Commercial Investment Real Estate is the magazine of the CCIM Institute, the leading provider of commercial real estate education. CIRE covers market trends, current developments, and business strategies within the commercial real estate field.
Issue link: http://cire.epubxp.com/i/897832
by Brandon Weber How brokers can focus their mindset on user experiences. Mastering a New Commercial real estate is in the midst of a technology revolution. Need proof? Just look at all of the tech startups that have had success in the industry over the last few years. Market data providers like Compstak have carved out a big niche by putting commercial real estate data at professionals' fingertips. Companies like Convene and WeWork have grown exponentially by giving their clients flexible office and meeting space. And landlords and brokers have onboarded over 6 billion square feet of space onto the VTS platform to streamline their leasing and asset management processes. The list goes on and on. Technology isn't just making commercial real estate more efficient; it's changing tenant expecta- tions. Meeting those new expectations will allow industry players to thrive. To get there, commercial real estate professionals need to adopt a user experi- ence mindset — not just landlords, but brokers too. Recognizing Flexibility Technology has made customers more powerful in nearly every industry by giving them the ability to compare products, pay for them more flexibly, and find solutions tailored to fit their needs. For example, Airbnb allows people to access less expensive, short- term accommodations, aided by a simple booking process and friendly customer service. This attitude has trickled into the business arena. Enterprise tech sales reps used to be able to sell products right to the CIO without worrying much about the analyst who would actually be using it. That's not the case anymore. These days, com- panies want products that not only solve problems, but differentiate themselves by delighting their users. Until now, commercial real estate has lagged behind. Historically, landlords viewed their job as building spaces in good locations and keeping them as fully leased as possible. Likewise, they saw their primary customer as the person who signed the lease. Now companies like WeWork, however, are attracting tenants by giving them more flexi- ble contracts and recognizing that their customers are actually anyone who's using their spaces every day. In other words, these landlords are winning because they focus on the end-user experience. The next generation of successful commercial real estate professionals will be the ones who adopt that same mindset, and recognize that anyone who works in the spaces they lease is their customer. 34 November | December 2017 COMMERCIAL INVESTMENT REAL ESTATE