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Benchmark
Experience: Better Data for Better Decisions
Benchmark
Strategic Services is an independent research and consulting
firm with extensive experience in the commercial/multifamily
real estate industry. Benchmark provides strategic consulting
utilizing applied research that adds measurable value to
client businesses by generating better data to improve decision-making.
Expertise
and philosophy distinguish Benchmark from its competition.
Benchmark's President and founder is a Clinical Psychologist
with twenty-five years of strategic consulting, research
and organizational experience, the past 12 years of which
have been devoted to real estate.
Benchmark's
affiliates in Atlanta, Boston, Dallas, and Las Vegas are
industry-leading experts in the areas of commercial/multifamily
and corporate real estate, research, fiduciary/fund regulation
and management, capital markets, transaction, and asset
management services. Each member of Benchmark's senior
leadership team averages more than 25 years of real estate
experience.
Benchmark
continues to develop a robust suite of research software
and application services to meet client information needs.
In addition to developing all the architecture and programming
for our proprietary research applications and statistical
analyses, Benchmark also creates a variety of software
applications for use by clients. Benchmark provides both
traditional paper surveys and research methodologies that
are completely web-based.
Benchmarking
Satisfaction = Measuring Management's Performance
Benchmark's
proprietary Tenant/Resident Satisfaction Survey system
demonstrates how our applied research capabilities add
measurable value to our clients. Tenant/Resident Satisfaction
Surveys measure management's performance in meeting customers'
expectations over time. Satisfaction scores are only one
of two major components for determining satisfaction.
It is also necessary to identify what is most important
to tenants/residents.
Benchmark's
Tenant/Resident Satisfaction Survey is a performance measurement
system that:
Measures management's success in meeting customers' expectations
in the areas of greatest importance as defined by tenants.
Utilizes both Satisfaction and Relative Importance measures
to identify prioritize areas in need of greatest improvement.
Generates specific Action Plans for improving Tenant/Resident
Satisfaction on a property-by-property basis.
Creates a road map for improving both tenant/resident
satisfaction and retention.
Provides an independent and objective "management
services audit" for determining staffing, resource
allocation and incentive compensation options.
Benchmarking
is one of the most powerful and cost-effective strategic
tools available for providing superior management services.
Improved tenant satisfaction enhances the bottom line
by reducing tenant replacement costs and increasing service
reputation among current and potential clients, thereby
creating greater brokerage and marketing opportunities.
Customizing
Survey and Reporting to Reflect Your Portfolio and Decision-Making
Hierarchy
Information needs differ from client to client. Benchmark
believes that clients must have the ability to define both
the surveys that will be sent to tenants and the reporting
structure that will maximize the usefulness of the results.
Because of Benchmark's technological capability, we are
able to create the precise reports that clients require.
Benchmark
has developed the ability to analyze and compare tenant
satisfaction based on any set of variables that can be defined
by the client. These may include performance comparisons
that control for building quality (i.e., "A" vs.
"B" Quality), by property manager, years under
management and property type, just to name a few.
Components
of Benchmarking
Delivering
superior quality services requires knowing what tenants
and clients want and expect regarding their management services
provider. This knowledge cannot be obtained by a one time
"snapshot" of how well a property and its personnel
are performing for its tenants. Instead, gathering this
knowledge involves a process that occurs over time and involves
the following four main components.
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Objective Performance Measurement establishes
a "baseline" assessment of tenant satisfaction
with current property and management performance,
and tenant expectations for the future.
Action Planning utilizes
specific data from performance measurement to identify
strengths and weaknesses in service delivery, pinpointing
areas where improvement is needed. This allows management
to strategically allocate resources where improvement
is needed most, maximize existing strengths, and address
tenant, resident and client issues in the most appropriate
and cost-effective manner.
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Implementation of
action plans and communication with tenants/residents demonstrates
that their concerns have been taken seriously and have been
responded to positively.
Repeat Performance Measure assesses
change in satisfaction.
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Survey
Results Focus on Action Planning
Benchmark
utilizes its unique, multi-dimensional survey system to measure
Tenant/Resident Satisfaction and the Relative Importance of each
survey item. This applied research capability allows Benchmark
to provide clients with better data for improved decision-making.
Relative
Importance Ratings are measured by asking tenants/residents to
rank how important each category in the survey is to their satisfaction
with the building.
Relative Importance Ratings demonstrate the degree to which management
services is "on target" with the services they provide.
Satisfaction Scores alone only tell half the story. Relative Importance
ratings allow management to prioritize how to respond to the survey
results.
The
reason to measure performance is to create better data for improved
decision-making. Action Planning, and the results on which they
are based, MUST be fully documented down to the individual tenant
or resident level. Benchmark's system:
Strategic
Planning, Direct Competitive Comparisons and Anonymous Comparisons
Benchmark
utilizes multiple means to determine how your properties compare
with the competition. The first and perhaps most effective method
is to ask tenants or residents directly to identify the other,
local properties they think of as competing with their current
building, and why. This set of questions generates an array of
data that provides "chapter and verse" regarding how
tenants/residents perceive your building vis-à-vis the
competition. It also identifies the competition and provides data
about their property's perceived strengths and weaknesses.
Anonymous
comparisons are also useful for gaining a general sense of how
a property or a portfolio is performing against a group of unidentified
buildings. Benchmark believes that that in order to provide better
data, thereby increasing the usefulness of such comparisons, it
is important to minimize the number of "unknowns" in
the comparison group.
Depending
on client's information needs, Benchmark can customize the comparison
group data to approximate the client's portfolio on a national
as well as market-by-market basis.
In most cases, Benchmark is able to regulate the "goodness
of fit" between a client's properties and those in our database.
Benchmark Performance Comparisons indicates whether a property
is performing above or below the market average for similar types
of properties.
Applied
Research Tools Streamline the Survey Process and Create Better
Data
Benchmark's
entire survey process is 100% web enabled. Benchmark has created
a suite of unique, copyrighted web-based research tools to simplify
the entire survey process. Benchmark creates a research web site
for each client on Benchmark's web server. From this site, Benchmark
provides clients with cutting edge research tools. Whether building
a new tenant/resident roster or importing an existing one, clients
are able to view and edit the survey participants for a single
building or the entire portfolio, all in "real time".
Response
Rates: Benchmark provides complete, customized survey packages,
including all communication. Surveys are delivered electronically
via the Internet as well as by traditional, printed means. Tenant/Residents
clearly prefer to respond via the web because it is faster and
easier
for them to do so. Regardless of the response format, clients
are able to track their response rates real-time on Benchmark's
secure web site. Because of these tools, clients are able to control
the survey process, know who has responded and validate that the
survey is accessing the right people.
"Instant
Feedback"©: Benchmark has developed an "Instant
Feedback System" that allows clients to receive tenant/resident
responses the instant they are submitted. Clients who elect the
Instant Feedback option can determine exactly who should receive
those responses. In many cases, it is appropriate for individual
property managers to be on that list. In other cases, it may only
be appropriate for the asset managers to see those results.
"360
Action Planning"©: Once the results have been analyzed
and reported, Benchmark's web-based Action Planning System simplifies
and documents the action planning process. Using Instant Feedback,
Benchmark creates an Action Planning web site for each client
and electronically distributes customized Action Planning Worksheets
for each survey category at each property that requires attention.
By completing the worksheet online, property level responses can
be transmitted directly to the client and can become part of the
budget and process. This type of robust and comprehensive action
planning can be completed in 30 days from delivery of survey results.
Starting
the Survey Process
The
survey process begins with a mutual confidentiality and non-disclosure
agreement that equally protects the proprietary information and
work product of both the client and Benchmark. After the contracts
are executed, Benchmark will implement the performance measurement
program and results are generally completed in eight-to-twelve
weeks. You may contact Benchmark at the locations indicated below:
Owen
S. Robbins
President
Benchmark Strategic Services, Inc.
13253 North La Montana, Suite 101
Fountain Hills, Arizona 85268
Phone: 480.816.3599
FAX: 480.816.3807
Email: orobbins@benchmarkit.com
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John
Baczewski
Director
Benchmark Strategic Services, Inc.
82 Pye Brook Lane
Boxford, MA 01921
Phone: 978.887.3750
Fax: 978.359.1068
Email: jbaczewski@benchmarkit.com
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Additional
Benchmark Strategic Services?
Benchmark
provides a wide array of knowledge-based, information-driven strategic
planning services that increase clients' competitiveness. Benchmark
partners with clients in many ways:
Acting as an "outsourced" research department, creating
custom-designed research methodologies to answer unique information
needs.
Creating web-based application services and software development.
Providing strategic planning systems and services for incentive
compensation and employee development.
Benchmark
also utilizes its experience and technology to provide the following
performance measurement based research services:
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Broker Perception Evaluations |
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Tenant/resident Preferences |
| Competitive
Comparison Evaluations |
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Revenue
Enhancement |
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Joint Venture Evaluations |
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Comparative Analysis of Management Performance |
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National Accounts Evaluations |
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Comparative Analysis of Vendor Performance |
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Lease Process Evaluations |
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Initial Occupancy Evaluations |
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Construction Management Evaluations |
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Employee Satisfaction |
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Client Services Evaluations |
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