and consulting firm has developed a collaborative index, with which it measured companies’ collaborative cultures against various performance factors.  Interestingly, the company found that a collaborative culture is highly correlated with higher customer satisfaction levels.

Web based software platforms like Building Engines enable collaboration by giving users a single place to look for, share, edit and store information about their operations, making it easy to communicate with other parties using whatever medium is most appropriate.  We recently set up a space within our application where property managers and engineers could share best practices, tag issues, or ask for input on problems.

As technology evolves and high speed internet access becomes ubiquitous, the use of collaborative software tools will expand.  You may think of Facebook as a time waster your teenagers spend too much time on, but it is a collaborative tool of a sort and is a harbinger of things to come.

The economy’s health is returning and, like young leaves in springtime, new jobs are beginning to bud.  Yet, the recovering economy is not in steady bloom.  The detritus of a long and blustery economic winter litters the real estate topography, shadowing the sun of increased demand.  The recovery has its good days and its bad days – its strong weeks and its weak ones – like the intermittent cold rainy mornings and warm sunny days we all experience when life returns in April and May.   However, like summer, recovery is inevitable.  Yes I said it, inevitable.   The recovery will happen – faster in some markets, slower in others – but those that prepare for it will prosper first and profit most.

The world of commercial real estate is caught in this seasonal economic struggle- typically two full quarters behind the highs and lows of the broad economy.  Today, cap rates are slowly compressing with perceived property values increasing in advance of any real return in demand.  Businesses are beginning to hire again, but only in certain sectors where growth is fueled by the promise of returning economic health. The blossoms are held back by debt struggles abroad; tragedy in the Gulf and aftermath of a long, dormant economy.

Tight budgets and cold economic winds have forced owners, managers and tenant occupants to use creative survival tactics.   Smart commercial real estate companies are reaching out of the shadows and into the sun with concentrated marketing efforts that flag new and aggressive opportunities for their prospective tenants.   A cost efficient reach into the sunlight through new, web-based identity tools, real estate centered search engine optimization and building awareness tools are an excellent and cost efficient means for supplementing the traditional broker channel.

New economies bear new tools and new methodologies for doing business. Proactive owners fearlessly invest in these ideas, enhancing their assets’ identities and significantly improving the chances of swift and prosperous recovery.   They are leveraging powerful new technologies that have emerged from lean economic times.  The promise of new growth will come to those who act.  Those that wait may confront a late and deadly Frost.

Nature’s first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf’s a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.

Robert Lee Frost

Most of us have made a New Year’s Resolution at some point in our lives.  These resolutions typically focus on personal issues such as eating healthier, getting more exercise, or quitting smoking.  They are typically goals that we would like to achieve, but we often fail to put a plan in place that allows us to achieve them.  Like everything else in life, it is important to not only set realistic goals but to also lay the groundwork to set oneself up for success.  Some key components to a successful New Year’s Resolution plan:

• Be Realistic
• Think Critically
• Outline a Plan
• Talk About it with Others
• Continue to Try When at First You Don’t Succeed

I got to thinking about the concept of resolutions and started to wonder why more businesses and companies don’t do the same.  Again, the same strategy is key for success….don’t set unrealistic goals and plan accordingly.  The following are 20 ideas that might make good resolutions for your company:

• Fine Tune and Execute on Your 2010 Business Plan
• Touch Base with your Clients More Regularly
• Think Outside the Box – create innovative marketing strategies
• Get Organized
• Define your Processes and Stick to Them
• Make more with less
• Network with companies that compliment your product
• Build testimonials and case studies for future clients to read
• Attend at least 5 relevant seminars/ webinars in the coming months
• Adjust pricing for your products as the market/ your clients dictate
• Build a new product to add to your current package
• Add a new service to your current list of client service offerings
• Go Green
• Track the time you work better
• Remember that SERVICE is king
• Listen, Listen, Listen
• Be flexible, the status quo is not ok
• Tell the world what you’re doing
• Improve your website traffic and page views (this year, we resolved at Building Engines to improve in this area)
• Never get complacent

Remember, it’s easy to make a knock down list of ideas – but truly successful companies are the ones that build a strategy and plan around those ideas.

In the spirit of the Holiday Season, I thought it would be appropriate to share some of the secrets I have gathered for better real estate management.  Don’t roll your eyes just yet.  These aren’t the broad-sweeping ideas that are shoveled at you every day:  “Communicate better with you tenants. Get a system for organizing your Certificates if Insurance.  Design a good website to market your building.”  No, no.  These are actual, practical, tips that will marvel your co-workers, help you organize your work life, and in the end make your business more productive.

1. Evernote:

Evernote is the cure-all for a disorganized life.  In short, it helps you remember everything in your notable world.  You can type a text note, grab a screenshot, take a picture, write a memo, or anything else that you can imagine and Evernote will capture everything, organize it and make it easy to find on your computer or phone.

So, what does this mean in the property management world?  If you’re using a GPS enabled phone, you can send coordinates to a note.  You can take photos of business cards before you lose them and Evernote will search in the text of the card for easy access later.  You can clip marketing ideas from websites, or send links to Evernote for use later. And on, and on.  As Evernote says, they are “infinitely useful.”

2. Jott:

Jott allows you to use your phone to record and send text to e-mail. How does it work? You call a phone number, speak your message and then Jott converts your spoken message to text and sends it wherever you want. Maybe you just wrapped up an outside business meeting and want to record your thoughts before you get back to the office.  Maybe you are in the field and just remembered a list of items that need to get installed.  Record and send your to-do list to your e-mail.  Best of all, Jott can work in conjunction with Evernote!

3. Utilize “Rules” in Outlook:

If you’re not using Rules in Outlook, you are really missing out on a valuable tool. You can create rules that automatically flag important contacts so that their e-mails get special attention.  You can flag certain words in subject lines, so that any e-mails you send or receive with those words get stored in the folder of your determination.  This can come in really handy to track transactional e-mails or tenant inquiries by name.

Visit Microsoft Office Online for more information and a tutorial.

4. Market your building’s location with Geotags on Google:

One of the most important tools you have for marketing you building is your website. Many of the visitors coming to your site are not only interested in your building, but are interested in the the local area and what it has to offer. Through Google’s Picassa and Google Earth (both free services), you can create a visually appealing map with photos of local attractions, restaurants, and other places of note.  If you own multiple buildings you could even do a map with photos of all your buildings!

Using Geotags for Google

Learn how to Geotag photos with Picassa.

5. Get a comprehensive CMMS system:

If you are still printing out work orders, having field personnel come in to get work orders from an inbox, lacking a tenant interface where customers can quickly and easily manage issues and log-in visitors, your team is AT LEAST 50% less productive than they should be.

Today’s web-based building mangement systems virtually help to run every aspect of your property. You can automatically send electronic work orders, standardize preventative maintenance and reminders, track Certificates of Insurance, easily organize and post Tenant Handbooks, communicate with tenants, control visitor access, track resources, and automate fire and life safety reminders- all from one efficient central operating system.

Learn more about Building Engines’ web-based property management system. (I’m not just plugging this because I work here.  I really do believe in the flexibility and value of our product!)

Like many managers at this time of the year, I have been actively, but not easily, trying to carve out bits and pieces of my day to deliver my 2010 sales and marketing plan.

While I have never met anyone who actually enjoys this process, most business-minded individuals understand the value it brings if done well.  The interesting thing I have to come to learn about the annual budgeting and planning process, is that the most successful plans begins with a thorough and honest look back at the success and failure of the previous year’s activities.

It’s an interesting parallel to a question we ask every prospect for our web application and service, “What do you want to do better?”

For our business, and for my particular role in our company, the answers are fairly straightforward:  I want to increase sales to meet and exceed our targeted growth plan.  I want to increase the effectiveness and ROI of our marketing programs. I want to lower customer acquisition costs by X.  I want to reduce our sales cycle by X.  Just to name a few…

One of the common pitfalls of  budget creation and planning, is forming a plan based on a 10,000 foot view; you are bound to miss the details, destined to recreate previous mistakes and will most likely anchor your company in areas where it should be progressing.

Let’s apply this statement to trade show attendance.  The “10,000 foot view” examination involves looking at trade show related expenses, qualifying the resulting leads and value of trade show generated business, and calculating the monetary return for attending those shows.  However, to truly understand the value of a specific event and whether future participation is warranted, a deeper and more detailed examination is required.

Take your planning to the next level:

What was the internal cost of resources used for pre-show preparation and post-show follow-up? Was there an associated opportunity cost by diverting those resources from other activities that may have yielded comparable or better results? Is there a more cost-effective or efficient way to reach the target audience this show represents?

These are just a few of considerations you might apply to all of the previous year’s sales and marketing activities. Too often, we do something because “that is the way we’ve always done it.”  If that has been successful for you, than by all means, continue.  I think for most of us, honestly assessing the past illuminates the path to a brighter future.

Happy Holidays and best wishes for a prosperous 2010.

It may not seem like commercial real estate has a lot to be thankful for this year.  Growing vacancies, tenants seeking rent reductions, dropping asset values and a tight lending market have all contributed to the unsavory situation that the real estate market is now facing heading into 2010.

According to Bloomberg: U.S. office vacancies reached a 5-year high of 16.5% in the third quarter as job losses climbed to 9.8%, the highest number since 1983.  In previous years, a typical commerical real estate firm could reach the year end and boast about new property acquisitions, high occupancy rates and money left over to buff up their lobbies.  Now, it seems, firms are increasingly grateful for the cornerstone of their income: the tenants that still remain.

So, in a market that has seen huge drops in occupancy rates, it makes sense to dedicate a large portion of your marketing resources to your current tenants.

Here are a few ideas to show your corporate tenants that you appreciate their loyalty:

1. Build a Sense of Community

Tenant Appreciation Days do matter.  No one wants to feel like just another ID Badge in a 30-story building.  By offering regular recreational events and complimentary services to those  in your building, you are fostering a sense of community.  A happy employee reports back to a happy company, who is happy to remain your tenant.

In fact, you don’t have to spend a lot of money to show your tenants that you appreciate them.  For Thanksgiving, it might be as simple as serving apple pie in one of the conference rooms; minimal cost, with exceptional impact.  Is everyone stressed out from the recession? Offer tenants free on site massages. Is it flu season? How about providing free flu shots?

The last building I worked in was excellent at finding commonalities between its tenants and instilling a sense of community (despite being a huge, downtown Boston property).  They hosted an annual Boston Red Sox Day where tenants could gather in the lobby, watch a red sox game and eat “stadium snacks” served by building employees in baseball uniforms.  This not only made us feel appreciated, it became something that we looked forward to every year!

2. Get Creative

Times are tough, and even loyalty may not be enough to keep tenants if they are laying off employees and on the brink of going out of business.  Maybe Tenant Appreciation no longer means free ice-cream in the lobby. Perhaps now, you need to be a little more creative and get to the root of what they need. One idea might be to offer them a free financial analysis.  Get those creative juices flowing!

3. Get Feedback

One of the most important things that you can do is survey tenants for unfulfilled expectations, wish-lists and general feedback.  Many times, tenants will harbor things that are bothering them because they have never had an outlet to express their issues.  Not only is it up to building management to give them that opportunity, it is up to building management to then act on it!

In my own company, we have made it a point to make monthly changes to our product based on customer needs, comments and reviews. We have found that allowing ourselves to be flexible to our customers’ needs is in a direct relationship with their satisfaction.

“Thank you for calling.  We are currently experiencing higher than normal call volumes.  Your call is very important to us.  All calls are answered in the order that they are received.  Please wait on the line and the next service representative will be with you in just a few moments.  We apologize for any delay.”

Translation:

“Why are you calling?  Our call center is over-burdened.  Your money is very important to us, but your time is not.  We take as many calls as we can, but they are expensive, so please press “9” to leave a message or wait on hold and listen to our marketing pitch while our operators struggle with other calls.  Please hang up, go to our webpage and search for answers there.”

Funny? Maybe. But this scenario is all too real to most of us.  Great service and customer satisfaction is too important to leave to the answering machine.  When buying software, certify that service is an integrated part of the vendor’s product offering.   Make sure that full support, training, monitoring and retraining services come as part of the product set and are not offered on a cafeteria basis.   Ensure that the provider has a complete service program in place and described in detail as part of the product purchase.   Look for live, well trained support professionals that speak your language and answer the phone.

In my own company, we have made customer service the cornerstone of our business because we realize its value in not only retaining “happy” clients, but also attracting new ones. We also realize that a lot of companies claim they make service a priority, but then fall short. We decided that instead of just talking about great customer service, we would guarantee it.

Think about service and support as a proactive, persistent experience delivered to you on a regular basis, not just when something goes wrong.   Great service experiences are like great dining experiences – you have what you need when you need it; you’ve gotten what you ordered and you aren’t left hungry, parched, or with a bad case of indigestion.