The Serviced Office and the Customer
In an article posted in SMEAdvisor.com entitled "The Serviced Office Experience", author Rushika Bhatia stated that the person matters the most in the equation is the clients since they are the ones who are providing the finances to keep the company going. And there are certain factors that affect the relationship and attitude of your clients towards your company, one of these is your working environment. Bhatia supported the findings by studying the survey conducted by the UK's Federation of Small Businesses in 2010 that 22 percent of businesses believed the poor and inadequate office environment have been the culprit for the decrease in clients and customers of some businesses.
And this new business phenomenon was supported by the five-year customer research survey conducted by the major global design and branding company, Fitch. According to Fitch, in between 2004-2009 the clients see that location and the quality of office space were two key factors in developing a good and profitable client-based business. If your office space is location-friendly and very accommodating in terms of structure and form, there is a 32 percent chance that your company would be in good standing and amenable to the customers. But if you lack on both, then you will be included on the 64 percent that received a low customer grade.
Since these two are important, having a physical space to house your business that is located in the right area is a must. But with the high cost of real estate in prime locations, it is likely for struggling companies or new comers in the business to get an office space in the business district.
In reality, all parties are affected by this new business trend. On the clients' side, they more likely look for other companies that have the amenable working space which could provide them with the services that they want, but it comes with a higher price; while business owners would settle for a low-cost space downtown and get lesser chance of promoting their business and getting the leads that they need. On the other hand, space providers will likely lose their income with lesser tenants to occupy the space.
With that, the idea of having a flexible office space somehow solved the issue. Office space suppliers created a co-working environment to accommodate small and medium enterprises. Since the plan is to house as many businesses in a space as possible, space owners created a well-designed office spaces to prevent clutter and mess. And to help these businesses, they offered their space at a very reasonable rate with other facilities included.
But the space owners also take into consideration the needs of the clients. Since of their building are located in business districts, they only thing that they need to do is to make the spaces client-friendly that will definitely be appealing to the customers. Amenities were renovated and upgraded to serve both parties. In a way, the space suppliers act as the middle person to both parties.
Here in the Philippines, some of the known offices space is the Makati serviced offices that cater the business and organizations in the metro. These business centers are made specifically to answer the needs of clients, as well as the tenants who are receiving perks and benefits of a low priced rent and furnished office spaces.