Summer is here and so is the seasonal in-office slump. With tenants coming into the office less, working remotely more, and heading to their favorite vacation spot, the connection that owners and operators create between their tenants and their workplace is critical.
On the bright side, summer is an opportunity for owners and operators to showcase the best of their buildings and offerings, excite tenants, and keep them coming to the office with features that delight them.
Here are 8 ways to activate your tenants and buildings this summer.
Make your spaces and amenities easy to discover and book
Making your spaces bookable in-app is the simplest way to increase reservations — this means tenants no longer have to send an email or stop by the front desk in order to book an amenity.
Be sure to make the most of your on-site amenities. Does your building feature a garden, terrace, or outdoor dining space? Summer is the perfect time for tenants to enjoy these spaces. You can make sure your tenants know that these on-site spaces are available to them through in-app promotion.
It’s about providing your tenants with a VIP experience; bookable outdoor umbrellas, yoga mats or meditation rooms, beauty services, workshops or cooking classes are just a few ideas you can implement to add a hospitality-like touch to both your building and your app. In turn, this creates a sense of community in your buildings, which is especially important during the summertime months.
Solicit tenant feedback with surveys
What’s the best way to create programming that tenants want this summer? By simply asking them!
Surveys are a highly effective way to pulse-check sentiment and solicit direct feedback from tenants. Here are a few survey ideas to gain tenant feedback:
- What days of the week do you plan on coming into the office this summer? (Check all that apply)
- Monday
- Tuesday
- Wednesday
- Thursday
- Friday
- What type of summer event would you be most interested in attending?
- Summer BBQ
- Taco Truck
- Ice cream social
- Happy Hour
- What summer event raffle prize would you be most interested in?
- Sporting event tickets
- Concert tickets
- Theater tickets
- Local restaurant gift card
- Amazon gift card
Map out your programming
Posting in-app content is the ideal way to inform, educate, and engage tenants in your buildings. Furthermore, establishing a regular cadence when posting content is a great way to keep your tenants consistently engaged.
When it comes to posting frequency, try publishing content one to three times and week. And be sure to rotate the type of content you create; this can range from property management updates, holiday greetings, events, contests, surveys, amenity spotlights, general interest articles, and more.
Looking for inspiration? VTS Activate has over 175 new and updated pieces of pre-built content templates available now. When creating a new post, you can browse through various template categories, select a template, and easily customize it with the drag-and-drop builder to create interactive content that showcases your brand, your building, and everything you offer.
Pro tip: your content is only going to reach tenants if it’s published. Make sure to account for your teams’ summer vacations by scheduling content to be published in advance. We recommend setting a start and end day for your content to ensure your content remains timely.
Plan a summer event
Events can not only inspire tenants to come into the office during the slower summer months, but can also help to drive app downloads. With the right tenant experience solution, your property teams can create events, manage RSVPs, promote it to tenants, and ensure their access is seamless.
Maximize attendance by hosting your event on a Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday — when most tenants are in the office. For optimal attendance, select a high-traffic location, such as a lobby or courtyard, and entice tenants with free food, beverages, raffles, and prizes. Start promoting the event through in-app posts and signage throughout the building two weeks before the event. At the event, have QR codes on hand so tenants can easily download your building’s app.
Target the right audience
Ensuring that your content reaches the right audience is key to creating a more personalized experience.
By targeting key tenants in your buildings, you can drive better engagement for your programming over the summer. What’s relevant to some won’t be relevant to all; some tenants use specific amenities (such as the fitness center) and some tenants are part of closed initiative groups (like a running group). Be sure to segment your target lists when planning your communications and promotional activities.
Pro tip: Create a more personal experience in-app, and with your tenants and their talent, by targeting audiences based on their interests and how they engage with your spaces and offerings. Create audiences for individuals who have used specific amenities, such as the fitness center, or those in a group, such as a green initiative group or running/walking group to and send them curated content and communications.
Create a multi-channel promotion strategy
Your tenants are constantly on the go. To reach them, you’ll need a multi-channel promotion plan that covers digital and physical tactics.
Post notifications are a great way to notify tenants about upcoming events, surveys, and important property updates. Make sure you don’t exhaust them with too many notifications, as this can cause tenants to turn off their push notification settings. Don’t forget the importance of a promotion plan specific to tenant/workplace admins – turning workplace admins into “app champions” is a key facet to driving sustained adoption of your offerings and app.
Building signage is another piece of the puzzle. Signage allows property teams to keep their app top of mind with tenants, share key messaging, and encourage them to download the property’s app with a QR code. Keep in mind that placing signage in high foot traffic areas generally yields the greatest impact.
Pro tip: Reposition signage across the building every three months and update signage every six to twelve months to keep things fresh and your tenants in the know.
Facilitate easy access in your buildings
Creating the right summer programming is only valuable to tenants if they can access it.
With easy access capabilities, you grant your tenant network the ultimate in-office experience with digital access to buildings, their suite, shared spaces, workspaces and amenities across your portfolio, with just a tap. Using Apple Wallet, you can deliver the most secure access experience and get rid of those plastic key cards that are so easily lost or left at home in a beach bag.
Creating a seamless experience for visitors is key to creating an environment they keep coming back to.
Track your performance and optimize your strategy
Tracking your performance should be an ongoing process. To increase the performance of your offerings, you need to utilize the correct insights to track engagement across your portfolio.
With an app, you and your team gain the tools you need to monitor who engages with your app and identify the content resonating most with your tenants. With click through and conversion rates for your content, it’s simple to see which content your tenants are most interested in. With an app, you can track amenity reservations over time and see which tenants engage with your spaces to help craft your future programming.
Activate your buildings with VTS
With a robust tenant experience app at your fingertips, you gain the tools to uplevel the way you engage with your tenants and deliver an exceptional experience every time. Summer can certainly bring about an office slump but it can also be a valuable time to deepen tenant connections and elevate the experience you bring across your portfolio.
With the right strategies and insights, you’ll get closer to your tenants to boost engagement this summer and beyond.
