By Sophie Hazeu
A WHILE ago I conducted a post-occupancy study with a number of managing directors.
I was exploring their reasons for choosing the prime real estate into which they had recently moved and the majority of respondents, bar a few who mentioned bike racks and lockers, stated location, rent, rates and square footage as their top priorities when acquiring that particular property in central London.
Sustainability was on the list but not the top five. No surprise there then.
However, research RealService has carried out recently suggests that seems to be changing and the Road to Cop26 – the UN Climate Change Conference, which Glasgow is hosting in November – is being paved by property companies who are full of good intentions.
That is great, but alongside those who are champing at the bit to refurbish their stock with green credentials are those who feel these costly changes are unfair and unfeasible. Nick Leslau, Chairman of Prestbury Investments, highlighted this in his Property Week article Our Industry is being set up to fail.
‘Carbon neutrality or we will leave’
Nick may have a point, especially when it comes to retro-fitting old buildings. But there’s still an opportunity here and it’s one every property manager should take because during the aforementioned research, on how loyalty impacts on the likelihood to re-occupy, we found that despite good relationships with the landlord and high loyalty to the location/estate, some occupiers stated categorically they would leave at end of their term if their goal of carbon neutrality was not supported.
Consequently, I then began to think about how this high level of ‘Defection Risk’, despite high loyalty, could be identified and then mitigated without having to scramble to achieve the costly changes Nick identified.
We already know that the impact of Covid has produced rapid change in the property market, mainly bringing in hybrid working plans far earlier than previously anticipated. An immediate desire to restructure offices into ‘collaborative spaces’ over desk-based business is, and will continue to be, a huge disrupter for property owners.
A further challenge on the horizon is the increase in weight given to the sustainability of a building as being a prime factor in leasing real estate. This factor is being set out by customers as a clear benchmark – which needs delivering and appears non-negotiable. For some, it’s overtaking the traditional drivers of rent, rate, square footage and service charge.
Create a ‘sustainability champion’
So, it seems property managers have a choice.
They can do nothing and run the risk of losing occupiers for whom carbon neutrality is an important aim.
Or, they can capitalise on this new driver (along with a more flexible lease offering in the short term), by developing sustainable buildings which, in the long run, may enable a higher rate to be demanded.
This is the time to take the sustainability advocate out of the corner, raise their status and create a ‘sustainability champion’ who has a voice.
This champion has a hugely important role in understanding customer perception, and setting their expectations. This person needs to be able to multi-task.
- Environmental reports need to be delivered to customers on time (most take six months to deliver an electricity invoice)
- Reports must be customer-friendly, usable for investors and appropriate for delivering board-level results
- They must be a trend spotter; what are the latest customer ‘must haves’?
- They must be able to engage with customers and learn from them whilst managing a realistic sustainability plan. This last point is vital.
So, if the sustainability champion is the means of mitigating ‘Defection Risk’, how can this risk level be identified in the first place?
Defection risk matrix
Working for a major global client, we carried out a number of in-depth interviews and assessed the responses in a Defection Risk Matrix.
This matrix evaluates how effectively ‘loyalty creators’ – like demonstrating empathy and engendering trust – are being delivered.
We then looked at the ‘loyalty indicators’, to establish whether the customer’s commitment to the landlord, or the property, was strong enough for them to re-occupy against all other factors, such as achieving carbon neutrality in 2030.
Essentially, we were determining whether the customer’s loyalty was enough to mitigate against all the reasons they may wish to leave.
The results enabled the client to identify priority customers where loyalty needed to be enhanced, and therefore the risk mitigated. And, this is where the sustainability champion also comes in; to partner with each customer on their intentions and needs.
We can help you spot customers who would be on your Defection Risk High list. But you can start supporting those for whom sustainability is a key issue right away.
Create the sustainability champion, make sustainability a deliverable goal and keep your loyal customers loyal to you.
If you would like more information on how we can assess your customers’ loyalty, please contact us at info@real-service.co.uk.
