Customer service

Burns escorts me to the reception area on the first floor. My details flash up on the computer screen and I am handed a blue security pass in the shape of a credit card. Minutes later, a security guard comes over to apologise for the 'delay', promising that Terry Welsh will be three minutes. He checks his watch as he says this.

So this is the Tower 42 experience. Or maybe they are just laying a show on for the visiting journalist? As I wonder, I remember all the times I've been left waiting in offices, making furious eye-contact with the receptionist in case I've been forgotten.

Exactly three minutes later, Terry Welsh appears and I'm whisked off for a grand tour of Tower 42. At 600ft, the former Nat West Tower is still the tallest building in the City of London. Three years ago when The Tower Limited Partnership — a partnership of Greycoat Estates, Hermes and Merrill Lynch — bought the tower, occupancy stood at just one-third. Since the arrival of Welsh and his team, Tower 42 has 3,000 occupants and a long waiting list. Current tenants include Royal & SunAlliance, Swiss Re Life and Health, Buchanan Ingersoll, Cisco and Regus.

The tour starts in the entrance lobby, site of the concierge desk and a branded food offer Café Zero. Opposite the concierge desk, there is a bronze sculpture of a hare created by Kit Williams, the man behind seventies tripped-out treasure hunt Masquerade. It's a surprising touch.

On the mezzanine level, dead space has been converted into the swanky Podium lounge area, complete with original Arne Jacobson shell chairs. Nearby is a beauty room converted from a redundant broom cupboard. Moving up the building, I am shown Twentyfour, a restaurant and bar operated by the Roux brothers, and a champagne bar Vertigo on the 42nd floor. A health club, Topnotch 42, has just opened next door to the bar.

Welsh, a former hotelier, credits customer service for the success of Tower 42. 'If you gain a reputation for providing a good service, it spreads like wildfire,' he says. 'Instead of playing up what we have here, like the space or the views, we always ask prospective tenants what they want. Do they need a taxi service, preferential rates for hotel accommodation, a training consultancy or a dry-cleaning service?'

The idea of relaxing the customer service ethos because there is a captive audience is akin to heresy at Tower 42. 'I came across some research on corporate customer service in America and the general impression was that when the market was hot forget it, when the market was cold all the services came out of the woodwork!' exclaims Welsh. 'If you took the same attitude in the hotel industry you'd be out of business!'

To help deliver the facilities management function at Tower 42, Welsh works with a number of contractors. These include Johnson Controls for M&E, Williams Lea for reprographics, Lancaster for cleaning, Compass for catering and Securicor for security. Contractors wear the same Tower 42 name badges, giving the impression of a seamless service for clients.

Welsh says you only have one chance to make an impression. 'If you don't get it right in the first five minutes, you've had it. You are always going to get the stressheads, but our job is to take away the stress.' One way to do this is to make the reception experience as quick and painless as possible. The reception is computerised to aid the process. Guests are given blue passes to swipe. 'You know you're not going to be queuing for four minutes with gum-chewing, nail-filing receptionists.'

So everyone who arrives at Tower 42 gets the same treatment as I did? Apparently so. 'We have many people coming into the building, important clients who want to be treated with respect,' says Welsh. 'All it takes is a quick call to Terry Burns to say so and so is coming in and he needs to be made welcome.'

At this point, Welsh can't resist telling me a story about Burns. Apparently the head concierge was recently on holiday in Israel, in the shower to be precise, when he received a call on his mobile. It was a Tower 42 customer wanting a pair of tickets to Mama Mia! that night. Burns might have been dripping wet and abroad, but he made sure they were delivered on time.

It is this kind of dedication to duty that Welsh says is difficult to import into an organisation, which is why he always prefers internal promotion to external recruitment.

'I hate going outside to get people in,' says Welsh. 'I prefer to work with juniors and bring them through the ranks.'

Chiswick Park
A new online concierge service is revolutionising the working experience at Chiswick Park.

The 1.5 million sq ft development is rolling out enjoy-work.com, its customer service vision. At the forefront of this vision is a branded intranet service which performs the same role as a real life concierge — only to more employees, more of the time.

Chiswick Park, which is being developed by Stanhope, will eventually provide office space for 10,000 employees in west London. At present, three of the 11 planned buildings are complete, with three more due to open by the end of the year. Foxtons, Onetel, Regus and Esporta are occuping two buildings, while the third has been taken by XO Communications.

Many of the planned facilities are already complete. Esporta has opened a leisure club and restaurant. A central lake and landscaped gardens are also ready for use, with an events area and open-air meeting places due to open shortly.

Chief executive of Chiswick Park Management Kay Chaston says the site is more of a business retreat than a place of work. 'It has a north American campus feel about it. We are adding value at a facilities management level, which helps employers to attract the best employees, enhance their productivity and retain them.'

Entertainment is central to the enjoy-work.com philosophy. 'Some people work in the same place for 10 years,' says Chaston, a former hotel and restaurant manager in her native Canada. 'You need to provide an environment which is stimulating, interesting and exciting.'

We should be delivering the same level of service internally as we are trying to sell,

John Nelson

Apart from the stimulation of the physical environment, Chaston believes the online community will provide employees with daily interest, as well as domestic support.

When employees log onto the intranet site, which is regularly updated by the management team, they have several options. These include 'What's on', a guide to events at Chiswick Park; 'Making life easier', a list of services such as dry cleaning, taxis, flowers and groceries; 'Get a life', a fun list of things to do at lunch or after work; 'Travel', a timetable to transport times, quickest routes and bike hire.

Other highlights include a webcam trained on Kew Bridge to predict traffic jams, hyperlinks to yell.com, recommended cycle paths, and who's who to the management and contractor teams, complete with easy-to-recognise photographs.

Chaston explains that the park has teamed up with local and national suppliers to deliver online services. Wherever possible employee discounts have been negotiated. Preferred suppliers include Kall Kwik, Avis and Sainsbury, which has waived its normal £5 delivery charge.

'It's all about bringing products, information and services to the guests' (employees') fingertips,' explains Chaston. 'We are trying to take the hassle out of their lives and cut out the distraction of having to pick up the dry cleaning by 5pm. Now they can focus on what they need to.'

The intranet service is one part of the service offered by Chiswick Management. The team works with contractors including security firm Securicor, and cleaning contractor Lancaster to deliver the more traditional facilities services.

All contractors wear the same uniform and to employees appear to be part of the same team.

Chaston says she is looking for contractors who understand the enjoy-work.com brand and can demonstrate they have a customer service ethos. All contractors are put through the same training programme and are encouraged to own problems when approached by 'guests' even if the problem does not immediately fall into their area of expertise.

Chaston admits she is 'passionate' about customer service. 'It's an evolution,' she says. 'Some industries get it, some don't. The hotel industry learnt many years ago that if you take care of the staff who take care of the guests, the bottom line will take care of itself.'

BA Waterside
BA Waterside is something of an oasis at Heathrow Airport. Not only is it hard to reach and beside water, but it is a rare example of a workplace village community.

Opened in 1998, Waterside accommodates 3,500 employees who work flexible hours. It is the decision-making centre of BA, home to departments such as finance, marketing and sales. Nearby BA Compass Centre is the operational hub of the airline.

The move to Waterside has heralded a change in working culture for BA. Assistant property manager John Nelson jokes that it used to take three weeks to organise a meeting before the move. The design of Waterside encourages much more frequent interchanges.

'There is a real community feel,' says Nelson.'Take the design of the car park. You can't get to the floor plates without coming up through the street, so people are always bumping into each other. Decisions can be made more quickly.'

The street runs the length of Waterside. On either side are facilities and attractions, such as the Pavement Café, Waitrose, trees, water features, a flower seller and sculptures. Below ground is the car park, gym and beauty studio. Off the street are more restaurants, a library and a conference hall. At important times of the year, jugglers and stiltwalkers perform for staff.

Working areas, which are named after the continents served by the airline, branch off the street and are mostly open-plan. Each has a coffee machine, kitchen, television and meeting rooms. Employees, however, are encouraged to have informal meetings over a coffee on the street.

Nelson says staff have adapted well to the change in working culture, which includes hot-desking. Nevertheless they have found ways of circumventing the more impersonal aspects of hot-desking. Walls have been hung with family photos in some locations, while the more technically proficient staff have downloaded images of their loved ones onto their screen savers.

Nelson says the development of Waterside was aimed at rolling out the same customer service message to staff as to customers. Before the move to Waterside, the culture at BA was more hierarchical. 'We should be delivering the same level of service internally as we are trying to sell,' says Nelson.

Reminders of the core business are much in evidence at Waterside. The fuselage of a BA aircraft takes pole position on the street, while BA cabin crew are encouraged to host their training days at Waterside.

The facilities management team, including contractors, undergo the same customer service training as the cabin crew. Contractors include ISS for cleaning, Wilson Jones for security, Norlands for M&E and GL Hearn for space management. Care has been taken that everyone in the facilities management team should be instantly identifiable to employees as a member of the team.