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Insight

Growing Community Engagement

With face-to-face contact limited over the past year, developers have had to find new and innovative ways of instilling a sense of community for its residents, providing much-needed social interaction, and ensuring key services continued to be accessible. 


It’s proven that residents who are engaged with their local community are often happier than those who are not, so connecting neighbours to one another and allowing them to form meaningful relationships with their local community has now become a necessity rather than just a luxury.

Why Engage With the Community?

When a new resident moves into a new building, they may be unfamiliar with the surrounding area. Connecting them with others in the building, local shops and services, or details that can bring convenience to their lives is a great way of ensuring residents feel engaged from the offset. Many of our clients team up with local businesses to offer exclusive discounts to their residents on anything from cleaning services, dog walkers, to local restaurants.


Holding regular social events is also an important way in allowing friendships between neighbours to blossom – whether that’s online or in-person. Research by Apartment Life found that the more friends a resident has within their building, the more likely they are to renew their lease. Without any friends living in their community, residents only have a 29% chance of renewing. That number jumps to 38% if they have 1-3 friends, and if they have 7 or more friends, there’s a 47% likelihood that they’ll renew.

Not Just a Fad

With loneliness up 40% according to the Office for National Statistics, building operators and managers really came into their own during the pandemic, helping to tackle isolation.


Over the past twelve months, building operators have used our resident engagement portal, Spike Living, to keep residents informed about relevant issues, services, events, and health and safety protocols, while residents connected with their landlord, concierge, and neighbours.


Spike introduced specific COVID-19 forums for each of its clients where residents could offer or ask for help. An information centre was created providing updates, sourcing only reliable government links, while a recommended COVID-19 strategy was offered to help them continually adapt.


The forums showcased how neighbours were helping each other through the crisis. From online supper clubs to fitness and wellbeing events, the portal kept communities engaged and informed. We’ve seen conversations on sharing food, how to entertain kids, offering to deliver toilet roll and baked goods or pick up shopping – you name it!


Spike Living also helped local economies stay afloat, with residents wanting to do all they can to ensure their communities survive. Residents used our portal to connect local bakeries, local produce boxes getting delivered to flats, even a local brewery dropping off beer for a virtual tasting session.

Where Spike Global Can Help

Building a successful community may seem like a daunting task, but that’s where Spike can help. Our leading resident engagement and property management solutions can ensure you have the right technology in place to facilitate online and offline community engagement.


Spike’s Customer Success Team can also help with everything from creating awareness for a successful Spike Living launch, to providing monthly content and materials to share with your residents, guaranteeing your community gets the long-term ongoing support it deserves.


Spike’s solutions can be white-labelled and completely tailored to the needs of each development, enabling building operators to create and manage thriving communities, where residents can form meaningful connections.

2022 Community Engagement Guide

To help you hit the ground running in 2022 our Customer Success Team have put together a handy monthly guide which will hopefully provide you with some suggested content you could be sharing with your residents throughout the year.

Download a copy of our 2022 Community Engagement Guide below.

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Insight

ASK4 Joins Forces With Spike Global to Bring Residents Closer Together

Specialist Internet Service Provider ASK4 has formed a strategic partnership with Spike Global, the leading property management and resident engagement software provider, to help bring communities closer together.


The partnership will mean that ASK4 is able to provide its clients with market-leading property management and resident engagement technology solutions. 


Spike has a proven track record for delivering real, tangible results launching and operating property software worldwide. Spike’s resident engagement portal, Spike Living, can be white-labelled and completely tailored to the needs of each development, enabling building operators to create and manage thriving communities, where residents can form meaningful connections. Spike Living also allows residents to stay engaged with up-to-date news and events, book amenities, report maintenance issues, and even get involved with the wider local community by introducing them to local attractions and services.


Working across the residential sector, including build-to-rent, build-to-sell, purpose-built student accommodation, co-living, and later living, Spike’s solutions enable everyone within a building to benefit from the spaces they are invested in. 


Speaking of the partnership, ASK4’s Head of Marketing, Jess Glover, said:

“It is a genuine pleasure to be partnering with Spike Global. We have been impressed by both their technology and their team, and we know that their solutions will make a meaningful difference to our clients. If the last 18 months have taught us anything, it is that community matters, and fostering community within multi-tenant buildings is extremely important for the long-term wellbeing of residents.”


ASK4’s Client Relationship Director, Micha Fell, added:

“We have seen Spike’s solutions in action with a number of mutual clients and not only do they deliver a first-class experience for residents via their app, but they also enable operators to develop their ESG propositions, streamline operational processes and engage new revenue streams. All of which is extremely important in today’s market.”


Speaking for the Spike Global team, Marketing Director, Jonny Wootten, said:

“It is always great to collaborate with like-minded technology companies in the property sector and there is a wealth of common ground between Spike and ASK4. Connectivity and community engagement go hand-in-hand for today’s tenants, and we are delighted to be partnering with a specialist ISP with so much experience and expertise in the multi-tenant building sector.”


You will find the ASK4 and Spike Global team at The Student Accommodation Conference on 8th December. Contact us to arrange a meeting to learn more.

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Insight

How Tenant Engagement Drives Retention

The UK Build to Rent (BTR) sector is continuing to grow at pace, with the number of developments under construction rising 10% between 2019 and 2021, meaning there’s never been a better time for tenants searching for a place to live, with a wide range of options available. However, whilst many operators are choosing to invest in providing best-in-class amenities for their new tenants to enjoy, what else can they be doing to ensure they keep tenants renewing year after year?

In our latest blog, we look at the role tenant engagement can play in retaining both your tenants and staff.

Tenant Retention

Tenant expectations now go far beyond the four walls in which they live. Although, still an important factor in attracting tenants, amenities like pools and gyms, are no longer seen as such a strong differentiator, with many BTR operators now providing a whole host of amenities and services. The focus has shifted to the lifestyle the development can offer, placing a greater emphasis on convenience, connections, and meaningful living experiences.


Research by Apartment Life found that the more friends a tenant has within their building, the more likely they are to renew their tenancy. Without any friends living in their community, tenants only have a 29% chance of renewing. That number jumps to 38% if they have 1-3 friends, and if they have 7 or more friends, there’s a 47% likelihood that they’ll renew.


Despite social distancing, those developments using tenant portals still managed to allow friendships between neighbours to blossom. From online supper clubs to fitness and wellbeing events, tenant portals such as Spike Living have kept communities engaged and informed, and enabled tenants to find like-minded people who share similar interests. We’ve seen conversations on sharing food, how to entertain kids, tenants offering to deliver toilet roll and baked goods, or pick-up shopping – you name it! Tenant portals that have been created exclusively for building occupants also offer a better alternative to groups on Facebook or Nextdoor, which tend to be infiltrated by spammers and strangers.


Additionally, tenant portals can provide a much-needed lifeline to the local high street, whereby tenants are encouraged to use the services available to them on their doorstep. For instance, Spike Living enables developments to offer tenants a guide to all the places around them, and by partnering with local businesses, can offer exclusive discounts, encouraging tenants to fall in love with their independent chains.


It’s also proven that tenants who are engaged with their local community are often happier than those who are not and tend to post positive reviews about where they live on review sites such as HomeViews. According to a study by Apartments.com, 98% of apartment shoppers rely on reviews and ratings when looking for their next home, and 79% of respondents to NMHC’s Apartment Resident Preferences Report said that during an apartment hunt, they didn’t visit a development solely because the ratings and reviews were not favourable. These reviews can help attract new tenants keeping occupancy rates high and having tenants as champions is an effective tactic if you want to increase interest in your development, whilst reducing your marketing spend.

Staff Retention

Your onsite and front-of-house teams can also play an important role in helping to build that community feeling. No one likes constant change, so if you have high staff turnover, with familiar faces disappearing, this can certainly have a negative impact on tenant satisfaction, making it hard for them to build rapport.

Therefore, by providing your teams with technology solutions that enable them to do their jobs more effectively, not only does this have a positive impact on their performance but also increases their overall satisfaction, making it more likely that you’ll retain them.


For instance, Spike Living can provide your staff with a centralised place to manage all tenant communication, amenity bookings, parcel deliveries as well as maintenance requests, saving precious time and allowing them to focus on the job at hand, and avoiding unnecessary stress and complication to what can be an already challenging job.


Tenant portals can also free up staff by enabling tenants to self-serve. From frequently asked questions, appliance guides, to fire safety procedures, as well as the latest news from the wider community, having all this information readily available means that more often or not, tenants can find the information they need themselves, whenever they need it. The Samanage State of Workplace Survey found that workers spend an average of 520 hours a year on repetitive services and tasks that could be easily automated. Reminding tenants when their rent is due, when deliveries are ready to be collected from reception or providing building updates are just some of the tasks that tenant portals like Spike Living can take care of.

Summary

In Summary, BTR operators must start to place greater emphasis on building a community rather than solely focusing on the buildings themselves, where tenants can truly form meaningful connections with neighbours and staff alike, something that tenant portals such as Spike Living can help with.


Learn how Spike is working with a growing number of clients to drive tenant engagement and satisfaction by downloading our brochure below.

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Case Study

Europa Capital Embraces Spike Global Technology to Enhance Tenant Experience

European Investment Manager, Europa Capital has expanded its partnership with Spike Global by introducing the Spike Lettings and Spike Living software into two of it’s residential apartment blocks in Sheffield and London. Following the successful introduction of the solutions to its Anaconda Cut development in Manchester, the Investment Manager decided to roll out the technology into two other build-to-rent complexes Velocity Village in Sheffield and One Lampton Road in Hounslow.


Spike developed white label versions of its property management and resident engagement software Spike Living and its revolutionary end-to-end tenancy management software solution Spike Lettings especially for Europa’s property, which are designed to make the renting experience easier and more straightforward for both landlords and tenants. Spike Lettings helps to make the initial tenancy arrangements straightforward, while Spike Living provides around-the-clock communication between management and tenants that makes life easier in a multitude of ways.


James Pellington, Building Manager at Anaconda Cut, said: “Spike’s software is simple and intuitive to use, and will be second nature to the generations who have been brought up running their lives on their phones. Spike Living brings the process of being a tenant into the 21st century, and provides a convenient, modern method of communication that matches the contemporary convenience of these stylish new apartments.”


Tenants can use the Spike Living app in a variety of ways, from organising all of the practical stuff like keeping track of rental payments and reporting maintenance issues, to booking a laundry slot, opening their front doors or checking whether the concierge has received their parcel. It also has great potential to help newcomers to town make new friends, find local activities and get to know their neighbours, whether that’s in the virtual world or the real one. Unlike normal social media, Spike Living enables those new to the area to meet like-minded people within their own buildings, without being at risk from scammers and strangers.


Jeremy Heath-Smith, CEO of Spike Global, comments: “The use of our software at Velocity Village and One Lampton Road will help to create great communication and promote a smooth, professional relationship between tenants and landlord – avoiding the friction that can so often occur. Given that one of the leading causes of problems during tenancies is poor communication, having an instant, easy and stress-free way to facilitate those vital conversations has already proven its worth.”


Spike Living can be personalised for every client, so it is always set up to the specific requirements of both the management and the building. As well as accessing services available onsite, it can also be linked up with external partners to provide additional services, from bedding packs and weekly cleans to pizza delivery and beauty services, helping renters to live their best life in the city.

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Case Study

Nido Partners With Spike Global to Enhance Student Experience

Nido, Europe’s leading PBSA operator, has partnered with leading resident engagement and building management software provider Spike Global to launch a new smart app for residents across its portfolio. Launched at the beginning of the academic year, Nido has become one of the first student accommodation operators to provide its residents with an intuitive mobile app to manage their daily needs.


Following research and feedback from residents, it was imperative that utilising technology would enhance their experience and ensure the seamless operations and management of a PBSA building.


Acting as a ‘one stop shop’, the app provides a multitude of features including direct online communications with the residence team, viewing upcoming events, reservation of amenity spaces, management of deliveries and maintenance requests as well as viewing brand partners, local guides, and associated exclusive Nido promotions. 


With online security posing one of the largest risks to students, the app has been designed to keep users safe and secure. In the event of a security breach or lost phone, the onsite management teams at each of the Nido properties have the ability to ‘pause’ residents’ accounts, until the issues have been resolved and cleared.


Following a year of uncertainty, the app provides a safe online space for residents to communicate with each other and become familiar with their new neighbours, through forums and real-time chat rooms. This is in addition to the in-person interaction Nido facilitates.  Students can choose to attend events physically, online as well as communicate with the management team at the reception desk by direct messaging on the app, all channels of communication are available to be used at the discretion of each student’s needs. 


Nido prides itself on putting resident mental and physical health as a key priority and the facilitation of communication – online or in-person, has been instrumental in the company’s operational success. 


During the first two weeks of being live, the app has already been downloaded by more than 70 per cent of Nido’s residents. Once downloaded, residents can easily join groups and forums to meet each other and start building their community.


Darren Gardner, COO of Nido, commented, “As one of the first PBSA operators to introduce this type of platform, we are pleased to offer this high-end product to our valued residents. The wellbeing of both residents and our onsite teams is our top priority and allowing a safe method of communication whilst encouraging interaction, is a great milestone for the company.”


Jeremy Heath-Smith, CEO of Spike Global, commented, “We are delighted to be working with Nido and believe the app will help students find their feet – enabling them to meet other students in the building, as well as helping them to cope with all the practical aspects of moving away from home for the very first time. The app has been designed to be straightforward to use, so whatever worries they might have about the new term, managing their student accommodation won’t be one of them.”

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Insight

Day in the Life With Francesca Thornton, BHB America

Welcome to our Day in the Life feature, where each month we sit down with one of our clients and highlight the amazing work they are doing within the property sector. This month we’re delighted to have sat down with BHB America, who provide private office services for the residents of luxury buildings across London, New York and Miami.


What’s your name and role?

Francesca Thornton, Director USA, BHB America


Describe a typical day for you?

We spend our days fulfilling requests for the incredible residents of the buildings we look after across the world. Whether it’s travel, private yachts, artwork sourcing, party planning, restaurant reservations, or anything else, we’re always working hard to go above and beyond and make the residents’ lives that little bit easier.


What is your favourite part of the job?

My favourite part of the job is definitely when we get a seemingly impossible request from a client, but we manage to deliver on it for them.


What are your top places to visit locally?

My favourite spots in Manhattan are definitely brunch at Sadelle, Central Park for a walk, Black Fox for a coffee, Van Leeuwen for ice cream.


How does Spike make your day-to-day life easier?

Using Spike Living means that we can speak directly with residents and have all their requests in one place, which makes looking back at historic requests and tracking request fulfilment super easy. We also find the back end of the software seriously easy to use when we’re uploading new content. Being able to preview how it will look before publishing it is useful too.


Spike Living connects more than 200,00 residents with their local communities. Download the Spike Living brochure below to learn how our software can support you in your day-to-day life.

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Insight

Community Engagement – Key Takeaways From August

This month’s community engagement blog comes courtesy of our Customer Success Director, Andy Silvers, where he shares what we’ve learned in August and his top tips for driving engagement across your buildings and residents.

What we’ve learned in August

With the holiday season in full swing, we saw a 65% decrease in amenity and event bookings compared to July, with residents opting to make the most out of the warm weather and explore further afield. However, it was positive to see that app usage was up 200% since the beginning of the year, with forum posts remaining consistently high, underlining the role that resident apps like Spike Living are now playing in our daily lives. Furthermore, despite many people returning to their offices for the first time in well over a year, we saw a 50% increase in deliveries being processed through our platforms, showing how accustomed we’ve become to online shopping, with this trend set to continue.


Carrying on from last month, here are some more fun ways to boost engagement and encourage your residents to get to know their neighbours and your in-house team.   


Pop up Food Stands

Bring the local community to your residents. We have clients who regularly invite local restaurants and cafes onsite to provide pop up food stands offering residents a mixture of cuisine to try. This is a great way to encourage your residents to get to know their local area, and local businesses may even offer a discount to those who live in the building on future bookings.


Book Club

An oldie but goodie. Even before the pandemic hit, some of our clients had thriving book clubs where residents regularly got together over food and drink to discuss their latest read. When the pandemic hit, these turned into virtual clubs, where meet ups were held over Zoom instead.


Running Club

If you have a communal gym, what better way to increase usage than by forming a running club. Or if your residents prefer to be outside, why not provide them with some suggested running routes where they can then compete for the fastest time, encouraging some friendly competition?


Film Club

If you have screening or cinema rooms onsite, then having a film club is the perfect way to encourage neighbours to bond over their love of films. Why not choose a ‘theme of the week’ and allow you9r residents to become their very own film critics by recommending their own films to watch? We have one of our clients have over 1,000 bookings for their screening rooms last month – showing that nothing can beat being at the movies!

 

Baking Club

With most people confined to their homes during the pandemic, we saw many residents turn their hands to baking, with a few even leaving their baked goodies in reception for others in their buildings to enjoy. Baking clubs provide the perfect opportunity for residents to share and discuss recipes, and with Bake Off returning to our screens this month, why not create your own mini ‘bake off’ with residents competing to be crowned star baker of the month?


Film Club

If you have screening or cinema rooms onsite, then having a film club is the perfect way to encourage neighbours to bond over their love of films. Why not choose a ‘theme of the week’ and allow your residents’ to become their very own film critics by recommending their own films to watch? We had one of our clients have over 1,000 bookings for their screening rooms last month – showing that nothing can beat being at the movies!


Have your own tips for driving resident engagement or decided to implement some of our suggestions above? Then get in touch, we would love to hear from you.

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Case Study

Spike Joins Forces With The James to Offer Modern Living at the Touch of a Button

When new build-to-rent brand The James opens its doors in Liverpool this week, 100 fully-furnished apartments will be filling up with new tenants, all looking to settle in and feel at home – a process that will be much easier thanks to its partnership with Spike Global.


The innovative resident engagement and building management software provider has worked with The James to create a white-labelled version of its revolutionary end-to-end tenancy management software solution Spike Lettings and resident engagement app Spike Living that have been tailored perfectly to the needs of residents at the luxury hotel-style residence in James Street. 


Spike Lettings allows prospective tenants to easily browse and find available apartments online, make an initial enquiry, and progress through the reservation stage, all the way through to moving in. Once in, Spike Living provides new tenants with one simple, intuitive app, allowing them to communicate with the management and with each other – making life easier in a multitude of ways. From booking laundry services, reporting a maintenance issue or checking if the concierge has received a parcel, the app makes routine communication quick and easy. Not that it’s just for the practical things in life – The James’ residents’ app also has the potential to help tenants make friends, find activities and get to know their neighbours, whether that’s in the virtual world or the real one.


At The James, apartments will be let for periods of just a few days or weeks, or for the long term, which means that there will be all kinds of residents moving in and out, looking to hit the ground running in terms of their social life. With a set-up that is designed so that tenants can live, work and socialise on site, having a truly localised way of meeting like-minded people will be more important than ever – and Spike Global’s app, Spike Living, is streets ahead of social media options such as Facebook and Nextdoor, which find it hard to keep out spammers and strangers. As The James’ residents’ app will be downloadable solely by residents at The James, it builds a genuinely safe and local community at the same time providing practical help such as being able to easily view tenancy agreements or check when rent payments are due.


We spoke with one of the Founders who explained why they have chosen Spike Global to provide the app for the new venture: “Our brand is very much rooted in stress-free, self-contained luxury living – when people move in with us they have everything they need, right down to crockery and cutlery – so we needed software that would provide a similarly high-quality and comprehensive service.”


“We use the Spike Lettings software to help get our tenants on board, and are confident that the Spike Living app will support them as they settle in. In many ways, renting with us is like living in a five star hotel, with all the amenities available at the touch of a button. We developed The James, which will also be launching in Manchester and Sheffield in the near future, because we wanted to bridge the gap between the tenant and the landlord – a relationship that is often broken and lacking in trust in the traditional rental market. At our properties, The James brand is the landlord – one that is always available and ready to take action thanks to Spike Living.”


Jeremy Heath-Smith, CEO of Spike Global, comments: “The strength of Spike Lettings and Spike Living is the extent to which they can be personalised for every client, providing a building and community-specific experience, tailored exactly to the facilities and options that are available. We not only create a unique platform for our clients, but we also provide dedicated back-up and support every step of the way. We are delighted to be working with The James, and we know it will help tenants there to settle in, liaise with their landlord and find their place in the community with ease.”

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Insight

How Are Building Operators Tackling ESG?

The use of environmental, social and governance (ESG) reporting is increasing. Achieving a point where a development has a positive ESG impact should be the goal of all investors and developers.

Why ESG?

Tenants are increasingly basing their rental and purchasing decisions on the potential environmental and social impact of their homes. It is therefore in the best interests of investors and developers to create schemes that meet these needs.


The World Bank makes the case that ‘Green’ buildings can:

  • Yield up to 23% higher occupancy rates
  • Provide 8% higher rental income
  • Create 31% higher sale premiums than traditional buildings

Other industries such as fashion, entertainment, technology, and leisure have demonstrated a clear connection between ESG and enhanced returns. Consumers, including shareholders, are demanding integrity – and changing their spending choices to get it. The property industry has the opportunity to do the same, embracing robust, genuine ESG investments.

Where to start?

People should be at the centre of everything you do, with the goal of providing great homes, creating healthier places to live, and boosting the social and economic worth of the surrounding neighbourhoods.

Spike Global provides software solutions that connect property managers with residents, as well as creating a closer link to the wider local community. Here are some of the ways our clients are benefiting.

Engagement

Our resident portal, Spike Living, allows developers to promote best practices and provide key building information such as where to find the nearest recycling point, fire safety policies and procedures, as well as ways in which residents can reduce their own impact on the environment.


Operators can also easily and quickly share ideas with residents and gather useful feedback on proposed building initiatives and schemes, as well as enabling the proactive reporting of building and maintenance issues, ensuring problems get rectified sooner, whilst at the same time providing a full digital paper trail.


Spike Living facilities the use of communal areas by allowing residents to book out a room or reserve a slot at a gym class, all via their phone, turning what typically is an archaic process into a seamless and easy task. This encourages residents to spend more time enjoying their buildings, and not having to worry about the stress of gaining access.

Supporting the local community

Our clients use Spike Living to bring the local community to their residents by utilising the ‘around me’ feature to provide much-needed visibility to smaller businesses and encouraging their residents to explore what’s on their doorsteps. Building operators can also partner with local shops and restaurants to offer residents exclusive discounts and incentives, all via their residents’ app.

Measuring performance

Residents’ apps like Spike Living provide building owners and operators the opportunity to truly understand what their residents are interested in, from amenities and services usage, to monitoring resident satisfaction. You can also analyse the performance of each building and identify areas to maximise operational and cost efficiencies, such as response time to support enquiries, number of maintenance defects reported, and other complaints filed.  

Summary

ESG may sound like a daunting and complex subject, but it can be achieved through consistent actions, communication, and a drive to make a difference from everyone involved in a development, from investors, operators, residents to contractors. It’s important to see ESG as a journey, and not just a destination.


Get in touch to learn how we’re supporting leading developers and operators with their ESG initiatives. 

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Case Study

New Spike Platform Enhances Customer Experience for The Crown Estate

Partnering with innovative resident engagement and building management software provider Spike Global, The Crown Estate has implemented an end-to-end residential portal at its latest development Morley House on Regent Street in London’s West End. The new software provides a complete property communication and management solution for residents at the 44-apartment residence.


Spike Global has worked closely with Morley House to create a bespoke version of its resident engagement app Spike Living, specifically tailored to the needs of residents. Opening up communication lines between the resident and management, the app further enhances the lifestyle available at the development, whilst serving as a convenient central place for resident’s everyday needs.


Morley House offers apartments to rent with hotel-style amenities, accessible via the new residents’ portal. The app is designed to create a sense of community, with  residents able to book services including the residents’ lounge and screening room, access a 24-hour concierge/security at the touch of a button, handle maintenance issues, view information updates and notifications, such as fire safety procedures and residents’ manuals, as well manage their car club membership.


The app also enables residents to access partner promotions, while an integrated partnership with PingLocker allows them to book apartment cleaning services and beauty treatments in the local area.


Charlotte Moss, Asset Manager at The Crown Estate, comments: “The Morley House residents’ app has been well received, not only by the residents, who have the convenience of accessing a wide range of services from their mobile device, but also by the concierge and management team.”


Jeremy Heath-Smith, CEO of Spike Global, comments: “In working with the team at The Crown Estate, our focus has been on implementing a platform that truly puts luxury lifestyle at the heart of the residence’s operations. With such a wide range of amenities and services available to residents it was important for us to implement a seamless communication tool while enhancing the high-end user experience. We are delighted to be working with Morley House and we hope residents will feel connected, cared for and valued in their homes.”