Commercial Leasing: How to Expand During These Unsure Times

The 2020 pandemic left many tenanted offices perplexed and attempting to thrive in new safety standards moving forward. 

A virtual remote team combined with a physical office is now the new normal from the office space environment, depending on the safety protocols observed within the facilities.  

People are still afraid to ride elevators. They would rather drive up, open one door, and they’re in their office. The workplace landscape has truly changed. 

Many corporations expect to have half of their employees back to their offices in the 4th quarter of 2020, while the rest are going to continue working remotely. Some tech enterprises such as Amazon, Microsoft, Zillow, etc., have decided to give a choice to their employees whether to work from home or in the office until the end of 2020. 

Our present situation leaves leasing companies that have a multi-story facility to combat an exodus of tenants. 

That said, the remaining leasing properties can concentrate on increasing their market share. The disruption to the market has to be embraced quickly by landowners and property managers to ensure customer retention and to take advantage of the high growth opportunities to fully lease their properties. 

3 Factors to Ensure Customer Retention

Here are some of the measures we at JW Management are implementing to ensure customer retention on our properties: 

1. Safety of ALL tenants, prospective tenants & their visitors ought to be a priority. 

We have a customized plan of action to promote safe property operations and business environments for all tenants, their workers & their visitors. 

We prioritize having safety measures to observe social distancing such as putting signages, visual markers, one-way directional cues, and space dividers. We have successfully implemented these safety measures so that anyone who visits our property will find it easy to follow our safety protocols. 

Our commercial properties also have sanitization stations available along with FREE masks. It’s best to have touchless alcohol or hand sanitizer dispensers on all of the building’s entry points and elevators (which we have). 

Above all, we have a regularly scheduled deep cleaning with a fully trained cleaning company. 

2. Developing a strong sense of community to your tenants & prospective tenants. 

Having a sense of community in your property improves customer retention because your tenants know that they’re cared for. It is ideal to do frequent engagement with tenants, even if they are not physically present on the property. 

Forget about high-end technology applications and software. Pick up the telephone, blast an email, or send texts to your tenants to see how they’re doing. Enhancing your client relationships is really important during these crucial times. I can’t emphasize enough how essential improving client relationships are to your own retention goals. 

Additionally, we share with prospective tenants what it’s like to be a current client of ours. With our current tenant’s permission, we share their contact information so prospects can call them and verify how we do business. We focus on building a strong community. We want our tenants to feel like our commercial space is their home away from home. 

3. Provide a clean, robust, and productive business environment. 

Besides prioritizing the safety of all, we aim to keep our commercial property in excellent condition. Having a clean, robust and productive business environment will ultimately increase the returning tenants’ confidence to return to work. 

✅ With this promise, we answer the questions: 

✅ Are the grounds spotless? 

✅ Have the water fountains replaced with touch-less bottle fillers? 

✅ Is the maintenance team well-trained in keeping the property safe and clean? 

✅ Are the exterior spaces approachable? Are there chairs & shaded areas where tenants can have lunch outside or speak on the phone? 

✅ Is the atmosphere in the property pleasant overall where tenants can take a break and relax? 

Consult With Your Tenants 

Consult your tenants about ways on how to improve your property operations. A listening ear for your tenants’ concerns builds reliability and trust.  

Prioritizing your tenants’ well-being will bring you far more success in client retention, even during tough times. 

Our organization is situated in the Dallas Fort Worth metroplex & we’re, in fact, expanding at a time when other properties are contracting. We are able to do this because we have proven that our property management is dependable. 

Should you have any questions about property leasing or management, don’t hesitate to contact us.