When it comes to customer service, 70% of US adults will use the phone as their first method to contact a company, according to a study by Five9. However, if they receive bad (or no) support, 85% of these consumers say they will take action. In fact, 45% of these customers and potential customers say they will stop doing business with a company completely. And younger clients are likely to complain publicly on social media. That’s a lot of sour grapes over some missed connections. Enter the smarter answering service. Your call center should be a seamless – and invisible – extension of your leasing management office. But not every call center is made to tackle the unique needs of the multifamily marketplace. To offer the most efficient service, a call center dedicated to property management needs to be able to: Provide a customizable digital answering service Offer expert live support if/when you need it Create guest cards and qualified appointments This infographic takes a look at our call center solution by the numbers. Click on the graphic to view a large version. Don’t place your leases and renewals on hold. Take a peek at the budget-friendly benefits of RentCafe Connect today and see how you could better serve prospects, residents and property staff. Because no one likes to be left...

The demand for sustainable retail properties is growing, demonstrated by an influx in applications at accreditation organizations, top tier rents, and high trade rates. According to Lux Research, green building is now a $260 billion market with retail as one of its most vigorous verticals. Green building certification programs such as LEED for Retail have witnessed an increase in applications. The “LEED in Motion: Retail” report states that more than 8,000 retailers worldwide participate in LEED and more than 1.2 million people experience a LEED-certified retail space on a daily basis. Participating companies include Target, Kohls, Bank of America, and Starbucks, which recently celebrated its 500th LEED-certified store. The transition towards greener retail spaces corresponds with reports that retailers with LEED Gold certification or greater outperform their conventional neighbors. Studies by Nils Kok, Ph.D., executive director of the Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark (GRESB) suggests that sustainable office buildings trade at a 13 percent premium over conventional buildings. Green office structures also receive rental rates that are at least three percent higher than their conventional counterparts. “We found that LEED-certified and Energy Star-rated office buildings financially outperform their non-green peers in terms of rental rates and occupancy rates,” says Kok. For new developments, state and federal programs offer subsidies and other incentives to green retailers, helping to raise such projects’ internal rates of return by as much as six percent in less than 15 years. While there are certainly owners who pay top dollar for green retail spaces because they prioritize the environment, financial and social pressure are contributing factors behind the growth in sustainable retail popularity. Publicly-traded REITs face pressure from investors to achieve optimal energy efficiency in order to reduce operating costs and increase returns. Pressures come on a larger scale as well. An...

A growing number of corporate tenants today are thinking of their real estate as more than just a place to house their employees. Instead, they’re treating it like an asset. That is borne out in a recent study of office occupiers by CoreNet Global. In all, 68 percent of respondents reported having a workplace strategy in place. And about 45 percent of participating companies termed their workplace strategy “mission critical” and “discussed and debated at the C-suite level.” On a related note, about 59 percent said that they have implemented an energy efficiency plan. Few goals are higher on office users’ lists than efficiency, but a holdover from the recession can get in the way. In the short run, the “blend and extend” approach to renewals helped many tenants and owners survive the crisis. However, it also enabled all parties to skirt the core issue of how much space they actually need. When CoreNet Global surveyed its corporate partners, it found that 50 percent of respondents reported an imbalance among the size of their workforce, unoccupied space and the company’s growth rate. Another 36 percent reported cost pressures as a continuing issue, and 40 percent said they would be willing to move to higher-quality space that is better suited to the company’s needs. The factors that influence tenant leasing choices run the gamut, with the most important associated with lease terms, ownership and property management. In a recent survey conducted by the Building Owners and Managers Association International and Kingsley Associates, 90 percent of tenants named pricing as “very important” or “important.” But 80 percent or more cited building security, parking, the landlord’s financial stability and the owner’s reputation for customer service. And at least 76 percent named factors related to lease provisions: length...

Commercial clients attending this week’s Yardi Advanced Solutions Conference in Santa Barbara can focus on maximizing business efficiency when selecting from a comprehensive track of classes. One of many exciting new lead and lease focused applications from Yardi Systems that will be introduced is Yardi Commercial CRM™, which offers commercial real estate professionals the ability to streamline and even shorten the leasing cycle. Cutting down the time spent on property lease up is crucial for commercial property owners and leasing professionals in order to enhance revenues and minimize unit turnover time. Kim Maddox, Commercial Product Specialist for Yardi Systems, explains how you can save the carrying cost of vacant space by shortening the leasing cycle. “For example, let’s say you rent on average 2500 square feet at $37 per square foot.  If you shorten the leasing cycle by three weeks for one lease, you will accelerate $5,336.54 of additional rental revenue on that lease. What factors will help reduce the cycle time?  Examples include saving a leasing agent’s time, easy access to information (available space, existing leases, encumbrances, budget, prior rent and market rent), tenant communication logging, tracking activities and events, facilitating proposal generation, counter-proposals and approvals, facilitating lease drafts and approvals, facilitating floor plan generation and approval, facilitating transmission and approval of construction documents, construction budgets and facilitating tenant build-out.  There is much to be gained through the use of an integrated system to accelerate this process,” Maddox said. Among the features of Yardi Commercial CRM: Prospect and customer contact information is centralized in Yardi Voyager™ and contact history is tracked throughout the leasing process, from first contact to final signing. Integration with Microsoft Outlook and Yardi CRM Mobile means you need never be out of reach of key client data. Automate the...