Tenant Experience — from accommodation to accommodation

Petter Arvidsson, CPO/COO at Avy-Tmpl shares his thoughts on the Tenant Experience and how comfort, security and sustainability can be optimized throughout the entire accommodation journey from the tenant's perspective.

‍

Tenant Experience is something that is being talked about more and more in the housing industry. What does the term mean?

Tenant Experience is a fairly new concept in the real estate industry which in Swedish can be translated as 'accommodation experience'. It's about creating a good experience and satisfied tenants, from moving in until it's time to move on. The focus on customer satisfaction in the real estate industry is nothing new in itself — on the other hand, Tenant Experience is a new product category that offers new tools for developing the accommodation journey and optimizing factors such as convenience, security and sustainability from a tenant perspective.

Why has it become so important right now?

If you as a housing company want satisfied tenants, it is important to meet the changing customer behaviors and expectations we see in today's society. Customers today have higher demands on service and speed than before and expect a simple, modern — and often digital — service. Then there is the broader societal perspective and the sustainability aspect. Creating safe environments, pleasant areas and enabling conscious choices for accommodation is becoming increasingly important for housing companies today. Here Tenant Experience platforms play a big role. Last but not least, we have the real estate business itself. Housing companies have become aware that the real estate business is more than just the physical assets, and want to do more for their customers. There is a great opportunity here, with millions of tenants, who have the need and willingness to pay for a more comprehensive service. In order to broaden the real estate business, data and customer insights are required for increased customer knowledge, as well as a channel that engages tenants. Then suddenly there are the conditions to be able to offer relevant and personalised services in a cost-effective way. The new revenue streams that follow can be used for further improvements in sustainability, customer satisfaction and security at housing companies.

“The new revenue streams that follow can be used for further improvements in sustainability, customer satisfaction and security at housing companies“.

What does the market for Tenant Experience look like in the Nordic countries?

Overall, the “risk” for housing companies that want to develop within the Tenant Experience has decreased, as today one can seek security in references from industry colleagues and hundreds of thousands of end users. The market has matured as more complete Tenant Experience products have been launched and at the same time many housing companies have also had time to implement and push through their projects. Thus, there are many talented decision-makers on the market and good examples for others in the industry. We are also seeing increased consolidation among the Tenant Experience product companies now that the market has really taken off and customer demands are increasing. The merger between Avy and Tmpl was a logical step for us in being able to greatly increase our pace of innovation and development as a product company. It is also exciting to see how product and system providers in the real estate industry are now working together to connect the digital ecosystem and offer holistic solutions to housing companies and their customers that were simply not possible just a few years ago.

How does the typical Tenant Experience platform differ from other digital solutions for housing companies?

All product companies work based on their vision of how to improve an industry or solve specific business problems. Real estate systems have grown out of a clear need to streamline the management of real estate and to optimize internal business processes, and they do this very well. At Avy-Tmpl, we instead work from the vision of changing what it means to live in an apartment. From overhead ceilings, square metres and concrete — to a personal living experience optimised for simplicity, security and sustainability. It causes our DNA to differ funda-mentally from a property system. In our user interfaces, features and services, the tenant is always the starting point and this is clearly evident in the engagement that is created. With us, the average user engagement in the accommodation app stands at 75%. The engagement on “my pages” launched through the real estate systems is about 25% of registered users, which means that the customer may have been inside only once during their entire accommodation trip.

“The merger between Avy and Tmpl was a logical step for us to significantly increase our innovation and development pace as a product company”.

What do you see that residents demand from their landlord today?

What we see is that the demand for services and services that make everyday life easier is increasing, while basic functions to be able to manage the home digitally are now becoming hygiene factors. What I mean by that is that paying the rent, submitting a bug report, booking the laundry or communicating with the manager through a digital border cut in the mobile, is becoming a matter of course for tenants. The next step is to meet the need for a more comprehensive service such as moving services, home cleaning, digital storage and more. Almost all residents consume such services today but rarely via their property owner.

What should a housing company consider when evaluating a Tenant Experience solution?

We see that Tenant Experience is becoming an increasingly important “umbrella” for other investments made in the properties with, for example, digital locks, meters and sensors, etc. Here it becomes important to ensure that the platform chosen is open and works together with other solutions so that the customer experience is seamless and can be brought together in one interface. GDPR and information security are also issues that are becoming increasingly important. Especially when we talk about solutions that handle personal information about tenants and then it is important to choose a supplier who is familiar with the issues and can show that the product architecture and processes for this are in place.However, step one is always to think through the target picture andthe position one wants to take vis-à-vis the tenants. Is the goal to work with issues such as customer satisfaction, security and new revenue? Or is it to be able to offer some functionality digitally? The answer determines what kind of solution one needs and who the most suitable provider is.