Office of the Future

How Can We Help You?

For business travelers, the number-one priority is being productive, no matter where their job takes them. They don't want surprises. They want to know that they'll find state-of-the-art telecommunication and videoconferencing technology, whether they're working in a Regus center in Atlanta, Georgia or in Johannesburg, South Africa. "We give you the same features, the same benefits, and the same standards of service at every center," says Dutton, marketing director at Regus. "You can rely on it, and you can plan on it, the same way that you can rely on any other business tool. We're trying to create one look, one feel, one customer experience." That experience has to be as businesslike as the corporate home office. Companies are relying on that professional atmosphere when they use Regus for sales presentations, job interviews, and weekly team meetings. "I've done my share of business travel," says Pam Butt, a center manager in London. "I know firsthand how hard it is to look professional when you're calling clients from your hotel room or meeting them in the hotel lobby."

For all the talk about property, Dixon insists that Regus is primarily a service provider. Its specialty is the serviced office. Of its 1,700 employees, 70% are customer-service representatives, or CSRs, at the centers. To ensure consistency in 45 different countries, each with a different notion of what constitutes customer service, center managers and CSRs follow a detailed list of required procedures (the current list comprises 185 items). For instance, staffers must answer the phone within three rings, with a "smile in the voice" and a personalized greeting. An incoming call activates the phone system's software, which instantly displays the customer profile that corresponds to the phone number. The CSR then knows which company he or she is representing and the greeting that it has requested. Assuming that tenants update the Regus staff, the CSR also knows who's in, who's out, and who needs their calls forwarded.

CSRs also deliver the mail and escort visitors to offices and meeting rooms. For an additional hourly fee, they will type, fax, photocopy, and bind documents. Routine turnaround is one hour; priority jobs sometimes cost extra. Or tenants can do those tasks themselves, in which case they punch in a four-digit code and are billed for use of the machines. CSRs can also arrange for couriers, rental cars, stationery, flowers, dry cleaning, a catered lunch -- whatever services customers need. For a growing number of repeat customers that use its Touchdown service, Regus creates customer profiles so that callers don't have to repeat the same information every time they reserve a meeting room. "You can have the best technology, the best furniture, and the best location, but none of those things matter if the service isn't there," Dixon says. "You will eventually fail."

Customer satisfaction is so important to Dixon that he monitors it himself by randomly calling two customers every day. "Any complaints?" he'll ask. "What can we improve?" The company also employs "mystery shoppers" who call or visit Regus and then report back to the center about their experience. The standards are high because they have to be. People associate the Regus staff with the tenants for whom they work. "If we don't get it right, our customers don't look good," Dixon says. "Representing any company is a big responsibility. It's not something that you trust to just anyone."

Despite the mix of tenants, Regus's name is the only one on display in the common areas of its business centers. There isn't a directory of tenants at the reception desk or in the lobby. Aside from Netspace customers like FT.com -- the online arm of the Financial Times, which leases an entire floor from Regus at the prime location of No. 1 Poultry, in the City -- tenants aren't permitted to display their company name outside their offices, not even on the office door. Instead, the offices are numbered. This degree of anonymity is not unusual for business centers. But the branding -- Regus pencils, Regus notepads, Regus brochures -- is. "We want people to recognize the name," says group property manager Boulton. "We want them to use a Regus office the same way that they fly on Delta, stay at the Marriott, and drive a Hertz car."

Regus doesn't own the buildings that it uses; it manages them. "Think of the airlines as being analogous," says Gaudreau. "They don't make the planes; they just fly them." In some cases, Regus signs a long-term lease and allows tenants to sign short-term leases. In other cases, Regus and the property owners are partners -- an idea that Dixon had early on, when he was trying to expand his business without a lot of capital. In such partnerships, Regus and the building owner share the profits as well as the costs. Owners keep their buildings occupied, and Regus avoids a hefty lease. "Property owners want to fill their buildings, but those buildings are basically all the same, right?" says Gaudreau. "We're adding value. We're making them different and giving people a reason to choose one building over others. So far, no one has called the idea 'stupid.' "