In the world of business, most of the time your interests align with your customers. However, this is not always the case. Sometimes, service providers may be incentivised to withhold a bad tenant experience from you, the owner/manager of the property. Below, we discuss how this problem arises, as well as what you can do to avoid it.
Why Bad Experiences Might Not Get Reported
To give commercial tenants an optimal tenant experience, it’s essential that they are able to report any bad experiences they have. In fact, a lack of clear communication is one of the most common tenant experience pitfalls.
While it might be in you and your tenants' best interest for bad experiences to be reported, the same cannot always be said for other parties.
Service providers, such as those involved in maintenance, facilities management and reception services may be reluctant to report bad tenant experiences.
These service providers oftentimes feel incentivised not to tell the owner or asset manager about a bad experience that was reported by the tenant.
For example, if a tenant raises a maintenance issue with someone involved in maintenance, they may not want to tell you about the issue for fear of being blamed for the issue.
This is especially the case when the communication between the tenant and the service provider happens through email or a phone call.
When there is no track record left for the property owner or asset manager, it’s easier for the service provider to withhold the bad experience from you.
It also makes it difficult to keep track of the issue. So, important information might fall between the tracks. This missing information makes it difficult for property managers to ensure that everything is running as smoothly as possible for tenants. Knowing about a tenant's bad experience is crucial to acting on and fixing the issue to ensure happy tenants.
The Solution
The best way to overcome this problem is to encourage and enable a clear channel of communication between you, your tenants and the service providers. You want everyone to have access to the same information.
We recommend using a dedicated tenant portal that all parties can use. Tenants can report issues on a platform that will share their issues with everyone involved. This will allow everyone to view the experience in detail and provide a more transparent, single source of truth.
As a result, service providers will not be able to withhold bad tenant experiences from you. The information is shared with all parties, and service providers cannot be gatekeepers of information shared with them about a tenant's bad experience.
Final Thoughts
The COVID pandemic resulted in a rapid decline in the demand for commercial real estate. The reality of the situation is that commercial property owners and managers are investing more and more into making their tenants happy.
The last thing you need is for bad tenant experiences to go unreported. With a dedicated tenant portal, this won’t be a problem!
If your organisation is looking for a tool to involve all tenants in property management for better decision-making on workplace and property strategies, have a look at our 30-day free trial:
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.
