Xymax Real Estate Institute

TOPIC REPORTHow to Improve Office Tenant Satisfaction
From the results of the tenant satisfaction survey 2023

September 15, 2023

Introduction
It goes without saying that tenants are key stakeholders in the office building lease business. Improved
tenant satisfaction results in less cancellation risk and long-term stable operation of the building.
To improve tenant satisfaction, it is important to enhance the safety and comfort of the building, develop
a worker-friendly environment, and establish trust between tenants and the property manager. However,it is unclear what factors are more likely to affect tenant satisfaction, and it is difficult to prioritize initiatives
under limited manpower and budgets that can be spent on real estate management.
Therefore, the Xymax Group has conducted a tenant satisfaction survey of office buildings it manages
to gather feedback on tenants’ overall satisfaction and related matters. In this report, we analyze theresponse data obtained from the survey to identify the factors that are more likely to affect tenantsatisfaction and the points to be aware of in building management as a reference for building owners’
sustainable building management.

The Survey
We will first explain the outline of the survey. The survey’s target respondents are tenants of officebuildings managed by the Xymax Group (Xymax, Xymax Hokkaido, Xymax Tokai, Xymax Kansai, Xymax
Kyushu). In designing the question items, we referred to CASBEE–Office Health Checklist,*1 a tool forassessing the impact of office buildings on office workers’ health and intellectual productivity, based on
the idea that promoting occupant wellness is an important role of office buildings.
*1 CASBEE–Health Checklist (Houses, offices, communities), Japan Sustainable Building Consortium (in Japanese only)
https://www.jsbc.or.jp/research-study/casbee/tools/health.html

TOPIC REPORT: How to Improve Office Tenant Satisfaction
The contents of this report are as of the time of writing. Xymax Real Estate Institute does not guarantee their accuracy or completeness. This report may not be
reproduced, cited, transmitted, distributed, or reprinted without prior permission of Xymax Real Estate Institute.
Copyright © 2023 Xymax Real Estate Institute Corporation. All rights reserved.

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TOPIC REPORT｜Xymax Real Estate InstituteSpecifically, in addition to overall satisfaction (Q1), the question items were designed to collect thevaluations of the building in the following five areas: Safety & security (Q2–5), comfort & health (Q6–13),
ease of work (Q14–18), neighborhood environment (Q19–21), and relationship with the building’s
management (Q22). All ratings were done on a 5-point scale and converted into scores of 1 to 5 at theanalysis stage. We also gathered specific comments and opinions for the 21 items besides overallsatisfaction (Figure 1).
Figure 1: Question ItemsThe survey was conducted between April and May 2023 and obtained responses from 1,103 tenants of 175
office buildings nationwide.

TOPIC REPORT: How to Improve Office Tenant Satisfaction
The contents of this report are as of the time of writing. Xymax Real Estate Institute does not guarantee their accuracy or completeness. This report may not be
reproduced, cited, transmitted, distributed, or reprinted without prior permission of Xymax Real Estate Institute.
Copyright © 2023 Xymax Real Estate Institute Corporation. All rights reserved.

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TOPIC REPORT｜Xymax Real Estate InstituteAnalysis of Factors Affecting Tenant Satisfaction
To examine which question item affects overall satisfaction the most, we built a model with overallsatisfaction as the objective variable and the 21 question items as the explanatory variables and conducteda multiple regression analysis. Each explanatory variable has been standardized (converted so that themean is 0 and the standard deviation is 1) to compare the degree of impact on overall satisfaction.
Figure 2 shows the result of the analysis. Statistically significant question items (p<0.01) were extracted
to compare the degree of impact on overall satisfaction.
Figure 2: Factors Affecting Tenant Satisfaction

The result of the analysis reveals that the cleanliness of the building, the relationship with the property
manager, and the thermal environment have a relatively strong impact on overall satisfaction. It would be
more effective to prioritize addressing these issues to improve tenant satisfaction.

TOPIC REPORT: How to Improve Office Tenant Satisfaction
The contents of this report are as of the time of writing. Xymax Real Estate Institute does not guarantee their accuracy or completeness. This report may not be
reproduced, cited, transmitted, distributed, or reprinted without prior permission of Xymax Real Estate Institute.
Copyright © 2023 Xymax Real Estate Institute Corporation. All rights reserved.

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TOPIC REPORT｜Xymax Real Estate InstituteSpecific Initiatives to Improve Satisfaction
From the comments obtained, we consider the specific initiatives to improve tenants’ ratings of thefactors that have a relatively strong impact on overall satisfaction, as indicated in Figure 2. Figure 3 is aword cloud visualizing the frequently used words in respondents’ comments on the thermal environment.*2
When we focus on the words that appear frequently, the elements that are likely to lead to complaints
emerge, such as “adjust(調整),” “setting(設定),” “difficult(難しい),” “place(場所),” “by the window(窓際),”“desk(席),” and “uneven(ムラ).”*2 Words related to facilities with the same meaning as “thermal environment” and to temperature (e.g., “A/C,”“air-conditioning,” “hot,” “cold”) have been removed in advance.

Figure 3: Word Cloud (from Comments on “Thermal Environment”)

The following are the key points of initiatives summarized from the comments for the 10 items that havea relatively strong impact on overall satisfaction.
 Cleanliness: Tenants’ eyes tend to be drawn to areas that are not cleaned well, such as lavatories,
office kitchenettes, stairs, and smoking spaces.
 Relationship with property manager: The property manager is expected to respond swiftly andsincerely to inquiries and requests from the tenants.

TOPIC REPORT: How to Improve Office Tenant Satisfaction
The contents of this report are as of the time of writing. Xymax Real Estate Institute does not guarantee their accuracy or completeness. This report may not bereproduced, cited, transmitted, distributed, or reprinted without prior permission of Xymax Real Estate Institute.
Copyright © 2023 Xymax Real Estate Institute Corporation. All rights reserved.

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TOPIC REPORT｜Xymax Real Estate Institute Thermal environment: This factor is the most likely to lead to complaints. Since many comments
are related to uneven room temperatures in different locations and the difficulty in adjusting
temperatures, there appears to be a high need for individual air conditioning control.
Diversity support: Braille and foreign language signage at entrances, lavatories, and elevators, aswell as universal design that allows wheelchair users to move smoothly, are required.

Interior: Since the interior of exclusive areas is basically done by C construction, tenants tend toregard complaints as issues to be addressed by their own. Although the interior design of common
areas improves the overall atmosphere in some cases.
 Lavatory: Specific comments, such as concerning weak water pressure, a lack of disinfectants, andwater splashes on washbasins are relatively common. It is necessary to ensure that every corner ofthe lavatory is well maintained.

Disaster prevention: Emphasis is placed on disaster preparedness, such as evacuation drills and thesharing of manuals. The cancellation of group evacuation drills during the pandemic resulted incomplaints in some cases.
 Elevator: There are many comments on elevator use during busy times, such as morning rush hours.
Although increasing the number of elevators is difficult, there is room to consider changing thesettings or guiding users during busy times.
 Community attachment: Trouble between tenants or with neighbors should be avoided the most.
Initiatives to build good relationships include the building management’s effort to communicate
with neighbors on a daily basis and become familiar with neighbors through community events.

Acoustic environment: Tenants tend to be bothered by the sound of other tenants’ voices andequipment noise rather than outside noises. It is particularly necessary to pay attention to thesoundproofing performance of partitions when multiple tenants occupy the same floor.

Conclusion
This report introduced a series of methods to gain insight into the prioritization and specifics of initiatives
by compiling tenants' feedback through a satisfaction survey. To satisfy tenants, it is desirable to respondaccording to the individual situation since issues differ between buildings. However, the most effective way
in general would be to provide a clean environment and build a good relationship with the tenants.
The comments on the 11 items we did not cite in the previous section also offer insight into improving
tenant comfort and ease of work. For “light environment,” as an item that affects workplace comfort, forexample, there were many comments requesting a switch to LED lighting, whether in common areas orexclusive areas, due to the widespread use of such lighting. Regarding “air environment,” there were many
comments related to “winter dryness” and “infiltration of outside air with smell and pollen,” suggesting theneed to humidify the entire building and clean ventilation filters frequently.
Comments for items concerning diverse spaces, such as “workspace,” “space for refreshing,” and“communication support,” include, “There are not enough spaces for remote meetings,” “The refreshing

TOPIC REPORT: How to Improve Office Tenant SatisfactionThe contents of this report are as of the time of writing. Xymax Real Estate Institute does not guarantee their accuracy or completeness. This report may not be
reproduced, cited, transmitted, distributed, or reprinted without prior permission of Xymax Real Estate Institute.
Copyright © 2023 Xymax Real Estate Institute Corporation. All rights reserved.

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TOPIC REPORT｜Xymax Real Estate Instituteroom for lunch is crowded, making it difficult to sit down,” and “Communication is difficult due to infection
prevention measures.” These tend to be recognized as issues of exclusive areas, but tenants who feel theycannot solve the problems by their own due to space limitations, etc., commented that they would like tohave meeting rooms available for rent in common area, and would be grateful if the rooftop could be
opened up as a space for refreshing.
Expectations for office buildings change with time. Even if providing standard functions can satisfy
tenants currently, the evolution of work styles and growing awareness of wellness may lead to a demand
for spaces that can accommodate diverse work styles and spaces surrounded by greenery. Xymax Real
Estate Institute intends to continue tracking tenant needs and disseminating useful information throughcontinuous surveys and analyses.
(Acknowledgement)
We would like to express our deepest gratitude for the precious advice that was kindly offered by
Associate Professor Tatsuya Hayashi of the Chiba University Graduate School of Engineering upon
conducting the analysis.

Survey Overview
Survey period

April–May 2023

Targetrespondents

Tenants of office buildings managed by the Xymax Group

Geographicalcoverage

Nationwide

SurveymethodEmailNumber ofvalid answers

1,103

For further inquiries, please contact below:
Xymax Real Estate Institutehttps://soken.xymax.co.jp | E-MAIL: info-rei@xymax.co.jp

TOPIC REPORT: How to Improve Office Tenant Satisfaction
The contents of this report are as of the time of writing. Xymax Real Estate Institute does not guarantee their accuracy or completeness. This report may not be
reproduced, cited, transmitted, distributed, or reprinted without prior permission of Xymax Real Estate Institute.
Copyright © 2023 Xymax Real Estate Institute Corporation. All rights reserved.

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