How do you stack up against other property management companies?
With increasing competition for property management, it’s crucial to know how you compare. Tracking key performance indicators (KPIs) can give you the data you need to do this and to demonstrate your value to current and prospective owners.
However, you can’t share what you don’t track. The first step is understanding how to organize your team and systems to begin reporting out KPIs.
How to Set Property Management KPIs
To get the most out of your KPIs, you need to consider what’s realistic for your property. While aiming high can help you improve, setting targets too high can make it impossible to reach them.
So, you should start by opening the conversation with your building engineers, leasing managers, and other term members. This will help you figure out what KPI targets are both meaningful and doable. It may even help to reach out to your ownership team or asset manager with a simple question,
“what can we show you in the future to increase your confidence that we’re the best PM partner for you?”
Then, you need to look at average metrics for other similar property management companies. Think about who you compete with and remember that the right comparison can make sure it’s obvious to your clients – that means quantifiable proof – that your team is the winning one.
Now that you know how to choose the number for KPIs, here are the top property management KPIs to drive outcomes for your owners.
1. NOI
It’s no surprise Net Operating Income (NOI) is one of the best KPIs to track. Owners are always looking for higher NOI, so it’s a great way you can show you drive outcomes. With the craziness of the past year, showing evidence of NOI stability can be a win.
But, manually tracking all income and expenses is probably the last thing you want to do right now. It’s tedious and a time suck. The good news is it doesn’t have to be. With the right asset management software, it’s easy to see your financials and insights in one place. This makes it a breeze to track NOI and show owners you deliver the results they want.
2. Tenant Satisfaction
Tenant satisfaction directly relates to revenue for your owners. So, it’s smart to track it.
Happy tenants stay in your building, earning more revenue for ownership. Showing how you improve tenant satisfaction and outperform the competition clearly demonstrates your value to current (and future) owners.
However, it can be hard to track changes in tenant satisfaction. That’s why it’s important to regularly survey tenants. Monthly or quarterly tenant surveys not only give you data points for KPIs. They also help you get ahead of problems that could tank tenant satisfaction.
3. Tenant Retention
Replacing a commercial tenant can cost over $500,000 more than retaining a tenant. Yikes! Since retaining tenants can help owners avoid unnecessary expenses, tenant retention rate is another good KPI to track.
One way you can boost your retention rate is by creating an awesome tenant experience that makes them want to stay. A key component of this is simple, effective software for them to communicate issues to management, track progress, and receive updates about key building matters. The right building operations software makes crafting a great tenant experience easy and quick, saving you time while still making you look great to ownership.
4. New Leases Signed
While replacing tenants is more expensive, some turnover is inevitable. You can’t stop every tenant from leaving. But, you can convert prospects into tenants to mitigate the impact of tenants leaving. New leases signed makes for another great, simple to track, KPI.
To show owners that you drive outcomes they want, you should at least gain as many tenants as you lose. It’s even better if you can show a net tenant gain. If this isn’t the case, you should look at how you can attract more tenants. This could include improving your marketing strategy, offering better terms, or providing a winning tenant experience (to name a few).
5. Occupancy/Vacancy Rate
Unfortunately, 2020 and 2021 have led to higher vacancy rates than usual. This means less revenue for your owners. So, it’s especially important to track your occupancy and vacancy rates. That way, you can show ownership how you’re solving high vacancy rates and working towards high occupancy.
Make sure you’re being realistic based on your market. What does a successful return to office look like? Is your occupancy trending in the right direction? In the current environment, positive signals are the best form of news.
6. Repair and Maintenance Costs
Being revenue estimates is the stuff heroes are made of, and no one is going to say otherwise. High expenses can eat into (and even erase) returns from the property. To avoid this, you need to track costs for common expenses like repairs and maintenance. That way, you can show ownership that you keep their profit margin high.
Along with tracking repair and maintenance costs, you should also see how they stack up against the industry average. This can help you know if your costs are too high. And, tracking these expenses can help you spot ways to lower them, which is a win for owners.
7. Work Order Turnaround
Who wants to wait weeks for a leaky toilet to get fixed? Definitely not your tenants. As such, nothing makes tenants unhappy like waiting forever for you to address work orders. So, it’s important to address work orders quickly.
Tracking your work order turnaround time can help you see where you are and where you need to be. That way, you can show owners that you’re serving tenants better with faster work order response times than the competition. Or, at the very least, you can show how you’re working to outperform competitors.
How to Track and Improve KPIs
Knowing which KPIs to track is half the battle. The other half is setting up simple systems to collect evidence of your performance – without requiring manual intervention. Without clear KPIs and the ability to measure them, you may end up spending more time collecting data instead of doing the job!
With the right property and asset management software, however, you can easily track everything you need to drive outcomes for your owners. From financial data, to leasing info, to maintenance costs, and more, this software can track your KPIs in one easy-to-use platform.
And, if any of your KPIs are lagging behind competitors, this software helps you intervene and move things in the right direction.
If you’re looking for best-in-class property and asset management software to help you track and boost your KPIs, you’re in the right place. WorkSpace has everything you need to monitor and improve the top property management KPIs.
Book your demo today to see how.