The way tenants and residents interact with and navigate spaces is changing significantly. At VTS Accelerate 2024, leading property management experts discussed how technology is reshaping the tenant experience and helping to build communities within their properties.
Moderated by Anna Squires Levine, Chief Commercial Officer at Industrious, the panel featured:
- Emma Buckland, Global President of Property Management at CBRE
- Lenny Sciascia, Managing Director, Global Head of Property Management at Tishman Speyer
- Kelly Myers, Senior Director of Advantage Solutions at GreyStar
In case you missed this, here are some of the key takeaways from their engaging conversation.
The problem with “shiny object syndrome”
The panel began with Kelly Myers talking about “shiny object syndrome” in CRE technology. She pointed out how the constant influx of new tech can derail long-term projects “ . . . We start going down the path of one product, and then all these other things come up. And because they’re new and shiny and bright and you want to touch them and see them and feel them and understand them . . . the shiny object syndrome will block what we’ve been working towards for sometimes years in the making,” she said.
Emma Buckland from CBRE agreed, stressing the importance of focusing on efficiency, cost savings, and data-driven insights. “We try to be reasonably disciplined about those things because I think it’s very easy to get caught up in the shiny object idea,” she noted. Teams need to stay focused on what they’re doing and trust the process instead of trying to follow every new idea – or none of it will get completed.
In a similar vein, Lenny Sciascia highlighted the industry’s rush to develop smart buildings, especially pre-pandemic. He explained, “Real estate was always considered a non-tech industry, and then tech really flooded to our industry.”
However, the pandemic accelerated the need for tech solutions, leading to quick implementations that sometimes backfired. Sciascia shared an example involving air quality systems during COVID-19: Many unproven technologies were adopted hastily and later failed – along with the companies that created them.
He continued, “I’m a firm believer that you have to marinate the idea, you have to work with some of these startups to really help solve an issue, and then collectively together, you’ll get there.”
Making tenant experiences a priority
The discussion also focused on enhancing tenant experiences through technology. Myers shared an example from GreyStar, where integrating a property management app significantly boosted amenity fee revenue.
“A community that was not [using] an app started at $15,000, and bringing on an app brought them to $60,000 a year in amenity fees, which is a huge increase in revenue that they probably would not have had if we didn’t bring them to a digital environment,” Myers said. She explained that making these amenities accessible to tenants with the click of a button attributed to this success. Improve tenant experience, increase your revenue.
Myers wasn’t alone in that sentiment. Buckland later reflected on the valuable insights gained from understanding tenant building usage and satisfaction, which can be highly beneficial for leasing partners, clients, and other stakeholders.
Sciascia also touched on customer experience in property management, noting that traditional property management focused on basic maintenance and rent collection. But that’s no longer the name of the game. “Impacting the customers is number one across the board,” he said.
Using data to drive decisions
Buckland emphasized the role of data in property management. “We think about technology that is going to help us create data and insights that help us make different decisions about the organization or about the building that we’re managing,” she said.
Sciascia added that data analytics are crucial for understanding tenant needs and customizing amenities. “I use the VTS CRM every day, and that CRM is what drives conversations on our next capital play and amenities. If you could customize that experience for different customers within the building, you’re going to create a sticky environment,” he said.
When we listen to what the data says, we have a much better chance at providing valuable building amenities that will get tenants to renew their leases, whether commercial or residential.
Challenges in implementing new technology
Implementing new technology comes with its own set of challenges. Buckland highlighted the importance of change management, noting that property management has a lot of experts who have operated buildings in a certain way for a long time. You need to have proper training and communication in place for each stakeholder to successfully adopt new tech.
Another issue is that property management companies are having to juggle too many software applications at once and trying to force them to work together. “That’s not how it can go anymore,” Myers said. “Because there are too many things, it’s starting to break the main pieces of our business.”
Their solution is to use less technology that can do more, not the other way around. By working together with their tech partners, they can guide them to creating the product they actually want and need. The end result? A better partnership for the company and their clients.
The challenge is that it takes time to find the right tech partners that fit your needs. “You don’t know in twelve months if a partner is gonna be successful . . . It sometimes takes two, three years of iterating and working together to [know] if something’s gonna work the way you want it to,” Buckland said. “When we develop with a partner like with VTS, we really think about making sure we’ve got specialists on our side, helping to inform the product development.”
Later, Myers shared a cautionary tale about rolling out new technology too quickly. “We scaled on [a project] without having enough training and backing and support, and we ended up having to completely pause [it],” she revealed. A thoughtful approach, focused on long-term benefits and stakeholder engagement, may be key to adopting new technology in property management.
Looking ahead at tech’s role in real estate
The panelists agreed that technology will continue to play a pivotal role in property management. Sciascia noted how building designs should continue to change in order to create better tenant experiences. “How do you stay ahead of the curve with hospitality and service? . . . You have to be interactive. And the only way to be interactive is through the right apps, through the right amenity platforms, and through the right placement to create communities.”
Myers emphasized the shift towards putting residents at the center of property management, emphasizing that they should be “top of the pyramid.” This focus on the end user is how we can create those long-lasting tenant relationships.
Even beyond tenants, every connection matters and needs to be nurtured. When asked what she’d wish she’d known five years ago, Buckland responded, “I’d wish I’d thought differently about the essential role property management can have in the wider ecosystem, and the way that technology and data can help property management position ourselves in our relationships with leasing, with capital markets, with other users of the asset.”
Technology is redefining property management
The future of property management is coming into focus thanks to the key themes discussed at VTS Accelerate 2024. By prioritizing tenant needs, leveraging data, and thoughtfully implementing new technologies, industry leaders are shaping a more responsive landscape. VTS Accelerate provided a great platform for exploring these trends and having the conversations that will propel the industry forward.
Watch the full panel discussion here.
