In the flexible office space industry, understanding how your space is being used, where your significant costs are and how much revenue is being brought in by each client is absolutely crucial to the efficient running of a space. As a result, comprehensive data-based analytics are essential for making informed decisions and optimising operations. We’ve pulled together some of the key metrics that could be helping you run a better, more efficient space.
Space Utilisation Metrics
Desk/Room Utilisation: Utilising occupancy monitoring sensors (either under desks or whole-room monitoring sensors), you are able to measure how often desks, private offices, and meeting rooms are utilised. This gives you an idea of every client’s usage, which areas are in high demand and which are in low demand and can also pinpoint which of your clients may not renew on their next contract renewal.
Peak Hours: With sensors and access control analytics, you are able to determine the busiest times of the day or week. This can help you to optimise your staffing, increase security, and improve building power usage by increasing and reducing ventilation and air conditioning during busy and quiet periods.
Space Turnover Rate: By tracking who takes various areas of the building and how long they stay, you are able to better understand the turnover rate. This can help you to understand which areas of the office are the most highly sought after and which should potentially be discounted to ensure longer tenancy.
Revenue and Pricing Analytics
Revenue Per Square Foot: With an integrated billing system and a list of current members, you are able to accurately calculate the revenue generated per unit of space. This can be tracked to identify short-term dips and long-term trends and help you better identify high-performing areas and underperforming ones.
Pricing Optimisation: With accurate data, you are also able to analyse the impact of different pricing strategies on revenue and occupancy rates. This allows you to optimise your pricing for each space independently – instead of relying on group-level pricing.
Discount Effectiveness: You can also directly assess the impact of discounts and promotions on revenue and member acquisition by tracking uptake and revenue per square foot against the cost of the promotions.
Financial Health Metrics
Profit Margin: Keeping track of the basic profit should be something you are already doing, but having it in a live system that can be used as a factor in other analytics is crucial to understanding the effect you are having on your bottom line.
Cash Flow Analysis: As with profit, it’s crucial to keep a day-to-day eye on your cashflow in an automated way – with most Space Management Systems being capable of giving you automated monthly, weekly, and even hourly reports. This ensures you always have sufficient funds for operations, growth, and any unexpected expenses.
Accounts Receivable Aging: Keeping track of outstanding payments in a system that is readily accessible will help you to reduce late payments and identify potential issues any clients that regularly aren’t paying their bills on time.
Occupancy and Booking Trends
Occupancy Rate: With live data on occupancy, you can track and analyse the percentage of available space that is currently leased or booked. This gives you a better understanding of where to focus your resources.
Booking Trends: Using data from your space management system, you can identify patterns in booking behaviour, such as seasonal fluctuations or recurring events in order to adjust your offerings accordingly.
Resource and Asset Management
Maintenance Analytics: Keeping your space running smoothly is crucial to keeping occupants happy – so ensuring that you are tracking and effectively dealing with any maintenance issues is key. You can also use this information to better schedule cleaning crews and maintenance works around real-world usage rather than standard business hours.
Asset Tracking: You can also keep a constant eye on the condition of your space. By monitoring the utilisation of furniture, equipment, and amenities as well as tracking maintenance requests, you can better plan for replacements and upgrades when they are needed and not on a fixed schedule.
Sustainability Metrics
Environmental Impact: By understanding your space utilisation, energy usage and tracking the replacement of various internal assets, you have all of the data needed to make accurate and meaningful assessments of your environmental footprint. This data can also be used to explore opportunities to reduce waste, energy consumption, and carbon emissions. Tracking this publicly is also a significant selling point for businesses that are concerned about their environmental impact and can lead to improved revenue per square foot.
Final Thoughts
By tracking and analysing these key metrics and many others, flexible office space providers are given the tools needed to make data-driven decisions. This can help to optimise services, enhance member satisfaction, and ultimately achieve a more efficient and cost effective business.