From virtual office to serviced office

A question came up recently in our latest discussions about the office space industry.

When does a business move from a virtual office solution to a serviced office and how can serviced office companies that also provide virtual office(VO) solutions move clients from one product to the other when it is the correct time for the client?

Of course, there are different reasons for doing so such as:

• The need to employ their first few staff
• Winning of contracts improves turnover/profit
• The need to see clients becomes part of their business when a home office wont do

These are all very good reasons for taking the step to becoming a larger business, but how do serviced office companies help businesses with this step?

From the information that we have seen. not all that much is done at present, but hopefully we can help to change that. We know that serviced office companies such as Regus and MWB use their customer databases to upsell and will know when virtual office clients are due for renewal. It is standard business practice - but what else could be done?

Our suggestion is the creation of communities for virtual office customers.

Think about it - a mass of small businesses, eager to improve, needing help at a crucial time. Wouldn’t an online community provided by the serviced office provider be an ideal way to help them grow the VO-users businesses? After all, if they help the small businesses at this crucial period in their business life, wont the providers be rewarded in the end?

Have you seen current VO customer online systems? Check emails, check calls, edit user information. Very 1998.

Recently, YourSpace PLC created a free virtual office product in the hope to win customers when it was time for them to use serviced offices. This is of course a very brave and innovative offer and they will be rewarded in the future for it we are sure, but the customer can still decide to move away should they want to.
It is one of the best things to have happened in the serviced office world in the time that Choregus has been reporting on the industry.

The building of a community, or online portal, would be a way for businesses to use each other for services that they would otherwise look elsewhere for. Keeping this spend within the community helps the businesses to grow together and creates an allegiance with the serviced office provider for a long time.

The online portal would be a way for businesses to promote their latest offers to a community that they understood. They will know the size of the business and the aspirations that the other businesses will have. It will be the same as their own in lots of cases. Understanding what other businesses want, and having access to be able to offer this to them gives a distinct advantage over going it alone without the support of a community.

The serviced office provider would also have to become a part of the community themselves, helping in a public way within the portal area with answers to questions, suggestions for business relationships. It must not stop there however - it must be a very involving role. Doing this could be the difference of fortunes over a year period for some serviced office providers.

Of course, the very best scenario would be for a company within the industry but that doesn’t provide the service direct (office brokers) to build a portal for virtual office users of all companies to use. I am not sure that this would happen as serviced office companies would have to opt-in to the portal idea, allowing their customers speak to customers of other companies.

However, it would probably be the best small business portal online and would be one of the best ways to grow the serviced office industry.

As one of my colleagues explained, its feeding virtual office users vey well indeed until they are fat enough to become a YOUR OWN serviced office user.