What’s the most imporant amenity in an office building? That depends on whom you ask.
If you ask building occupants? Public WiFi is the most important amenity an office building can have. But if you ask property management pros, they’ll say having an onsite cafe or restaurant is most important.
That’s just one of the disconnects between tenants and property management professionals uncovered in The Tenant Experience Gap, a report released today from Building Engines, a technology provider for property managemet professionals.
The study surveyed more than 650 CRE professionals and tenant employees who work in multi-tenant commercial buildings across the United States. The findings show that property management professionals and tenants often have differing views on how well commercial buildings meet tenants’ needs.
For instance, 75 percent of CRE professionals said they were confident that building occupants receive important building information. But only 25 percent of occupants agreed with this statement. The report found that 66 percent of building management teams communicate with tenants through phone calls. The problem? Only 4 percent of tenant employees said they plan to use this method of communication in the future.
Then there is the problem of time vs. money. According to the report, 88 percent of property management professionals dedicate at least half of their time to improving the experience of their buildings’ tenants. But these pros often lack the financial resources to make major improvements. The report also found that only 28 percent of property management teams allocate at least half of their operating budget toward improving their tenants’ experiences.
Commercial buildings also remain too vulnerable to cyber crimes. The report said that only 30 percent of commercial buildings have a cybersecurity program in place today. One-third of CRE professionals said they expect to increase spending on physical security for their buildings by at least 10 percent in the next two years, while only about one-fourth expect to do the same for cybersecurity.
“Successful CRE properties know that great tenant experiences begin with great communication,” said Scott Sidman, chief marketing officer with Building Engines. “But making the wrong decisions based on speculation will be costly.”
Back to those amenities: Building occupants ranked public WiFi, an onsite gym, onsite cafe or restaurant, coffee shop and meeting and event space as the five most important amenities. Property management pros ranked these amenities differently, listing an onsite cafe or restaurant as the top amenitiy and meeting and event space second. They ranked an onsite coffee shop as third, public WiFi all the way down to four and an onsite gym as the fifth most important amenity.