Refurbishing your commercial space to add modern touches is one cost-effective way to attract more clients. Although you will need to shell out money for the renovation of worn-out areas or the addition of new functions, you will be rewarded with higher productivity rates from your employees, an improved brand reputation, and an increase in your revenue. Here are five ways you can boost your workspace’s appeal to wow more clients:
Say Goodbye to Your Average Stairs
Nothing speaks boring more than a plain staircase which purpose is merely to allow people to move between spaces. To add a wow factor to your commercial building, upgrade to a feature staircase. Doing so will instantly lift the ambiance and add architectural interest to your property. No matter your design preferences or budget limitations, you can ask your trusted contractor to build a bespoke staircase that does more than connect levels in your office.
Apart from being functional, your stairs must bring your space to life to encourage your guests, business partners, and potential clients to explore other areas of your building. You can treat it as the architectural focal point of your office where people huddle, do business, or take breaks.
Create an Open Environment
Open office spaces aren’t exclusive to big organizations, like Google, Facebook, and Microsoft. Today, you’ll see an open-plan office (OPO) setup wherever you go. Businesses, big or small, have replaced traditional offices and cubicles with large open spaces and collaborative areas, with the objective of not only modernizing their spaces but also encouraging teamwork and creativity amongst employees. But when OPO became the new normal, a research study surfaced to disprove the setup’s main selling point. The results show that instead of encouraging collaboration, this workspace setup does exactly the opposite: it kills productivity.
However, for one Forbes Council Member, this kind of setup can work if you create specific destinations where employees can work collaboratively and on their own, encourage conversation, and teach people to be respectful of others’ privacy. According to Harvard Business Review, to make sure your employees will love your open floor plan, you must convey the vision beforehand, be enthusiastic about the space, and encourage workers to adapt the space to their needs.
Incorporate Plants Into Your Office Layout
There’s a reason why Apple planted over 9,000 trees in its Silicon Valley campus, why Amazon imported more than 40,000 plants for their headquarters, and why greenery is a staple in modern workspaces. Apart from being aesthetically pleasing, plants offer benefits that make everyone, from the big boss to the workers and the clients, happy and satisfied.
In a paper published by the American Psychological Association, it was reported that the most toxic workspaces are those that are devoid of pictures and souvenirs, amongst other distractions. In the same report, it was revealed that people perform better when houseplants are added to workspaces. Showing your clients that you value your employees’ happiness and productivity can be the difference between a rejected proposal and a closed deal.
Gone are the days when walls in commercial buildings were painted with dull grey colors, and when employees were stuck in boring cubicles. This year, it’s time you upgrade your environment to invite more opportunities that will lead your business to success.