Tenant Experience

Guide to Tenant Experience: 12 Ways to Build an Engaged Tenant Community

May 12, 2021

Tenant experience is a key aspect of modern real estate nowadays. A memorable tenant experience is impacted by the interaction between tenants and building managers, as well as between tenants and the whole building service providers. This creates opportunities for managers and real estate owners to improve their relationships, while promoting a positive environment that increases tenant satisfaction, retention, and overall, community value.

Today’s tenants are choosing to “join” buildings based not just on location but mostly on their tenant experience. How do you know if you’re providing a great value for tenants? In this article, we will take an in-depth look at what tenant experience is and how you can provide a better digital tenant experience for your occupiers making your building more tenant-friendly.

 

What Is Tenant (Digital) Experience and Why Does It Matter?

Tenant experience is a relatively new term in the real estate industry. It encompasses every aspect of a tenant’s stay in a commercial property. From the initial company’s decision to lease, to the move-in process and their occupancy in the facility.

The digital tenant experience can take many forms, such as an online portal or an additional tenant application created specifically for a specified building and its community. It is a seamless and secure way for tenants to access all the information they need. Whether it’s a retail location, industrial park, or office building, there is a plethora of information that should be showcased in their tenant app platform.

 

Why Is Tenant Experience Important?

Tenant experience is a crucial component of a successful commercial real estate investment. Its main purpose is to provide your tenants with the best possible environment for the comfort of their employees, resulting in greater motivation and efficiency. The use of technology and dedicated apps is just one useful tool for building a strong tenant experience.

According to the latest report by Deloitte, these days digital transformation and tenant experience are a business imperative. Companies can significantly boost tenant engagement by optimizing real-time updates about facilities and creating a sense of community using mobile applications. About one-half (48%) of respondents who said their company is using digital technologies, such as mobile apps, to streamline communication with tenants, plan to increase investment on digital channels over the next year.

Boosting a positive tenant experience is “a win-win situation” for tenants and management. So what are the values for the real estate managers and facilities owners and how to improve tenant experience?

 

Retain Your Tenants and Make Them More Satisfied

Tenant satisfaction and occupancy are two highly related metrics. Satisfied tenants lead to improved occupancy rates, longer leases, and they are less likely to call your office or maintenance crew with complaints.

Improving tenant satisfaction can help with retaining tenants and keeping a more stable occupancy rate. By providing a fair and attractive landscape, building, or community, tenants will feel more satisfied with their renting space and be more likely to renew their lease. It is important to note that the relationship between tenant satisfaction and the occupancy rate is ‘bidirectional’ – meaning they can affect each other positively or negatively.

Technologies and smart solutions for tenants can do the trick! It will be also beneficial for the property itself making it an even more innovative and tech-oriented place.

 

Facilitate Communication Between Tenants and Your Facilities Management Company  

Property owners and building managers know that communicating with tenants is a key strategy for preventing issues before they occur. Managers may have some methods in place to communicate effectively, but do they have the systems and procedures in place to do so effectively?

Facilitating communication between tenants and building management is critical to the upkeep of a property. Luckily, if you have an online community where your tenants can reach out for assistance, it becomes easier to answer resident inquiries, as they can instantly communicate with maintenance technicians directly from the app.

 

How to Improve Tenant Experience?

Improving tenant experience can be achieved through various methods, but using tenant experience app software can be one of the most effective. Here are some ways how to improve tenant experience with such software: 

1.     Tenant Information Hub

By creating a digital information hub for tenants using mobile tenant apps, property managers can give them a single place to go for key information about their building and their community. It works as an electronic portal where tenants can find key information about their unit, the building, and the property itself.

Building pictures with building plan and nearest services
Tenant Information Hub

 

2.     Access to Services and Amenities

Mobile app for tenants can also keep your tenants informed of the services and amenities your building provides. No more searching for transit schedules, closest restaurants, or local services. Tenants have access to a directory of the amenities located in your property, all stored in one place.They can swipe through the tenant directory and connect with other companies from the building as well.  

 

3.     Online Repository of Documents

What’s more, Property Managers and application administrators can easily upload and share any important property documents such as tenant handbooks, rules and regulations, tenant newsletters, or even special event schedules. It’s a simple way to reduce headaches of sending emails back and forth with attachments. Tenants can also upload files on their own to easier manage their tenant documentation, for example, rental files, private documents, and other tenancy-specific documentation to get quick and secure access.

  

4.    Property Announcements

Managers can quickly send property news streamlining the communication between landlords and tenants. The messaging workflow is flexible, providing many permissions and options for the delivery of messages to either a single tenant or a specific group. Ideally suited for property news, planned maintenance announcements, or even food trucks that comes to the building today.

 

5.    Tenant Directory

List your tenants on the property portal so that tenants can give them visibility online and foster a stronger relationship with your building. The tenant showcase module makes it easy to spotlight initiatives, events, and promotions happening at the facility. This feature is a great way to enhance your property's presence on the tenant app while simultaneously increasing brand awareness within your community.

 

6.    Dashboard and Metres

An online dashboard for monitoring and managing multiple building projects provides tenants with access to see and manage tenant data. Tenants are empowered to more easily analyze, for example, energy efficiency performance month-over-month, giving them control over a critical component of their operating budget.

Graph with meters
Meters Monitoring

 

7.    Tickets and Reactive Maintenance 

Tenants are more than just customers; they become part of your community. However, problems can arise at any time whether your property is in the process of undergoing a big renovation, a tenant has a plumbing issue, or the HVAC misfunction. With the Helpdesk module, tenants can quickly and simply request help or maintenance. Tenants can conveniently and quickly create a new ticket since tenant apps can be integrated with maintenance requests and work order systems.

 

8.    Building Inspections

Inspections are not meant to be a secret, everybody has aright to know what’s going on around them. Sharing inspections with your tenants is a great way to boost tenant relations while saving time and money by sending paper copies. By giving them this information easily, you are empowering them to stay aware of anything that is happening in their office.

Tenants can also use the inspection module, thanks to which they know what they are responsible for and what to not only for their own safety but also for the safety of other tenants.

9.  Surveys and Tenant Feedback

Gather feedback from your tenants, collect daily polling data, and gain detailed insights into how your tenants feel about living in your properties. It is the easiest way to improve tenant experience. Collect and analyze individual opinions to identify any negative trends for your property offering. This knowledge is invaluable for understanding how to improve services, make your tenants happier, and attract new clients.

Tenants surveys and different survey types
Tenants Surveys

 

10.    Booking System for Tenants

Tenants can quickly book space and various amenities using a digital booking system, without the hassle of multiple phone calls.That means your building amenities are available when your tenants need them.It also helps to increase experiences of your tenants and reduce administrative burden for your staff.

 

11.  Turnover Monitoring

Many shopping center tenants struggle with their lease management and the complex turnover process. Accurately calculating and maintaining rents is challenging. But with the turnover feature, tenants can be confident that their rents are accurate and protected.

 

12.  Visitor Management and Pre-Registration

The need for a visitor management system is a necessity for any business that has visitors coming in and out regularly. Tenants can easily pre-register visitors, book parking places for their guests, and easily monitor the visits history. It saves time for both tenants and office staff by making all visitor registration procedures automatic.

List of guests and visitors pre-registration
Visitor Management and Pre-Regisgtration

 

By implementing these features and others, landlords and managers can enhance the tenant experience and create a more positive, productive and community-oriented environment for all.

Final Thoughts

Tenant experience is a term that’s been around for a while, especially in the commercial real estate market, but that's starting to get more recognition. It is no longer just about the location, building design, proximity to shopping and restaurants, or outdoor space. Now it also encompasses the technology implemented in buildings designed with tenants' needs in mind. A top tenant experience is a win-win situation. It creates a positive tenant experience, which helps the building attract new occupiers. A winning tenant experience also helps the management to boost occupancy and lease rates.

 

Transform your building into a tenant-oriented space and improve tenant experience with the tenant experience platform such as Singu Tenant App. Do you want to learn more? Feel invited to watch our recently released video that highlights some of the Singu Tenant App features. Start your free trial today!

Written by:
Kacper Troć
Team Lead at Velis Real Estate Tech

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