Abbey Business Centres' Satisfaction Guarantee: Launch of New Industry Trend?

Abbey Business Centres, a UK-based executive suites company, recently announced the launch of their satisfaction guarantee. By offering this 100% guarantee, Abbey has established themselves as one of the office business center companies taking a leadership role, particularly in the UK.

Abbey's "Satisfaction Guaranteed" program makes clear the company's confidence in their client satisfaction rating and offers new clients the opportunity to experience their award-winning service without risk. The guarantee allows clients moving into any of Abbey's business centers to be released from their agreement if they are not 100% satisfied with the service they have received.

In a recent press release announcing the new program, Julie Calder, Managing Director for Abbey, said, "Business nowadays cannot afford to live solely on its reputation so we have backed this up with a cast iron guarantee. The business center ethos is all about offering the utmost flexibility possible and the new service takes this to a new level."

This movement could be an indicator of the importance of industry-wide transparency, of which guaranteed satisfaction is a part. Is this is a leadership position that independent operators will offer that will have to be matched by bigger parties like Regus?

ALLIANCE Business Centers NETWORK Member American Executive Centers (AEC) has traditionally offered a satisfaction policy. Mike Howard, AEC's Regional Operations Manager said, "I think it is important for us to have a service guarantee because it is a constant reminder to our team as to why we are in business.  It shows our prospects and clients the level of commitment we have to provide the services they need to help them become more successful." AEC also employs the policy to differentiate themselves to prospects and clients from the competition.

But what about the issue of centers guarding themselves against unscrupulous clients who just want to break their lease? "We have not had the problem of any clients using our guarantee to try to break our lease and service agreement. I would say we protect ourselves by making sure we live up to it," Mike explained.

If business centers are willing to promote transparency through methods such as satisfaction guarantees, should brokers, web brokers, and other service providers work towards offering this service? Should office business center industry participants stand together and uniformly address this trend and method of clearly putting clients first? Perhaps for unsatisfied clients, brokers could prorate commission as a gesture, moving towards a winning situation for all parties.

At its inception, The ALLIANCE Academy established standards of management which it has since promoted and trained centers on, with a qualitative reference to continuous improvement of client satisfaction. As industry transparency becomes more regular and the service aspect of the OBC business becomes an increasingly popular priority, executive suites operators will be wise to focus on these two aspects. OBC operators continue to subscribe to The Academy's expertise to learn how to better be a leader in this arena of their business.

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