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What is the discipline of property management and how do you approach it at WOOD Real Estate?
Very simply put, it's about managing buildings and ensuring that tenants have all the amenities they need and are satisfied. This includes, for example, facility management, which encompasses cleaning service, maintenance, security, reception services or prevention and technology service. A help desk is available in all our buildings where various faults and requests can be reported. For us at WOOD & Co., the priority is a satisfied tenant, to the extent that we have our own Property Manager assigned to each building within our Prague office buildings. Thanks to this, in addition to dealing with day-to-day operational issues, he has time to meet with tenants, talk to them and collect feedback. This creates the necessary emotions and valuable relationships. The path to a satisfied tenant is multilayered and not at all easy, each tenant has different requirements, ideas and each building has its own specifics and is at a different level of the life cycle.
Our company's strategy is to hold buildings for the long term and tenant satisfaction is therefore definitely not just a phrase for us, but a clear priority.
And what strategy have you chosen on the road to tenant satisfaction?
I would summarise it in three areas. One is the Property Manager at each building. Every tenant knows where they sit, when they sit and what they can contact them with. The Property Manager is the guarantor of the quality of the service provided and builds long-term relationships with tenants and looks after them. This is a rather unique approach in my experience, as most companies handle property management with an external service or one office manager for multiple buildings at a time. So our approach may be "more expensive" but it is definitely more effective for creating a partnership relationship with the tenant.
Another important area for us is tenant care and also the ESG area, where we have invested a lot of effort in recent years.
What qualities should a good Property Manager have?
They should definitely be empathetic, because this job is about emotions and relationships. A certain level of technical knowledge is also important to understand the functionalities and technologies of the building. An erudite Property Manager should also follow trends and be able to implement them. Last but not least, it is important to be a good economist.
What new things are happening on your buildings?
Over the last two years we have invested €3 million in streamlining the technology at our Prague buildings - for example, the completion of photovoltaics at the Hadovka Office Park and Greenline buildings, complete refurbishment or revamping of metering and control systems. Even if these technological elements are not visible at first glance, they are crucial for the comfort and satisfaction of tenants.
On the Greenline building, we implemented a calorimeter project to more efficiently measure heating and cooling consumption, and we also shaded the south façade to increase comfort in the building space.
Of the more visible and direct comfort improvements, I must mention the renovation of the cafeteria and café in the Hadovka Office Park that took place this summer. At Harfa Office Park, we implemented a garden at the request of the tenants, replaced LED lighting in the common areas and toilets, and converted a vacant warehouse into facilities for athletes and a bike room.
That is quite a lot. What about your latest Prague acquisition, Green Point, how is it working with the tenants there?
At Green Point, we have realigned our processes and standardised them to our quality level following the acquisition. Specifically, this means that we have added a Property Manager position, replaced the facility management operator and created a traditional receptionist position. We are negotiating with the city district and the Technical administration of communications to improve the maintenance of the adjacent public areas. We have revitalized the building's lobby with new greenery and installed a fresh bar operated by Fruitisimo, one of the building's new tenants.
Do you offer any specific services that differentiate you from your competitors?
This is difficult to specify. It ranges from the aforementioned property managers at each of our buildings, to organising social, sporting or charity events for tenants, to helping with ESG issues. We have feedback from our tenants that they see all of these activities as above standard and add to the high standard of quality of our service.
For example, we have a project to standardise reception services in all our buildings, because we see reception as key to the first impression of tenants and visitors. We also have our own fitout manager within our Prague office portfolio who can quickly and efficiently advise on space solutions for existing and new tenants. Because she knows the buildings so well, she is able to develop space plans for tenants, including connections to the technology of each building, to achieve more efficient solutions and financial and energy savings.
Our flexibility is also a certain advantage. Our team is made up of people who have been working in the real estate industry for many years, so we can work effectively with the requirements and expectations of our tenants. Combined with the significantly flat internal decision-making structure of our company, we are able to be very flexible in virtually all areas.
Could you elaborate on the social events for tenants? How do they work and is there interest in them?
This is in the hands of each manager, who reflects the possibilities of the building and responds to the needs and wishes of the tenants. We organise various tastings and healthy breakfasts, first aid courses or blood donations, we celebrate Midsummer with the tenants, and in general various charity events and collections are very popular.
We also hold social meetings of tenants in our buildings, which are attended by the top management of WOOD Real Estate. A highlight is the occasional performance of our corporate music group Woodpeckers, which is made up of both employees and management of our company - that's how deep we go in creating long-term relationships with our tenants 😊.
We notice that these activities help to establish contacts between tenants, who then often continue their own interaction without us. And that's what we're all about. It's about creating positive emotions and connections.
Let's look at the ESG issue. What role does it play in property management?
A more and more important one! It is also related to the previous question of tenant care. But if we go down the environmental axis, it's a big issue for us, and judging by the feedback from our tenants, we're ahead of the competition there. We have an experienced ESG manager who manages internal processes to streamline building energy management across our portfolio. We work in line with EU ESG guidelines, while also being able to help tenants with their own ESG strategies. We manage, optimise and evaluate all processes in great detail, and each of our buildings has its own ESG report. We aim for our buildings to be in the highest possible category of the Building Energy Performance Certificate (PENB). At the same time, the buildings are continuously undergoing a certification process.
All of our buildings have electric vehicle charging stations, remote utility metering and a local distribution network, which allows for efficient and transparent cost allocation to tenants, motivating them to save energy.
You've mentioned emotions several times. Are they really that important in the tough business world?
For us, definitely. When you work with people, it's about creating a positive impression and emotion. And you can create positive emotions through personal connections or by creating a pleasant and inspiring environment. For example, we transform common areas in our buildings into galleries, displaying various artworks. It may be a small thing that you stop noticing after a while, but success is in the details, so we try to focus on every conceivable (and sometimes I feel unthinkable) aspect of our service.
The quality service in the canteens of our buildings certainly contributes to the positive emotions. Satisfied diners do not have to spend time outside the building looking for other catering services.
And we also believe that it pays to go so far in our relationships with tenants that we know who likes what or when their birthday is. Because only then can we say that we have the aforementioned 'partnership' with our tenants.
What about your emotions when working at WOOD Real Estate? Are they also positive?
I've worked in corporations all my life. Working at WOOD is liberating in that the management structure is relatively flat and decisions are quick and efficient. At the same time, it puts more responsibility on everyone for their own decisions, and that's an approach that really suits me.
As we are now operating in 3 countries and our activities have spread to all spheres of commercial development, elements of corporatism are already appearing here, but fortunately only positive ones in the form of taking over meaningful processes. And because it is clear that for me, relationships are paramount, I see as a major asset the very open and friendly relationships at all levels of our structure - from the owners of the company to the portfolio managers to the individual colleagues ensuring the smooth running of our buildings.
Media relations:
Marketing Manager
Ivona Prokešová
Tel.: +420 604 215 523
E-mail: ivona.prokesova@wood.cz
