McDonalds: The next great third place. Really?
30 million white-color knowledge workers are conducting business from a third place (an environment separate from home and the workplace), and that number is expected to grow 10% annually (USA Today). In a 2010 study conducted by IDC, the IT research firm projected that by 2013 the total number of office-based, non-office-based and home-based mobile workers will grow to nearly 1.2 billion people representing more than a third of the world’s workforce.
Look around at the people who are sitting in your offices. Are these folks really going to use McDonalds as a place to work? Can anyone really conduct business while kids are running around and screaming in the McDonalds indoor playground? Would any professional want to risk smelling like oil, burgers and fries for the rest of the day?
There are other 3rd Place options out there. Let’s consider Starbucks. Clearly this environment is much closer to enabling the mobile worker to get work done. I work from Starbucks from time to time. In fact the other day I was in-between meetings and stopped into Starbucks to work. I pulled out my laptop (an iPAD is on my list of things to buy) and started to put the finishing touches on a marketing strategy that I needed to deliver to a client by the end of the week. I confess, I was totally distracted by the two women who were sitting next to me chatting about their kids and weekend plans. Then my client called me on my cell phone, and at the very same time the barista started to foam milk. I could not hear a word my client was saying. And, I really couldn’t talk to him because of confidentially concerns. Is Starbucks an environment that enables work? Kind of. Did it enhance my productivity? No.
Another alternative is the co-working space that’s popping up all over the place. Interesting space – indeed. I have to tell you, this environment doesn’t work for me. I’m 41 years old (though my husband believes that I’m 29 ☺). I wear a suit (except when I’m working from my home office in which case I’m likely in sweats). I just don’t feel comfortable walking in, sitting down and working next to talented people (I assume) who don’t share the same “business culture” as me.
My feeling is that the most viable 3rd Place option for the mobile, white-collar knowledge worker is a business center. Business center operators and landlords have an extraordinary opportunity to provide this group with a professional environment that both supports the way they work while also providing the tools and environment that enhances performance.
There are a few things to consider however. And this list is clearly not all inclusive:
1. Provide the accessibility and ease of use that Starbucks delivers, but provide it in a professional environment.
2. A word about accessibility: My feeling is that you do not have to have a retail environment to be accessible. Go through every touch point that your customer goes through to access your space and make it “accessible”(Technology? People + Technology? Just People? ). With that said, if you can’t optimize accessibility, then a “third space” offering may not be viable for your business.
3. Utilization: You may not get significant utilization initially. So, consider additional ways to monetize your “third space” offering. Obviously a membership fee + utilization feel package is a solution. There are other options as well.
4. Drive Volume: This could truly be a very powerful volume play – when you consider the numbers. So, factor this in your marketing outreach (messaging, media, frequency and offers) and pricing strategy.
5. Think about offering products like Cloud Computing Services (www.MySkySuite.com) to provide more value to the customer experience, make the customer stickier and, generate revenue from that customer even if he is no longer a member.
6. Use experts like AoPlan to optimize your space plan. I’ve been in many a business center where the lights are off and the “lounge area” door is closed. Space planning is a science and an art. Get expert support.
7. Marketing. Marketing. Marketing. This too could be death by a thousand cuts from a marketing standpoint. Use an expert ☺.
Clearly the story continues. There’s so much more to crack the “3rd Place nut” than the 7 points above. This entry is to spark thought. I would love you input and I will post more on the topic.
In short, the opportunity to provide a 3rd Place in a “space made for work” to mobile, white-collar knowledge workers is there. Business Center operators are well positioned to seize the opportunity. No question. But, proceed with caution.
Pride
We had a busy day last week and needed to grab a super quick lunch in-between meetings. Knowing we had about 25 minutes to eat, we chose a good-looking diner on a side road that we had never been to before. It was a standalone building, 50s “DINER” style, shiny and inviting. We were greeted at the door and as we were guided to our table we noticed a glass cabinet of “Miracle Grow” cakes, pies and cookies. These are the kind of desserts you see only at Diners and the kind only a giant or someone planning to go on a fasting diet the next day would attempt to eat. We ordered off the “fast menu” which included a drink, sandwich and a very big piece of pie.
It took a while before our food actually arrived but it was worth the wait (um as far as diners go). My hamburger was thick and juicy and the perfect temperature. The fries were fat, hot, crispy on the outside and mushy on the inside. Yum. The portion size was enormous so after eating half of what was on the plate, and knowing that we were in a rush to get to our next meeting, we skipped the piece of pie.
I went to the counter to pay and was surprised that we were charged for the entire “bundled price” even though we didn’t have the pie (and we weren’t offered the pie). When I inquired with the man at the register, another man, whom I came to find out was the owner, become immediately engaged in the conversation and agitated by my “lack of pie”. Within seconds he forcefully said to his manager, another woman and the waiter, “Give her the pie. She paid for the pie. Give her the pie. Now!”
Gosh, I really didn’t want the pie and I was a tad startled by his passionate directive, but was amused and impressed with his pride. Then he picked up a pizza pie sized vanilla chip cookie, motioned towards me with it and said, “From me to you”. WOW.
What tremendous pride. This guy had put out a bundled offering that he felt would benefit his patrons and he wanted to make sure I got my full value.
So now I have “pride” on the brain. One definition of pride (that I like) in the first sense comes from St. Augustine: “the love of one’s own excellence”. Yes! That’s it, excellence!
During good times it’s challenging to maintain excellence and during bad times it’s even harder. Excellence is the receptionist who lives paycheck to paycheck but dresses impeccably every single day. It’s the waitress who memorizes the specials menu and can recite the preparation down to the very last detail. How about the Operations Manager at a retail store or business center to stops in her tracks to pick up a piece of lint on the floor (well I perceived it to be lint) or the guy who gives you the extra cookie to ensure he tops off a good experience. And, it’s even the daughter who wants to show her mom and dad how pretty she looks in her new dress or that she just swam her first lap in the pool.
Yep, I know that pride can “get in the way” sometimes, but when harnessed appropriately, “pride” provides a competitive advantage on an individual and an enterprise-wide level.
What’s the level of pride in your organization?
Your Extended Sales Force (we all have one).
Friend? Foe? Neutral?
Real Life Example #1: I had a Dr. appointment the other day. While waiting in line to check in with the receptionist I noticed three really wonderful flower arrangements on the desk, one for each attendant. When I commented to the woman behind me how lovely the flowers were she smiled and agreed. Moments later, I arrived to the front of the line and overheard another woman ask the receptionist where the flowers came from. The receptionist said verbatim, “They are beautiful aren’t they. It’s interesting because we typically don’t have flowers here, so we’re really enjoying them. But, I have no idea where they came from”. WOW, I thought to myself what a missed opportunity. Even though they didn’t realize it, all three receptionists represented the florist’s extended sales force and none of them could provide the potential buyers in the line with contact information for the florist. I categorize the receptionist as “neutral”. They complimented the florist but didn’t add any value to the florist’s business. In this instance the florist itself was its own worst enemy. The florist should have provided each receptionist with a card and suggested that they take the flowers home on Friday to enjoy themselves. Simple.
Real Life Example #2: Just last month I was searching for a hotel in NYC. I always reach out to the American Express Platinum Travel Desk because they add value to my search process and this time was no different. I needed a room for one night. I had a budget in mind and really wanted the most for my money (obviously). Typically the Ritz Carlton in Battery Park has amazing deals but they were full. I asked about anther hotel but wasn’t thrilled with the package options. When I told her I was out of ideas she suggested the London NYC. I told her I didn’t know anything about it and with ease she went on to tell me all about the features specific to this hotel. She boasted about Gordon Ramsey’s restaurant in the lobby area, FREE afternoon tea, free breakfasts, a room on an upper floor with a spectacular view of the East River, the sites and sounds around the area and more. I was sold. Her category: “FRIEND”. Category of the hotel: “FRIEND”. This is a fantastic example of how to effectively use an extended sales force. Clearly London NYC had provided the travel desk with specific and detailed information about their hotel features and benefits and an overview of notable local attractions. And, on the flip side, the Travel Desk had the appropriate systems in place to capture and disseminate the information.
The net – net is we all have extended sales forces representing our business whether it’s a client, a vendor or a formal sales team. We need to ensure that these individuals are empowered with the tools to effectively sell our business. If not, we either won’t get the referral or if we do it will be a poor referral where we’ll be relinquished to compete on something else other than our core benefits – like price.
Are you empowering your extended sales team?
Marketing: Basic Check Points to review… Now.
We talk with business owners each week about their overall business and the marketplace. Times are challenging and many companies are seeking advice from us as to how to drive revenue. Really, basic “good business practice” holds true time and time again. We just apply it to our marketing outreach. Here are 4 points off the top of my head.
(1) STOP THE BLEEDING OF FUNDS: SLASH all activities that you cannot quantitatively validate are
driving revenue. That means, review every single touchpoint of your lead generation and conversion process to ensure optimal execution at each point. Review media, creative, offers, call to action, sales process etc… Most of all, ensure you have established a core set of Key Performance Indicators that you live by and systems with which to measure. Profit margins are too tight right now for error.
(2) RETURN TO THE BASICS: Stop experimenting! All too often we’ll go into a business and run down our checklist of “must do” activities and find that they are not being done. For example: Do you have signage? Have you contacted the brokers? PPC program in place? Does your website feature your locations and have an inquiry form on each page? Is someone on hand at all times to answer phones and capture the tour? Is your center tour ready? Do you have sales letters in place to convert? Does your agreement reinforce your value prop? Are you reviving the living and raising the dead? Sometimes “doing the basics” gets boring. It’s more fun to go out with a “splashy campaign” or “test a new medium”. That’s great – we should aways set aside a certain percentage of our budget for testing. But, when resources are tight you must be absolutely ruthless in ensuring the bread and butter activities are done flawlessly. Read more
Conversion is KING!
Two things are always on our minds: (1) Increasing revenue for our clients and , (2) Slashing their costs. So, on March 3rd at 3:00 Eastern we’re partnering with OBCAI to give a Webinar on “Conversion“.
Many marketers craft marketing strategies to drive “leads” or “build brand” for example. We build plans that drive revenue. To achieve that we must follow the lead through to the sale and beyond. We’ll give you insight into our process on the 3rd. If you decide to join our Webinar (and we sure hope you do!) Be sure to have a pen in hand, because anyone who attends is going to walk away with a list of points you’ll want to action as soon as you hang up the phone. In the meantime, you can read a high level summary of our approach on conversion on the OBCAI Blog.
Social Media: Measuring Success
You’ve made a commitment to invest in a Social Media initiative and your plan is inmotion. Fantastic. You clearly understand your goals and objectives for this program and have aligned the program to support your business in achieving its overall objectives. Along the way you identified the essence of your brand, your unique Bundle of Promises (this is an evolving process but establishing the foundation is a core step). You are creating stories that bring those promises to life. Identifying your most important target audiences, you are packing those stories to ensure relevance. All along you’re keeping your distribution channels in mind so that you can further package your stories to ensure you are properly transmitting your message in each venue. Hang on – you’re not ready to launch yet! Read more
Attorneys: Meeting Room & VC Utilization
I’m sure we’ll all agree that understanding our prospects and client motivations are key in the sales and retention process. So, after having lunch with my sister (who is an attorney) I grilled her a bit further on the details of how and when she would choose a remote meeting space or Videoconference facility. Here’s what she had to say:
Would you please share with us the circumstances under which an attorney would use a remote meeting or VC facility.There are several situations in which an attorney would use a meeting facility or video conferencing studio including: Client meetings, interviewing witnesses who are located too far away from the attorney’s office; video-conferenced depositions; in person depositions which take place out of the office (i.e. closer to the deponent’s domicile); arbitrations; mediations; bar association committee meetings; large scale meetings (e.g. meetings with multiple parties and their counsel) which exceed the space of the attorneys’ conference room.
I understand that you used a remote meeting room in NYC. Would you please describe your experience.
I used the remote meeting room in order to conduct a videoconferenced deposition. The deponent was located in London.
Read more
Webinar Nov 11th: Harnessing Social Media to Drive Results
Young Real Estate Professionals, are you still wondering what all the buzz on social media is about and how you can tap into it to match your business needs?
During this 60-minute dynamic and informative session, attendees will walk away with the core tools to “immediately” reap the benefits from this powerful source.
This Webinar will be held on Nov 11th, 2009
Details are as follows:
Young Real Estate Professionals
Harnessing Social Media to Drive Results
Webinar Nov 11th 2009
1:00 pm EST
http://www.regonline.com/builder/site/Default.aspx?eventid=785224
Key topics include:
• Why Social Media should matter to you
• Establishing program goals and objectives
• Identifying and documenting Key Performance Indicators to assess the program
• Creating the optimal Social Media road map: Avoiding “death by a thousand cuts”
• “Must do” steps to generate leads “now”
• Precautions you must take to yield positive results: “Celebration v. Execution”
Mystery Shop: Business Center and Condo
Mystery Shop In Progress
We’ve decided to mystery shop business centers. We’ll shoot for weekly posts on results - but can’t promise!… Just for fun and to kick-start the program, we mystery shopped one business center operator in the mid-west and a renown developer of residential condos in New England. I happen to know that both companies offer a premium priced products and provide the features / benefits to support their respective price points. However, when I played the role of the prospect, the sales person didn’t share the “benefits” with me. Here’s what happened.
Business Center Provider:
I called the business center provider at 11:00am – their time. Ring. Ring. Ring. The receptionist answered my call in the third ring (not bad). I told her that I was interested in office space in her city. She told me that she could not help me but would put me in touch with someone who could. She sent me to voicemail. Note: I don’t know what your average deal value is but let’s pretend it’s $12,000. This receptionist just put a $12,000 call into voicemail. I received a call back the next day. Note: That was too long. I’m a shopper and I called 3 other locations during that time. She should have called me back that day. When I finally spoke with the salesperson I told her that I was interested in office space and asked about my options. She first told me about her Virtual Office program. Note: Why did she try to down sell me to a Virtual Office when I specifically asked for an office? Providing an overview of your complete product range is important. But, understanding a person’s needs first is critical to providing the prospect with the office plan that is best in line with this or her business. I told her again that I really wanted an office and asked her for my options. She told me that she had a corner office for $xxx and an interior office for $xxx and that I would pay for services on top of that. Note: A different approach would have been to engage me in a dialogue by asking me about my needs and my business. Then she could have described the office with the features and benefits that were best in line with my needs – bolstering up the benefits side of the value equation. The next step could have been an invitation to come in and experience the office for myself. Regardless of her response -
Customers: Retention pays.
As an industry we talk a great deal about acquiring new customers. Typically the discussion revolves around targeting cold prospects and brokers (traditional and web). But there are many other layers to the “acquisition” discussion. In a later entry we’ll talk about mining our current database of previous customers, lost and dormant prospects but for now let’s touch on building powerful relationships with our current customers to realize their true lifetime value. There are many ways we can approach this topic. For this entry I’m going to provide a very simple and practical approach that you can implement tomorrow(ish) – if you choose.
Customer Messaging Formula - Click for Full Size
AUDIENCE:
We’re addressing “current customers” here – so it may feel odd to begin with the “audience”. But, I need to clarify that your audience is defined as all in-seat customers and not just the decision-maker. Why? If you have a multi-person deal, chances are that only the person who toured clearly understands the breadth of your offering. And, if the decision-maker toured then re-education is critical. So, you need to continuously re-educate and re-engage the person who toured and you must educate everyone else.
COMMUNICATION CHANNEL:
I pledge to a very simple formula: DESK DELIVERY (with personal visit) + EMAIL.
CREATIVE:
Oversized postcards work best. “Letter sized” flyers will get lost on the desk along with the rest of your customers’ papers. An oversized postcard with heavy card stock paper will pop off the desk. Your customer will think twice about throwing it in the bin without reviewing. Hand-delver the postcard and then following it up with an HTML email the following week. Multiple impressions delivered via electronic and paper form increases response. Read more