While a good office/business location is often emphasized and often even preached, have you really thought about the way your business location has affected the bottom line of your small business? One of our largest office space competitors, Regus, did some research on the topic of location that we thought we should share with our readers. Yes, Regus wants our location. But Telsec is not going to give up the number one address on Canada’s most famous street, One Yonge Street, where many businesses want to be located.
So, Regus surveyed 19,000 business owners and found that more than 80% of those who responded stated that “customer retention rates can be increased by greater physical proximity to customers.” Almost as many respondents (78%) also said that “physical closeness to customers also helps solve customer problems and improve customer satisfaction levels.”
If your customers are seeing a business address that is out in the suburbs, chances are they are not going to choose to do business with you. Even if they themselves are located outside of the city, they want a provider that is centrally located. When international customers are looking to work with or partner with a Canadian business, they want to see a Toronto address first and foremost.
The city you list on your website or letterhead is important, but so is the address within that city. If your image is to be a “downtown” business, then you need an address that says “downtown Toronto.” What better address than One Yonge Street to tell potential customers that you are located at the number one address on Canada’s most famous street?
Domestically or internationally, your small business needs an address that your customers know to be a real business address. When you need to meet with clients in your office space, we have the upscale and elegant boardrooms and meeting rooms that will accommodate you. For example, we have one virtual-office tenant who flies in from Chicago to Billy Bishop Airport at 9 am to conduct business with his Canadian clients and is back at the airport by noon – all because that smaller, less congested downtown airport is a few minutes’ drive from Telsec’s One Yonge Street location.
The bottom line here is that you need to find an upscale physical business location where you customers can meet you face-to-face – even if it is just used as a virtual address for your small business.