Tenant Experience App... that is used!

2019 became a year of the #tenantexperience hype. Everyone seems to want to launch an app in their building. Personally, I think that’s wonderful, however: it’s easier said than done.

Good enough reason

People like apps. People use apps. But… there are 2 millions apps in AppStore & Google Play, each. We cannot download them all. People rarely use more than 60, personally I have 45 on my phone (12 being different whitelabelled versions of spaceOS, so more like 30 apps). In short smartphone screen is valuable merchant space. And shiny graphics, some news & events are not nearly enough to convince someone to add a logo of their office building or company to their screen.

There are certain features that make it worthy though. If I can order food, report issues and book meeting rooms from my phone - seamlessly & easily, then I may actually benefit from having such an app. Adding a solid community feature (particularly for a cowork or a workplace app) will make it an even more obvious choice. Offer value & you’ll find it easy to bring people in.

Add access control and hell, you may have everyone using it!

Build it, they will come

You’ve hired a good proptech company, they launched an app for you. It’s even linked with a management system that allows you run your building better. Happy days!

Except… you still need to launch it well. Sending a generic email to everyone in the building won’t cut it. The lessons we’ve learnt launching spaceOS in buildings across four continents - from the USA to Israel - is that there are strategies that work:

1. Have an onboarding flow in place

Getting people on the app is no different from any other marketing campaign. You need to draw people in, intrigue them, communicate the benefits clearly. Have a whole campaign in place before you launch & make sure your onboarding process is seamless. Make them curious enough to give it a try.

2. Launch like rockstar

Our best all time launch took place in Tel Aviv. With the power of muffins, roll ups & team of awesome community managers, we managed to get over 90% of users signed up in less than 24 hours. The fact that the app solved a bunch of typical issues (meeting room bookings, payments, issue reporting) and brought massive convenience (you can buy any stationery or parking vouchers in two clicks), so it wasn’t such a hard sell, but… it was thanks to the amazing launch that people started reaping the benefits immediately, rather than after some weeks or months.

3. Involve key stakeholders

You have an amazing facility team? Good for you! Don’t forget about your potential allies. If it’s an office building, HR, real estate & facility management professionals of your tenants can be amazing supporters. At spaceOS we make sure to coordinate all that effort, share our knowledge, but without local engagement… you’ll need a lot of muffins. Also: apples are healthier!

4. Support, support, support

Provide guides. Provide videos. Provide FAQs size of Wikipedia. Make it easy for your users. Make it impossible to not find an answer you’re looking for. But also have a support team. The moment you start handling payments, access control, invoicing - you can never leave people hanging. With our clients spread across ten time zones we don’t sleep anymore, but at least our clients can!

Conclusions

If you do it well, you’ll have a building full of happy tenants, your F&B & service tenants will receive a perfect flow of new orders, you’ll be conncted to your tenants and you’ll be flushed with useful data. It’s a journey worth undertaking. Good luck!