CREJ - Property Management Quarterly - April 2016
New technologies have afforded property managers several new avenues to increase tenant satisfaction and retention through efficiencies that help identify and act on opportunities to improve the overall business environment in their managed property – in particular, the food industry in professional office settings. Striking a balance between offering meaningful amenities and mitigating a property manager’s added responsibility and risk potential can be hard to attain, even with new vendor management systems and added productivity-based technologies in today’s business climate. In particular, finding consistent food service options at a property portfolio can be a difficult and time-consuming endeavor in order to find a partner who can meet expectations and not burden existing workloads. There’s a growing trend of market disruptors in the food services world who leverage technology to create a new opportunity for property management professionals to meet their tenants’ request for more variety and cost-effective food options on-site without added management oversight. The traditional model of an on-site food option often is associated with ironclad contract conditions and limited menu offerings for your tenants. Subsidized rents and non-compete agreements only further hinders property managers from offering their tenants amenity options like food trucks, on-site pop-up restaurant and even tenant appreciation events. Those who have explored these options understand the growing demand that extends beyond current onsite food options. For many busy professionals, lunchtime triggers a rise in stress and anxiety because it interrupts their focus and reduces productivity. A survey conducted by OfficeTeam gives a glimpse into the actual trends of the modern professional’s lunch break. Today, 48 percent of workers surveyed indicated taking 30 minutes or less a day for lunch, and nearly one-third (29 percent) work through their break. Take notice of your building’s lobby traffic during the noon hour as fire lanes and visitor parking is swarming with the yellow flashing lights of delivery drivers and catering vans eager to try and meet your tenants’ desire for a more robust offering. This additional traffic can place undue hardship on security, building engineers and the professional work environment. Partnering with a proprietary delivery platform as another amenity allows property management professionals to offer a variety of local restaurant options to busy tenants in a streamlined manner. Additionally, tenants can capitalize on existing on-site amenities such as outdoor seating and tenant lounges, which helps further tenant attraction and retention strategies. Tenants who have this amenity in their building can place an order for themselves through a website, selecting from a rotating list of daily restaurant options, including existing on-site vendors, with fully customizable menu options that meet dietary or personal preference. Generally, meals are menu price, require no minimum order amount, no tipping and no cash handling in your building. When the meal(s) arrive, tenants who ordered receive a text/email notification. The restaurant does all deliveries at one time, leveraging a crowd-sourced model to pass savings through and reduce lobby traffic. Amenities like these can help managers better meet tenant interest for access to more and better lunch options for catering or individualized meals as a self-managed amenity without the necessary oversight or daily management needs of traditional on-site options. As busy tenants and professionals continue to look for ways to increase their productivity and managers look for ways to offer value-added amenities, it may be good food for thought to look into the new technology-based partners for food service at your building to satisfy your tenants’ appetite for more variety in on-site food amenities.