Customer experience is one of those buzzwords that gets thrown around a lot in the commercial real estate industry, but what does it actually mean? And how do you improve your customer experience?
We’ve broken down the three key “Ds” of commercial real estate (CRE) customer experience: end-user, tenant and operator.
The age of the end-user has arrived
In today’s world, customer experience is more important than ever. People have options, and they know it. In order to compete with the competition and win over potential tenants or buyers, you need to provide them with a positive experience every step of the way.
The end-user has always been part of the customer experience equation, but now that role has taken centre stage because we’re focused on their needs and preferences before anything else—even yours!
Understanding this change in thinking can help you learn how to be an effective landlord or owner by using these three key concepts:
1. The term “customer experience” is thrown around a lot, but what does it actually mean?
Customer experience is a term that’s thrown around quite a bit in commercial real estate, but what does it actually mean?
In short, customer experience is the sum of all interactions with a brand. It includes the service you received at your local coffee shop or the sales associate who helped you buy your new pair of shoes—it also includes how easy it was to find their website in Google and whether or not they had any coupons available. Customer experience encompasses everything from the physical location where you visited or interacted with your chosen brand to how long it took for them to respond when you sent them an email message.
2. The 3 D’s of customer experience in commercial real estate
A customer experience is an emotional journey that a customer takes through your website, mobile app and physical properties. At each stage of the journey, you have opportunities to create positive memories for your customers.
The 3 D’s of Customer Experience: Design, Deliver and Discover
Design is the first step in the process, it involves planning and design. Delivery is the second step of implementing your plans into reality. Discovery is when you measure how successful your design/delivery was in order to improve it next time around!
3. Tenants are customers, too
Tenants are customers, too.
This might seem like an obvious statement, but it's worth repeating: tenants are customers. They're also the end users of a property and have a lot of power when it comes to negotiating terms with owners and operators. The fact that they can provide revenue is a nice perk too! Because they are so important to the success of a property, it's crucial for everyone on your team—from senior leadership to maintenance staff—to understand how you can better serve your tenants' needs.
How to improve the customer experience in CRE
The first step to improving your customer experience in CRE is to create an online presence. This can be as simple as updating your website with a new look and feel, putting up information on your properties, and creating an interactive map so that potential tenants can see exactly where they would be working.
Next, it’s important to provide a digital experience for both tenants and property owners. For example, you could use social media platforms like Facebook or Twitter to engage with existing clients in addition to posting information on upcoming events or promotions at your office buildings.
Finally, you should strive for transparency by providing honest feedback about each property so that people know what they’re getting into before signing the lease agreement (or not).
The end-user experience is more important than ever, and tenant experience is part of that
The term customer experience (CX) is often used interchangeably with tenant experience (TenX). They are not the same, but they do share some similarities. TX is part of CX, just as an elevator ride to a water fountain in your office building is part of an employee’s CX. It might seem like a small thing, but if that elevator breaks down or isn’t working properly, it could have a major impact on employee morale and productivity.
The same goes for real estate investors who invest millions into their properties and buildings—the tenant experience is just as significant for their business plans as it is for their tenants’ productivity levels. That's why landlords should take steps to ensure that their buildings have a positive TenX so that everyone stays happy during their time there and continues working toward common goals together long after they move out.
Final thoughts
CRE is a business, and commercial real estate developers should remember that. It’s not just about making money or creating a great experience for users of the product; it’s also about satisfying your customers so they
keep coming back. The best way to do that? Take their needs seriously and give them what they want while keeping your own goals in mind.
If you're looking for a platform to collect more data to have better integration of tenant experience in commercial real estate, we've got you covered. Falcony is easy-to-use, boosts two-way communication, has customisable workflows, automated analytics, vast integration possibilities and more. Start your 30-day trial or contact us for more information.
We are building the world's first operational involvement platform. Our mission is to make the process of finding, sharing, fixing and learning from issues and observations as easy as thinking about them and as rewarding as being remembered for them.
By doing this, we are making work more meaningful for all parties involved.
More information at falcony.io.
