How Hospitality Is Redefining Office Space

As offices are increasingly subscribing to the shared-workspace business model preferred by Millennials, the next challenge is how to stand out from the overcrowded pack. The key: hospitality. Exceptional customer service, like the kind found in the best hotels, is what keeps tenants renewing, according to Carr Workplaces SVP Ashley Korner. Ashley adds that landlords are treating their clients the way a hotel would treat a preferred guest: by having everything taken care of before arrival; while anything else that’s needed is only one call away.

An “on-boarding” process is a five-star way to keep tenants in your workspace. Here’s how:

• Offer the equivalent of a hotel loyalty program, with a questionnaire that helps landlords understand tenants’ wants and needs.
• Schedule a one-on-one meeting with tenants, in order to better understand the company, upcoming challenges, and even some personal interests.
• Be a connector: Make introductions to other tenants who might help build business, network with the right people or alleviate problems or challenges.
• Keep all tenant information in a database so that it can be transferred and utilized in other offices if the tenant transfers to another city or location.

Personalized service is another technique borrowed from the hospitality industry that reinforces satisfaction and a feeling of attention and caring:

• Anticipate client needs. Always know names, businesses, likes/dislikes, preferred services, even their favorite place to order lunch.
• Have their office or meeting room ready, the way they like it, before they enter their space.
• Offer life-balance services such as dry cleaning, dog walking, even childcare.
• Keep tenants informed. Share upcoming office event information, and anticipate business, industry and personal events (birthdays, work anniversaries).

Display exceptional and consistent brand standards for a feeling of conformity and familiarity across all of your offices and workspaces. This reinforces customer satisfaction and retention:

• Standardize a friendly greeting and a clean, well-lit lobby and beautiful reception area.
• Stock your location with food, coffee, drinks and office supplies in every location. Don’t allow one location to be less stocked than another.
• Share technology solutions across all office locations for a more consistent, user-friendly and streamlined tenant experience.

Hiring competent, people-oriented staff, especially those with hospitality experience, allows tenants to benefit from the customer service mindset:

• Train your staff to drop everything for a tenant issue or request.
• Reinforce your staff to help tenants with business or personal issues.
• Empower your staff. Give them support and resources to creatively fulfill client requests.

For more info on our Bisnow partner, Carr Workplaces, and how they can help you put these practices into use, click here.