Landlords who invest in building relationships with their occupiers will see a 1.9% increase in financial returns, new academic research shows.

The findings of the three-year PhD research by Dr Danielle Sanderson from School of Real Estate & Planning, Henley Business School at the University of Reading confirm a link between customer satisfaction and property performance.

The research provides quantitative evidence to show that a rise in occupier satisfaction by one level (on a five point scale) will typically improve total returns by 1.9% a year, a clear business case for investing in customer experience.

It shows that landlords and managers must build ‘professional, collaborative and empathetic’ relationships with occupiers and show understanding of their business needs to improve their levels of customer service. It also highlights the importance of providing clear and transparent documentation and making sure occupiers understand the value of the services they receive, and that a relationship of trust must be established.

Howard Morgan, founder and managing director of RealService, said: “This pioneering research proves what we have intuitively known – that there is a direct payback in terms of the three R’s of real estate - revenue, retention and reputation – for treating tenants as customers. We hope this is just the start of research into this important field of understanding for our industry.”