CRE Communication Gap: Why Your Tenants Prefer Digital Signage

Your Tenants Have Decided. Has Your Building Caught Up?

There is a persistent mismatch at the heart of commercial real estate tenant communication. Property managers believe email is their most effective tool. Tenants  – faced with overflowing inboxes, emails routed through HR, and notification fatigue – have quietly moved on to expecting something better. 

Recent research makes this disconnect clear. When CRE tenants were asked to rank their top communication preferences, results were nearly tied across three channels: 

• Email: 58%  

• App notifications: 55%  

• Digital signage: 53% 

Yet, when property managers were asked the same question about effectiveness, digital signage scored just 20%. 

That 33-point gap is not a minor discrepancy. It is a strategic blind spot – one that directly impacts tenant engagement, satisfaction, and ultimately, lease renewals. 

The Email Problem No One Wants to Admit

Email has long been the backbone of building communication. It’s familiar, trackable, and essential for formal notices. 

But it is also increasingly ineffective as a primary engagement tool. 

More than one in two tenants with digital screens in their building report missing emails sent by building management.

ALIDA

The reason isn’t neglect – it’s structure. Fewer than half of tenants receive building emails directly. Instead, messages often pass through office managers or HR teams before reaching the intended audience. This creates friction at every step. Messages get delayed, summarized, or lost entirely. 

Email still has a place – for legal notices, documentation, and formal communication. But it cannot carry the full burden of tenant engagement. 

App Notifications: Strong in Theory, Limited in Practice 

Push notifications promise immediate, direct communication. But they fall short in two critical ways.

First, adoption is lower than most property teams assume. Nearly half of tenants in buildings with apps don’t use them. Of those who do, a meaningful percentage engage only occasionally.

Second, mobile notifications operate within a delicate trust dynamic. Overuse quickly leads to disengagement – or worse, opt-outs. Once that happens, the channel is effectively lost.

Apps work best for urgent, high-priority messages. But they are not a scalable solution for reaching an entire tenant population on a daily basis.

What Property Managers Get Right – and What’s Missing 

A new 2026 study of property managers offers an important piece of context. 

Across the board, 100% of CRE property managers identified building amenities as a driver of tenant renewal. Not communication. Not community. Amenities.

This reframes communication as part of the broader tenant experience. 

Because from a tenant’s perspective, communication doesn’t exist in isolation. It is part of the overall building experience in commercial office buildings, where tenant engagement, amenities, and communication channels all contribute to satisfaction and renewal decisions.

And increasingly, that experience includes digital environments – lobbies, elevator banks, and shared spaces. 

Digital signage isn’t just a communication channel. It’s part of the building’s amenity stack. 

A high-quality, content-rich display signals a modern, well-managed property. A blank screen or worse, outdated static signage – signals the opposite.

The Digital Signage Opportunity

Digital displays and signage solutions sit at the intersection of high tenant preference and low manager prioritization. 

For tenants, it works because it requires no effort. There is no inbox to check, no app to open, no notification to enable. It simply exists within the natural flow of the building environment. 

Tenants engage with it passively, but consistently. In fact, research shows that 96% of tenants in buildings with digital screens watch them regularly. 

And sentiment is strong. Among tenants who have access to digital signage, the majority report positive perceptions of how it is used. 

For property managers, this creates a rare scenario: a channel that is both highly visible and highly scalable – yet still underutilized.

A Clear Comparison of What Works – and What Doesn’t

Each communication channel plays an important role – but none can carry the full load alone. 

Channel	Best Use	Strength	Limitation
Email	Formal communication	Trusted, trackable	Missed or filtered
Apps	Urgent alerts	Immediate	Low adoption
Digital signage	Daily communication	Passive, high visibility	Underused

Each channel serves a distinct purpose. The problem isn’t the tools – it’s how they’re used. 

What a Better Communication Strategy Looks Like

A high-performing CRE communication strategy is multi-layered. 

• Email remains essential – but focused on formal communication. 

• App notifications are reserved for urgent updates that require immediate attention. 

• A Digital signage network becomes the ambient communication layer – handling the daily flow of announcements, events, and building information. 

95% of property managers who use Captivate ScreenCenter

agree it is an effective tenant communication tool – and 96% of tenants in Captivate buildings watch the screen regularly.

– CAPTIVATE INTERNAL RESEARCH

This approach aligns each channel with its strengths while eliminating overreliance on any single one. 

The Strategic Shift

The biggest shift required is not technological – it’s conceptual. 

Digital signage is often treated as a secondary or backup channel. But it is uniquely powerful because it: 

• Reaches nearly everyone in the building 

• Requires no action from the tenant 

• Enhances the perceived quality of the property 

In a landscape where tenant experience and building differentiation matter more than ever, that combination is powerful.

The Bottom Line

Two independent perspectives: tenant preference and property manager priorities – point to the same conclusion. 

Tenants want digital signage at nearly the same level as email. Property managers value amenities as a primary driver of renewal. 

Digital signage sits directly between those two realities.

And yet, it remains one of the most underutilized tools in CRE. 

Closing that gap is not just about improving communication. It’s about defining the kind of experience your building delivers every day – and the impression it leaves long after tenants walk through the door. 

See Captivate in Your Building 

Learn how Captivate ScreenCenter helps property managers deliver high-impact communication and elevate the tenant experience – without adding complexity.