So, you’re dedicated to tracking and quantifying your team’s performance with property metrics. Congratulations, you’ve made it to level 2! Your next challenge is deciding what that means, or what you need to measure.

This is a bit more complicated. The key performance indicators (KPIs) need to be reflective of your company, insightful, and realistic. And who’s to say what the magic number is? Certainly not just one person.

Here are four things you need to look at before setting your KPIs, and the people you need to involve.

Consider Your Own Target Property Metrics

Your own personal ‘magic number’ should be something you can pull up and reference at any time. (And no, not on a bar napkin!) Keep that number in your mind, every day. It’s crucial. It should include service delivery targets, communication standards, maintenance targets, and so on.

As an example, let’s say we’re talking about arrival time for a work order. How fast do you, a property manager, think a building engineer should be able to arrive at the tenant space after a problem is reported?

That’s your first data point.

Evaluate Property Metrics From a Leasing Perspective

The next data point to capture comes from the leasing perspective.

When the leasing manager is leasing a space, is (s)he communicating anything to the new tenants about the set expectations? Is the tenant asking for anything specific? Is there any unique language in their lease or any promises we’ve made to them?

If the answer to any of these questions is “yes,” you have your answer for that particular tenant. Because you’re likely contractually obligated to provide what you’ve promised.

Talk With Your Building Engineers

This is where you get a reality check. You may have considered a three hour turnaround for a tenant work request reasonable as a baseline. But your building engineer(s) may have a contrasting opinion based on their experience.

So share your suggested baseline with your engineer(s) and then ask for their input. What’s reasonable? Imagine you’re going to do this job, undergo a building engineer’s typical workday, aggressively handing incoming work orders and requests with all the other distractions that are happening. Does it seem possible? What expectations are realistic and reasonable based on known data and experience?

Also consider what data you haven’t had access to, which could be useful for measurement in the future.

Compare Your Targets With Industry Statistics

What’s the rest of the industry doing, and what are their standards? Do they vary based on the retail, commercial office, or industrial property segments? The answer to these questions should be the cherry on top of your KPI sundae.

At Building Engines, we’re always looking at industry-wide data points for KPIs and workflow configurations. This is vital to improving our product and ensuring we’re an effective resource for commercial property management teams.

For me when working with a customer, getting these four data points before making a decision is essential to helping them arrive where they want to be. In the end, determining the optimal KPIs for your company is much like an onion—full of layers!

The big difference is that it’s possible for you to make your KPIs not stink.

If you’d like to learn more about setting KPIs for your property management team, download Building Engines’ free Guide to Selecting Effective Property Management KPIs.