What Does Your Building Say About Your Business?

012-460x690We make a lot of the look and feel of a business. It’s brand, if you like. Not only the logo and the quirky image that goes with it but also the way company conducts itself in the market place – what it stands for. Are the employees helpful? Do they have a great product or service? Are they leaders of their industry?

One aspect of a business that some forget about is the building in which they operate. Take a look around any city skyline and you will see a range of impressive buildings that shape the environment and define not only what the companies that occupy them stand for but what the city itself is all about.

You may well have the most impressive looking boardroom or lecture theatre in the world, but when people first step up to your building and look up they could well get a different impression. The problem for people who work in an office all the time is that they stop seeing it in the same way. In particular, they don’t see it in the way that new visitors do. Our advice is to step outside right now and walk up to your main reception desk as if you were a newbie. While you’re doing that, ask yourself some questions:

Does it look professional?

Would I like to do business here?

Does it fill me with confidence?

Do I feel welcomed?

Is it a creative place that I feel welcomed in?

Is it modern? Is it clean?

By modern we don’t mean that it’s been newly built. Even older buildings can look modern with the right updates and designs.

Let’s say you walk into a building built around the late Victorian times – the stairs are worn down, the lift looks like it’s been there since the mid 70s, the reception desk is small and unwelcoming, the lighting’s poor and the air is cold. You’ll have a different opinion if you walk into the same building and to your right is an elegant stairway leading to a busy open office, the floor and décor are bright and pristine, the reception looks like it’s calling to you and the temperature is just about right for this time of year.

Your building says a lot about your business.

It’s says you are ready to engage, happy to see your customers, positive about the future. It can also say completely the opposite if you are not careful.

It’s not just the interior that matters either. The exterior of buildings can be woefully neglected on occasion. Soot gets into the brick work, windows start to blister and peel, things can start to look a little jaded.

While the building might have been the height of corporate excellence when you first moved in all those years ago, time always takes it toll. Many businesses invest in their office environment, putting in the latest equipment to improve productivity or develop new ideas that can revolutionise future industries. That’s all very well but if you have customers coming to your office on a regular basis then what your building actually looks like makes a big, big difference. It’s as much a part of your brand as your online presence, your logo and your product.

If you would like to speak to a member of our team about how the Hightown Group could improve your building, please call us on 0151 214 3402 or email info@hightowngroup.co.uk