With a COVID-19 vaccine making its way across the world, there is a tremendous need for commercial real estate (CRE) owners and operators to show tenants what is currently being done at their offices, and what will change. As we highlighted in this year’s state of the industry report, the adoption of tenant experience technology will be one of the most prominent trends defining CRE in 2021.
Technologies such as tenant apps and tenant experience software are no longer nice-to-haves, but have proven essential to the success of entire portfolios. CRE leaders are struggling to digitize key business processes, as Deloitte’s 2021 CRE outlook highlights: 56% of respondents believe the pandemic has uncovered shortcomings in their company’s digital capabilities and affected their plans to transform. Though it’s clear that the CRE industry has undergone tremendous digital transformation, the pandemic has exposed just how crucial technology is to its success.
However, the data also points to a surge in adoption following these shortcomings: 43% of Deloitte’s respondents anticipate an increase in investment in technology over the next 12 months. So, how can a tenant experience platform help resolve CRE’s technological shortcomings? Keep reading to find out.
1. Relevant data collection
The ability to adapt asset strategies based on changes in tenant behavior and sentiment in a post-COVID world is critical for any ownership or property team looking to ensure the long-term value of their assets. According to Ernst & Young, deploying new data and analytics tools is the #1 technology priority for commercial office owners post-COVID.
At HqO, we believe that collecting relevant, actionable data is critical to understanding evolving tenant sentiment. How? Adopting digital tenant experience software in order to provide a complete picture of spaces within buildings as well as the people who are frequenting these spaces. By centralizing and organizing these key data points, CRE owners can make data-driven decisions to increase retention, inform CapEx decisions, and ultimately increase their net operating income (NOI).
2. Clear and timely communication
In 2021, there is no question that streamlined communication will be essential in countless ways. With news updates, protocols, and work conditions changing constantly, access to timely communication is a critical part of any office portfolio’s strategy.
Acting as a remote control for your property, a tenant engagement app can seamlessly facilitate communication to each and every building occupant via push notifications, in-app updates, and emergency notifications. Here are some examples of some practical use cases we’ve seen using the HqO platform lately:
- Posting updates from the CDC and BOMA in real-time to the home screen of their app to keep tenants and occupants informed.
- Integrating with an emergency communication system provider. One example is LiveSafe, an HqO partner that gives members of a business or campus community the ability to surface actionable early warning insights that can help risk managers prevent an incident from occurring.
- Guidance on how landlords and property management teams are stepping up building sanitation, where occupants can find sanitation stations, and work-from-home tips.
3. Efficient capacity management
The modern-day digital tenant experience has grown to encompass a slew of new tenant needs with the onset of COVID-19, and office capacity management has presented one of the greatest challenges to workplaces across the globe. However, tenant experience technology offers efficient software that integrates with existing systems, making capacity management simpler.
Through tenant experience technology, and more specifically an app for tenants, capacity management software has the power to restore faith and optimism in the safety of the workplace, and give commercial real estate (CRE) owners the chance to re-establish the value of their office. With capabilities that allow employees to submit in-office requests for any day of the week, building owners can then manage these requests, and allow for effective contact tracing and compliance with government regulations.
4. Engage tenants, wherever they are
Today, modern workplace amenities include any number of digital and mobile experiences such as integrated smart building technologies throughout an office space, community forums through a tenant app, digital courses and classes, and much, much more.
There are a multitude of ways that tenant experience technology can adapt digitally to engage tenants, whether they’re working remotely or in-office. Here are just some use cases we’ve seen recently:
- In HqO’s Boston headquarters The Hive DTX, we hosted a weekly giveaway throughout the month of February. Tenants were able to win prizes such as a Google Home, Fujifilm instant camera, Bose Bluetooth speaker, and more!
- Many HqO clients utilize HqOS Marketplace partner EXOS to allow tenants to register for virtual workout sessions or in-person socially distanced classes with the same trainers they already knew and loved prior to the pandemic.
5. Leverage partner capabilities
In the move to establish a more customer-centric model for the CRE industry, more and more proptech companies and tenant experience startups have appeared on the market. For HqO, tenant experience extends not only beyond the physical office building, but beyond to include the capabilities of our best-in-class HqOS Marketplace partners.
Here are some great examples of just some of these partners that are making an impact in the tenant experience technology space:
- Mapwize is the Indoor Mapping platform for the creation of new digital services inside buildings and events. Their maps are easy to build and integrate into an office’s wayfinding, workspace management, maintenance, or security applications. Through their integration, you can digitize your blueprints, customize your office map, and visualize what is going on in your assets.
- R-Zero is the world’s first company dedicated to making the workplace safer through hospital-grade technologies and protocols that fit seamlessly into businesses of all shapes and sizes. Their technology uses UV-C lighting to kill bacteria, viruses, molds, and other human pathogens to leave your space clinically clean.
- Zog Culture works with clients to plan custom virtual events, from holiday parties to global retreats to intern programs, they ensure that their clients’ most important annual events have that special wow-factor. Participating companies can choose the activities they want to offer, and ZogCulture executes and supports those needs.
Harness the HqO platform for tenant experience today
Though not all tenants are in their offices together, there is still a real need for connection and collaboration that we all crave. By activating real connections between people and their buildings with seamless digital-to-physical experiences, HqOS can help enable data-driven decision making, while accelerating the implementation of innovative asset strategies.
Learn how HqOS can help ensure that modern tenant experiences succeed and reserve your free demo today.
