HIW Corporate Resiliency Report 2021 FINAL - Flipbook - Page 31
ENGAGED CUSTOMERS
As a fully-integrated REIT that provides in-house
leasing, management, maintenance and customer
service, we are well positioned to anticipate and
respond to the changing needs of our customers. We
view customer service as a team sport and take great
pride in our responsiveness and best-in-class service.
Our property teams establish and maintain long-term
relationships with our customers through regular
meetings, organizing customer appreciation events
and facilitating a variety of educational and training
events focused on health, well-being and emergency
response. Through the distribution of annual
customer satisfaction surveys, we gather inciteful
feedback to ensure we are continuously improving the
customer experience.
To promote customer health & well-being, we
endeavor to incorporate amenities and design
elements that encourage activity and connections
with the outdoors, healthy eating and collaboration.
We have committed to pursuing Fitwel certification
for all new developments to create workplaces that
inspire our customers and allow them to prosper.
Many of our properties include Highwoods Properties
branded Velocity fitness centers, Take 5 cafés, and
Verve collaborative workspaces. We regularly organize
customer health and well-being events including
yoga, health fairs and walking challenges. Whenever
possible, we connect our properties with outdoor trail
systems and other natural amenities to encourage
activity throughout the day.
We invest strategically in our properties to reduce
environmental impacts and enhance the customer
experience. In many of our properties, we have
installed high-efficiency LED lighting and controls,
touchless low-flow faucets, water bottle filling
stations, bike storage facilities and electric car
charging stations. We host regular customer energy/
water feedback sessions to ensure we are meeting
the needs of our customers while conserving valuable
resources. In 2022, we plan to develop a Customer
Sustainability Guide to encourage our customers to
incorporate energy- and water-saving technologies
inside their spaces.
In partnership with our customers, we utilize green
lease language to promote sustainability initiatives,
encourage behavioral change and reduce operating
costs, ultimately creating healthier and more
productive workspaces for our customers. In 2021,
we applied for the Institute of Market Transformation’s
(IMT) Green Lease Leader program to demonstrate
our commitment to higher performance and
healthy buildings.
31