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Although retaining and renewing existing tenants remains a top priority, there is a growing focus on investing in new amenities, services, and technologies to return today’s office tenants to the workplace.
Tenant experience describes the way tenants interact with your properties. The quality of these interactions can have a major impact on business. A negative tenant experience can result in high turnover and losses to your portfolio. A positive rental experience, on the other hand, has the opposite effect: it increases tenant loyalty and improves lifetime value.
A range of tenant experience solutions is available to help you achieve various goals in your portfolio. But do you really need this? Read on to learn about tenant experience strategies.
Why is tenant experience important?
Real estate comprises land, buildings, accessories, structures, roads, and utility systems. The real estate industry encompasses many aspects of real estate, such as development, marketing, valuation, rental industry, sale, and management of industrial, commercial, agricultural, and residential real estate.
In 2021, the worldwide real estate market was assessed at USD 3.69 trillion, and it is projected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 5.2% from 2022 to 2030. This industry can sometimes vary depending on local and national economies but remains constant as people always need housing and businesses also need office space.
Tenant experience is an integral part of the success of the real estate industry. It is important because it directly impacts tenant satisfaction, retention, and overall property value. A positive tenant experience leads to happy and loyal tenants, who are more likely to renew their lease and recommend the property to others. This can reduce turnover costs and vacancy rates, increasing the property's profitability.
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Moreover, with the rise of technology and social media, tenants are more informed and empowered than ever before. They have higher expectations for the properties they rent and demand a seamless, personalized, and convenient experience. Property managers that fail to prioritize tenant experience risk losing tenants to competitors who do.
Learn more about tenant experience in our guide on tenant experience app!
Also, tenant experience can enhance a property's reputation and brand image. Word of mouth is a powerful marketing tool, and satisfied tenants are likely to share their positive experiences with friends and colleagues, increasing the property's visibility and attracting new tenants.
How to boost tenant experience?
Positive tenant experience is essential for the success of any property, and property managers should prioritize it as a core aspect of their business strategy.
In the past few years, we have seen how the industry has changed. Real estate agents, management companies, and other participants are introducing new technological solutions to reduce costs and meet customer needs.
A good tenant experience strategy in 2024 should prioritize convenience, accessibility, and personalization to meet tenants’ evolving needs and expectations. Here are some key components of a successful tenant experience strategy:
- Seamless digital communication
Communicating with tenants is key to a good tenant experience. However, it's rarely done right - instead distributed via WhatsApp groups or emails.
With the growing trend towards digitization, property managers should offer easy and efficient ways for tenants to communicate with them, such as through a user-friendly online portal or mobile app. A good tenant experience platform helps you communicate with your tenants simply, quickly, and consistently.
Most tenant experience apps allow you to target communications: choose which audiences see which messages, so residents aren't overwhelmed with messages that aren't relevant to them. Suppose you are performing maintenance on the east wing of your apartment building. Instead of sending messages to the entire property that are only relevant to a small part, you can choose to only send them to tenants living in the affected area.
Nobody wants to be bombarded with things that aren't relevant. Avoiding this helps improve the tenant experience.
- Personalized tenant services
Property managers should strive to provide tailored services to meet the unique needs and preferences of each tenant. This could include customized leasing terms, amenities and services, and communication preferences.
- Active community building
Property managers should foster a sense of community among tenants by organizing social events and activities, providing communal spaces, and encouraging tenants to engage with each other.
Engagement is the basis of the tenant experience. Whether you're announcing a fire drill or hosting a seasonal event, keeping your residents informed fosters community engagement.
When tenants engage in their community, they value it more. While tenants gain a greater sense of belonging and attachment to their communities, landlords and asset managers benefit from higher tenant retention across their portfolios.
Simply put, engaged tenants are happier tenants, and happy tenants are less likely to quit. Also, they are more willing to pay extra for additional services.
- Streamlined property maintenance
Property managers should implement efficient maintenance processes to minimize disruptions and ensure timely repairs, using innovative technologies like AI and IoT to identify and address issues proactively.
- Sustainable and eco-friendly practices
Tenants are increasingly concerned about environmental sustainability, so property managers should prioritize eco-friendly initiatives such as energy-efficient appliances, green cleaning practices, and waste reduction programs.
Learn more about effective ESG PropTech solutions for real estate.
By implementing a holistic tenant experience strategy that integrates these components, property managers can improve tenant satisfaction, retention, and, ultimately, profitability.
Best way to manage the experience of your tenants
When you've addressed issues like communication and engagement, your tenants will see more value in your product. This is a great opportunity to create new revenue streams by offering additional, high-quality, convenient services.
Think cleaning services, bike rentals, or resident discounts for businesses in mixed-use properties. They may also offer amenities such as shared living spaces and gym memberships.
Any good tenant experience software will have a booking module that allows tenants to book services and pay directly in the app. This relieves property managers of spending a lot of time processing payments and bookings. This improves the tenant experience and encourages a more vibrant tenant ecosystem that benefits residents and local businesses.
Here are some of the key features that a tenant experience app should have:
- Maintenance requests: The app should allow tenants to easily submit maintenance requests, including attaching photos or videos of the issue.
- Rent payments: The app should provide a convenient and secure way for tenants to pay rent online, with options for automatic recurring payments.
- Communication: The app should facilitate communication between tenants and property managers, including the ability to send messages and receive notifications.
- Amenities and services: The app should provide information about amenities and services available on the property, such as laundry facilities, fitness centers, and package delivery.
- Community events and news: The app should provide updates on community events and news, including announcements from property managers and local businesses.
- Security: The app should have robust security features to protect tenant information and prevent unauthorized access.
- Mobile accessibility: The app should be mobile-friendly and accessible from both iOS and Android devices.
- Customization: The app should allow property managers to customize the user interface and features to meet the needs of their specific property and tenant demographic.
A tenant experience app can improve communication, simplify processes, and enhance the overall tenant experience by including these key features.
Axon is ready to build a solution
Practical aspects are most important when it comes to tenant experiences and communication. Providing accurate, real-time access to meter readings, bills, shared documents, and maintenance requests through a modern tenant app gives your rental business an instant digital boost.
With the Axon software development team, you can build a range of services for your tenants that fit the profile of your rental portfolio and get the guarantee of thorough collaboration and communication. Whatever your business model, Axon offers you a solid foundation to meet the needs of your clients. You can create an ideal tenant experience app with your own set of custom services, ranging from extra parking to faster internet and cleaning services.
Get inspired by our recent tenant experience case.
Conclusion
In today's real estate landscape, where tenants are not only concerned with the quality of the property on offer but also with the services and value that come with it, the tenant's experience is particularly important.
Digitization is slowly but surely bringing tenants and landlords closer together. Axon can help you build both: an intuitive platform for landlords and property managers and a tenant app connected to the landlord system. This makes rental management quick and easy. Contact us to become faster than your competitors!
