Tenant experience: Making buildings commute-worthy
Improving tenant satisfaction is a top priority for property managers, especially as the workplace continues to evolve. It might be intuitive to think that many property teams are grappling with tenants requesting shorter or more flexible leases. However, our research shows that’s not necessarily the case. In fact, leasing changes were toward the bottom of the list of tenant requests, according to property managers.
But as the workplace continues to shift to its new norm of remote and hybrid work, that may not always be true. That’s why focusing on the tenant experience will be key for property managers in 2023 and beyond. The low-hanging fruit for property managers? Start with your most common tenant requests.
Which tenant requests are most common for you?
Tenant comfort issues (ie., temperature too hot/cold, after-hours HVAC)
Faster responses to work orders/maintenance requests
Upgrades to tenant amenities
Enhanced health and safety protocols
Mobile building access
Assistance reconfiguring tenant office spaces
Shorter or more flexible leases
Better property management communication
Other
n=133; percentages rounded; respondents could choose up to 3 answers
Of all the property managers surveyed for this report, 72% said comfort issues – even simple things like temperature – are still the most common request they get from tenants. It takes a lot for tenants to want to leave the comforts of their homes. And if those spaces are not comfortable for them, it puts added pressure on CRE property managers to get their buildings up to par. At the end of the day, your buildings need to provide a better, more appealing experience to woo tenants away from working within the comforts of their own homes.
Plus, there’s an added layer to tenant comfort: indoor air quality. Accelerated by the pandemic, employees also want to work in healthy spaces. That makes it difficult because property managers are trying to tackle all these layers (and more):
Tenant comfort
Indoor air quality
Sustainability and energy usages
Carbon footprint
What tenants want
The research suggests that property managers need to find a better way to manage HVAC systems. One solution is to implement an intelligent HVAC optimization management system that learns and monitors all HVAC equipment operations 24/7. Such a system can leverage artificial intelligence and data inputs to make real-time micro-adjustments to maximize tenant comfort while reducing energy consumption and costs as well as exceeding indoor air quality standards.
Faster responses to work orders is another common request (32%). That’s not surprising, as seen in the earlier section of this report. Property managers surveyed for this report said that lack of staffing resources is a top challenge to completing work orders.
