Yes, it’s an important piece of your business ID and marketing outreach! As simple as having a cup of coffee to offer or as important as celebrating a significant promotion – hospitality counts!
The primary purpose of your business’ Interior environment is, of course, the appropriate set-up you need to deliver the goods or services promised in your promotional efforts. From essential tools to correct lighting, efficiently delivering on that promise means doing it right!
Business entertaining is like the right topping on a delicious dessert – it’s not the whole shebang, but it’s part of the package! Also like a cake, it can have many layers and lots of kinds of fillings. Internally entertaining effectively in your place of business can mean a lot at all levels. It makes sense to connect internal excellence to special regard, just as it makes sense to invite your customer or client base inside for appreciation.
But are you ready to do such honors without it feeling like an afterthought, or by squeezing the goodies and amenities onto desktops? There is a difference! And better presentation is really quite simple to achieve. While not every facility has extra space or a conference room just down the hall, designing “hospitality” considerations into your Interior space can be surprising in the hands of experts.
First let’s take a look at what kind of hospitality you want to extend to internal staff or external associates, customers or clients. Recognizing internal achievement in a way that really feels special can be done offsite, of course. (There’s always appropriate rentable space available for the purpose.) But if you want to honor achievement and promotions “at the scene of the crime” let’s see what can be done, in house, to accommodate such occasions. Likewise, bringing folks in from outside gives you the opportunity to showcase where you do the work, extend a friendly hand to prospects or just say “thanks!”
Space planning is one of the most important aspects of Interior design. Almost without exception, I can report that most clients have the opportunity to reclaim wasted or poorly organized use of their Interior business space! “Not us!” …you might say! “We have every inch in play, and there’s no space available for frills!”
Wanna bet? It is difficult enough to convince some business owners to make space for a comfortable, pleasant and efficient Staff room – even though such space is worth its weight in gold just for staff appreciation and attitude alone! Considering some dedicated space – or dual-purpose convertible hospitality space? Are you serious? Well, yes.
We have all had the experience of “Let’s decorate the place for the holidays!” (…or the Boss’s birthday, or Harry’s promotion…) The stuff hangs around for a few days (or weeks), you work around it, and then when all are finished dealing with inconvenience, it’s cleanup time. No disrespect intended, but don’t you sometimes wish there was some dedicated space for a nicer touch?
Those who specialize in the dynamics of “what works” (to validate either internal interests or external connections) tell us that much of the business “bonding” process takes place through personal outreach. That can mean whatever you want it to: Department to department, achievements to successes, prospects to facilitators, customer or client to customer or client! And, how you do it is noticed.
Your Interior design team has solutions! In planning an entirely new Interior project, considerations for business entertaining can be designed in at the get-go. When remodeling, renewing or refreshing your commercial Interior space, ask your Interior Design team to take hospitality into consideration. It can be a productive aspect of both your internal and external marketing. Let’s party on!
Robert Boccabella, B.F.A. is principal and founder of Business Design Services and a certified interior designer (CID) in private practice for over 30 years. Boccabella provides Designing to Fit the Vision© in collaboration with writingservice@earthlink.net. To contact him call 707-263-7073; email him at rb@BusinessDesignServices.com or visit www.BusinessDesignServices.com or on Face Book at Business Design Services.
