By Kirk Layton, President & Co-Founder, The Tenex Group
There are a lot of reasons to love the holiday season – most of us get to look forward to spending time with family and friends, there’s plenty of holiday fare to tempt our taste buds, and holiday decorations at work and home create a feast for the eyes. Property managers do an amazing job of decorating their office buildings – inside and out – with dazzling and creative displays of light and colour. If you have a chance this holiday season, take a walk downtown to drink in the sights and sounds of the office towers’ holiday decorations, which for many cities are now out in full force.
Holiday decorations are a great way for property managers to engage your tenants and help get everyone into the holiday spirit. Many property managers take things a step or two further by hosting holiday events, organizing toy drives, and playing Santa by handing out gifts to their tenants. We’ve gift-wrapped a few ideas that property managers can use to help make their tenants jolly this holiday season.
Making Spirits Bright with Sweet Treats
As expected, Santa’s not the only one who loves cookies. One Christmas past, a property manager client enlisted us to arrange the delivery of over 11,000 holiday-themed cookies to their tenants. Not only are the home-made cookies delicious – trust me, I’ve sampled a few! – but they’re individually bagged and custom-branded to build tenant goodwill as well as holiday cheer.
Santa Claus is Coming to … the Parking Garage
Back when I worked in property management, we used to have a lot of fun with holiday-themed giveaways. One of my favourites was a beautiful silver-coloured Christmas tree ornament that we gave to the tenants as they drove into the parking garage. This was a very cost-effective giveaway – the total price tag was less than $1,000 but the impact was priceless. (You can even include a charitable component where you donate an equivalent amount to a local food bank.) The tenants loved the ornaments and really appreciated the gesture. We made it more personal by donning Santa hats and greeting the tenants with ornaments in hand as they entered the garage. It was a truly engaging giveaway that generated a lot of holiday spirit!
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Meme
Lots of property managers are organizing fun holiday-themed events in their lobbies to celebrate the season with their tenants and spread a little joy. To up the engagement of your next holiday event, include a social element by taking fun photos of your tenants and posting them to your social media channels; you can then encourage your tenants to visit your Instagram account and like the post they’re in to extend the reach of your event. You can also add a hashtag to the event and invite your tenants to post to their own social channels, spreading even more joy to the world!
What are some of the more creative or engaging tenant events that you’ve organized in your building? Be sure to share them by leaving a reply to this post. Happy Holidays!
