Attracting and retaining customers: what smart owners offer.

While most businesses have developed five-year plans, their budget horizons hover at 18 months or less. The result is that many companies find themselves in office space they might possibly outgrow or that, for other reasons, might not meet their longer-term needs. The key for today's office space customer is finding a building owner that can offer flexible and affordable solutions.

At the same time, for office building owners and managers (often facing stiff competition for marquee customers), the challenge is to continually develop innovative, cost-saving solutions, and to provide world-class service that focuses on their most important audience: the customer.

To remain competitive and to keep customers well served and satisfied, smart owners today are offering new--and also some tried-and-true-services, including:

1) Superior, personal account management throughout the entire office lease cycle. From day one, customers value having a direct line of communication with a single contact or "go-to" person. Having regular interactions throughout the lease term makes it easier for building owners to identify and proactively address a customer's issues, and to respond to their changing real estate and operational needs.

One way landlord's are tracking and recording these interactions is by using customer relationship management technology.

In addition, owners are also best served by continually looking ahead to assess what future additional services may be required, and where their customers want to be in the months and years to come. This kind of information can be learned through consistent face-to-face meetings, and by staying on top of the changing landscape of the customer's industry sector.

2) Flexibility in office space commitments. Shortened and unpredictable business cycles have made flexibility in office real estate imperative, particularly for start-ups and fast-growing companies whose space needs can change from year-to-year.

The most accommodating building owners are those capable of identifying a wide range of solutions for new space, expansions, retractions and even crisis situations. For example, some landlords are creating specialized space offerings in varying degrees of readiness for move-in, including "plug-and-play" space to "raw" or shell condition.

Owners with sizable portfolios and a wide range of building options--on a submarket, local, regional and/or national scale--will be the most adept at responding to their customer's longer-term space needs.

3) Customized offerings that deliver exactly what customers say they want, Smart owners succeed in attracting and retaining customers by being responsive to fundamental needs--and by delivering tailored services in a timely manner that fit customers' different requests.

For example, companies looking to trim their internal support services costs might opt to contract with the building owner to arrange for non-traditional "extra" services on a more efficient or lower cost basis.

With regard to traditional office building services, most customers don't want the "fluff"--they want clean, quick and efficient service that helps them meet their daily operational needs and maintain a strong/positive business image.

4) Customer-friendly technologies to expedite communication and response times. To maintain an uninterrupted line of communication with customers at all times, many building managers employ innovative technologies to streamline the customer service effort with an online, real-time connection.

For example, many managers use Web-based and wireless work order systems to receive customer service requests on-line, 24 hours a day, and allow customers to track the status of the service responses at any time. These new systems significantly increase service levels, improve accuracy and create easily trackable records that owners can use to anticipate future customer needs.

5) Proactive preventative maintenance to anticipate and provide for service needs even before they arise and minimize operating costs. In the same way that aircrafts require regular inspections to ensure safe and efficient flights, building operating systems and equipment need to be regularly inspected to ensure uninterrupted customer service, and to minimize repair and operating costs.

Proactive office owners are taking preventative maintenance a step further by creating dedicated preventative maintenance taskforces to automate and track work orders, and to anticipate future needs before they arise.

For example, after consulting its historical work order data, a preventative maintenance expert might conduct a "lighting sweep" to replace light bulbs on a particular floor before a service outage occurs.

6) Creating and passing along cost savings through centralized procurement programs. Inefficiencies inherent in many single- building-based purchasing programs can cost real estate owners and their office space customers hundreds of millions of wasted dollars each year.

As stewards of their customers' resources, conscientious owners continually identify new ways to reduce building operating costs and improve energy usage.

By focusing on consolidating vendor relationships and utilizing centralized and streamlined procurement processes, owners can deliver real and competitive cost savings to their customers.

To remain competitive and develop lasting, strategic partnerships, office real estate companies must continually find new and innovative ways to serve space users--not only on a day-to-day basis, but also with an eye towards helping them meet their long-term business objectives.

In the end, providing consistent, proactive, and customer focused service is the key to attracting and retaining customers.

Don Huffner, Senior vice president, Equity Office New York, and Laura Westfall, MD-property management, Equity Office New York