HqO > Case Studies > Hudson Pacific Properties' Pandemic Response: Maintaining Customer Service with HqO

Hudson Pacific Properties' Pandemic Response: Maintaining Customer Service with HqO

Technology Category

Networks & Connectivity - 5G

Applicable Industries

Buildings
Retail

Applicable Functions

Procurement
Sales & Marketing

Use Cases

Building Automation & Control
Time Sensitive Networking

About The Customer

Hudson Pacific Properties is a real estate investment trust with a portfolio of over 16 million square feet, consisting of premier office and studio properties in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Silicon Valley, Seattle, and Vancouver, Canada. For more than a decade, the company has owned, transformed, built, and operated these properties to create desirable workplace environments and provide services that enable employees to thrive. One of these properties, the Bentall Centre located in downtown Vancouver, serves as a prime example for Hudson Pacific’s customer service success. The 1.5 million square foot Bentall Centre houses four tall office towers that are connected by a large plaza and subterranean retail complex. It sits atop one of Vancouver’s subway stations in the city’s financial district and boasts of extensive amenities and panoramic views, making it an iconic destination in the heart of Downtown Vancouver.

The Challenge

Hudson Pacific Properties, a real estate investment trust with a portfolio of office and studio properties, was faced with the challenge of maintaining tenant engagement and communication during the COVID-19 pandemic. The rapidly evolving commercial real estate industry, accelerated by the pandemic, presented significant complexity and change. With over 8,000 proptech companies to choose from, finding the best solutions to safely attract and retain tenants while differentiating assets was a daunting task. The rise of hybrid work models and new workplace innovations shifted the value equation from buildings and location to the building occupants themselves. This prompted a revised focus on connecting with tenants and their employees through new digital mediums. Hudson Pacific needed a tenant engagement and communication tool that could not only bring typical on-site amenities to tenants everywhere but also collect important data to inform landlords of how people are really using their buildings while addressing current-day health and safety concerns.

The Solution

Hudson Pacific’s tenant engagement strategy leveraged HqO’s technology to address these challenges. The Hudson Pacific team accelerated the roll-out of the HqO Workplace Experience App across its multi-tenant portfolio. This rapid deployment positioned Hudson Pacific as an agile leader in the commercial real estate space as one of the first major landlords to roll out an app on this scale. The app served as a communication tool during the pandemic, enabling Hudson Pacific to conduct real-time communication with tenants and update occupants of key operational changes. HqO and Hudson Pacific worked together to provide an initial, lightweight version of the tenant app that was launched across 31 of Hudson Pacific’s multi-tenant properties in less than 30 days. Over the next few months, HqO continued to help Hudson Pacific build on this success by implementing the full version of the HqO Workplace Experience Platform, which provides end-to-end solutions for commercial real estate teams.

Operational Impact

The Hudson Pacific team achieved its goal of maintaining outstanding customer service efforts during the pandemic with the help of the HqO app. The app includes several communication features that can be adjusted for specific needs, such as a section dedicated for property-wide memos. The Bentall Centre property management team uses this feature to communicate with tenants on everything from protocol and cleaning changes, to confirmed COVID-19 cases, to construction updates that may impact tenant access to the buildings. Despite many area closings due to the pandemic, the gym in Bentall Centre remains open. Hudson Pacific leveraged the HqO app to help tenants reserve specific time slots to work out, keeping the facility running smoothly and safely. The Bentall Centre team has also hosted fun, engaging events through its app to drive community among tenants, even while many of them are still working from home.

Quantitative Benefit

74% of the property’s app users engaged with the app in a span of 60 days.
The app was launched across 31 of Hudson Pacific’s multi-tenant properties in less than 30 days.