Beyond Furniture: How Working Spaces’ Client Experience Elevates Corporate Culture

TIM: Vicky, thank you so much for taking the time to be with us today. , this is a treat because obviously you and I know each other. , we are both gonna be talking about something that we know a lot about and that is working spaces and how we help,, organizations with their culture, but I’m gonna start today, as I always do, with that one question, which is so important to us, which is how do you define. Culture.

VICKI: Love talking about culture here at Working Spaces. Thank you for having me. I’m really excited to have the chance to share what I’m passionate about, and culture to me is a feeling. , it starts as Sunday night. Where are you going next week? Are you excited? Are you passionate? Do you feel inspired? And with the workplace, you walk into your office, you can be your true authentic self. You work with a group of people who respect you, who trust you. And who truly are working on shared goals, personally and professionally, and you’re able to hold each other to really high standards and be excited about it.

TIM: Yeah, I mean, you, you mentioned how you can be yourself and I think that’s a, that’s a nice component that I haven’t heard people talk about and that’s true and that, that feeling that you can just be you and it goes to something we, we talk about with our,, partner,, Kimball International, which is, you know, building places to belong. Don’t you find that is really. The the kind of core of of a culture is really knowing that you have a place to belong.

VICKI: Belonging is critical to building a healthy workplace culture, for sure.

TIM: How does working spaces help organizations with culture? Cause it’s just, it’s just furniture, right? It’s just furniture, walls. How can we help and working spaces help companies with their with their organizational culture?

VICKI: Well, I feel like right now we’re uniquely positioned to lead from the front, so that everything we Do and say we’re gonna do, we do, and our clients can feel what our culture really is like, so we can say. If this is what you’re looking for, here’s how we got there. We, we have experts who know your business. We know experts who have done this with other businesses and have taken them from here to there, and we can work with you to truly identify and develop the sense of culture that you want to feel within your workplace, and then we can provide the furniture and the technology. To to make that happen end of day, but what we really can do is be the expert and challenge the client to get where they wanna go and not be afraid to go there because we’ve done it before.

TIM: You know, a, a prospective employee or a perspective. Client make up their mind within 5 seconds of walking in the door of whether or not they want to work for or with your company. That space that they walk into tells a very distinct story immediately to that individual. So in a world where everybody’s looking to attract and retain quality talent. Space matters and this world where we’re starting to more and more and more attract people back to the office and get off their couch and, you know, again, put their pants back on and come to the office. That space has to be an inviting space, right?

VICKI: Yeah, definitely.

TIM: How can we help a a a client? Provide that for their, their employees.

VICKI: Yeah, we have a really wonderful client experience team that starts with our workplace consultants who truly know the business. We have designers that are degreed, qualified, have worked on multiple projects, and then we have our project managers and project coordinators. So we have a whole team dedicated to building a space from Conception through completion, so we can, we can design it, we can show really fun renderings. We have our technology virtually to look in the space and see what it’s really gonna feel like when you get there. And then we are able to tell the clients exactly what it’s gonna take to get where they want to go, and then We are able to provide all of the resources for them to get there. So they don’t have to think about it again once we work through the whole project with them.

TIM: The easy button, right?

VICKI: Yes, the easy button.

TIM: How soon should a client engage with Working spaces.

VICKI: Oh well, you know, my, my thought on that is the moment they think they need to do something to their space, they should find working spaces to or another dealership if they’re not in our Working territory to come in at the very beginning because we work really well within the world with the architects, and with the contractors, and with the client to help with that very unique niche of the furniture, which is different than architecture or design. It’s, it’s a part of it, and we, we know it so well that we will Fight for the client to get what it is they really need to build the culture of their space because we are the experts in that part of it.

TIM: You are the vice president of the client experience for working spaces. How does your team, the client experience team. Help companies with their culture.

VICKI: That’s a great question, Tim. I think that it starts with the project managers who at the very beginning, get to build relationships with our clients and truly understand how they work. , they, project managers work hand in hand with our designers and our workplace consultants, and they’re in the background a lot of the times, but they are making sure that the whole client experience that we’re providing. Is being taken care of from A to Z. I the project manager doesn’t do everything from A to Z, but they make sure we stay on track and that we communicate, and we’re communicating with all of the stakeholders, and that is, that is our culture of working spaces to over communicate. So that helps in the end, with the client understanding how all of this relates to their culture within their space as well. And the project coordinators are part of that whole process, and they make sure in the background that once everything is ordered and we’re moving forward, the things stay on schedule and on track, and they’re communicating with the vendors, doing all these things in the background, so that way, once everything is installed. The client didn’t have to ever wonder where this piece came from or what day this arrived or how this was getting from here to here. All of these components are thought through on the back end with the client experience team, and that is Those are all of our values at working spaces, and that relates directly to the client experience and what they feel.

TIM: You know, I find that that People we work with a lot of times think it’s. Easier to do what we do than it is, right? And so,, that it’s, you know, hey, you’re gonna order this and we’re just gonna take it off the shelf and we’re gonna, but there’s so many things. And really at the end of the day, I think what we do so well and what, what the value we really provide is mitigating risk. For our clients and everything that your team does is to mitigate the risk of the issues and they are plentiful that can arise from trying to procure, ship and install contract furniture, right?

VICKI: Yes, for sure.

TIM: Well, You mentioned that, you know, we have a culture of over communication, but we also have a culture of development and, and, and, and improving our skill set on a daily basis. So, Tell me a little bit about what you do with your team to to improve their skill sets, you know, so that when they go out to our clients, they’re constantly improving and getting better.

VICKI: Sure. First thing is, I really take the time as a leader to understand and recognize each individual team member what their strongest skill is, because everybody has the term superpower now is, you know, it’s out there. Everybody has a superpower and I make sure that everybody else on the team knows their superpower, and we work to that skill, and we share that skill across the team, so everybody can learn and grow from that. That’s, that’s kind of the first step of growth and development within the team. From there we have monthly soft skill trainings, we might do anything from How to build confidence. We might do something on how to write an email professionally. How to use AI like we, we keep doing all of these different skills so that each team member not only can Work on a specific skill for furniture, they’re learning and developing professionally and personally. As well, through different classes. We’ve also partnered with Solomon Coyle in the past for our project managers, and they’ve done these very extensive project management training programs, which have been great for the development of those team members, and they bring it back to the team and are excited and energized, and then everybody on the team wants to, of course, get to do that fun project management training that is highly coveted, so. That’s those are some of the ways we Foster growth and it’s, it’s a part of our culture. We’re gonna be better tomorrow than we are today.

TIM: And that that absolutely helps our clients, right? I mean, to know that that we aren’t just existing,, we are getting better every day. I think that’s an important thing for all clients to to know and hear and understand that that we are going to be better tomorrow than we are today. But what does that do for the employee when they know they come to work and they can They’re given the ability to improve their skill set every day.

VICKI: First, it gives them confidence, confidence to make mistakes, to take risks, to try new things, to be creative, because they know our end goal is growth, and you can’t grow unless you fail. So there’s a lot of trying new things and working and working through things. Well, that didn’t work exactly like we liked. And 6 months later, now, we’ve got this whole new idea and we’re doing something collectively as a team because of our weekly team meetings. We talk about those things. We share what worked this week, what didn’t work, lessons learned, all that stuff, and, no one on the team is scared or afraid to share when they failed. It’s actually kind of fun now. We’d like to talk about, you won’t believe what happened on this one, never will happen again because Here’s what I did to fix it, and here’s what you can do in the future to prevent it. Those are the kind of conversations we have.

TIM: You mentioned earlier that we show our clients. What culture can be. And if they want that, we can help them get there. What does working spaces do well to help grow the culture internally?

VICKI: Internally we allow each team member to bring forward. Different ideas, creative solutions. So that way they feel like they’re contributing to the overall whole of working spaces because they are, they are truly heard, valued and appreciated in those moments that they can. Think of something new and exciting nobody else has, and we implement it. That’s a lifelong memory that that employee is going to take with them also, and that is one little piece of culture being built at a time through each individual employee.

TIM: You know, quick, quick, I have a number of different Definitions of culture, but, you know, we, we’ve talked about this on the podcast in the past, which is, you know, that culture is the personality of the organization. And how do you feel,, the personality, what, how would you define the personality? Or culture of working spaces.

VICKI: That’s a really great question. I’ve got lots of words to use, so I would say I think the biggest, you know, personality that working spaces exhibits is creativity. I’m gonna go to one of our core values as well, and creativity can be defined in so many different ways, but you can’t be creative unless you are given. Unless you’re trusted and respected, back to where I started with what culture means. So I think we live and breathe as a design organization that creativity counts, it matters, speak up. And your voice will be heard. You’re, we might not be able to do what you want us to do, but we’ll try, we’ll look, we’ll listen, and we’ll make the best plan forward we can with what you think would be great for our organization or our clients or another team member, so.

TIM: Yeah, I mean, I, I think we really do. I mean, I think. I think we do a good job of hearing people, letting people have a voice within the organization of what they would like to see happen you know we have that we culture committee we’ve put together a committee across all of our markets,, that they get together and come up with a plan for every month of something fun. To do to honor something happening that month,, a budget, you know, they come up with all of these things and then they execute and implement it and you know,,,, culture is an agreed upon set of behaviors created by and maintained by the employees and so we’ve put that in the hands of the employees to drive that I, I, I say it often but we’re just the bumpers. In the in the bowling lane of culture as leaders and we try to make things, you know, make sure it doesn’t go in the gutter but keeping it in the lane is really the job of of the employees and and so with great leaders like yourself and and and, and our culture committee and the great employees we have, quite frankly boy it makes it a lot easier. I think we’ve all been in organizations that. That maybe the culture wasn’t so great, and it was really easy to dismiss it by the leadership. But It was really the fellow employees that were there that kind of made it not so great. And, and, and you look back on it and go, oh yeah, well, I was surrounded by really negative people. It’s no wonder that wasn’t good.

VICKI: An opportunity to work somewhere that the culture didn’t feel good. And Back before I really understood what leadership meant. I used to blame it on the leaders, and then now I see I I I can lead by example, of course, but the true culture is Made by each individual team member and their commitment that they’re making to each other and to our client experience. That’s a working spaces where the culture comes from is our commitment to the client experience day in and day out and where we’re going.

TIM: Well, you’re setting me up perfectly, Vicky, for my next question, so thank you very much. You talked about focusing on client experience. Now, I believe When you focus a lot on others. It fulfills your life.

VICKI: Yes.

TIM: Now I say that for this next question, which is how does focusing on the client experience. For our clients Help our culture internally as well.

VICKI: Sure, I think there’s a there’s a couple different ways that that focus really builds a culture. One way is having a process that people know and can hold each other accountable to, but can be cross trained on and to be able to get things done. So I think the process is a big part of what that culture looks like. And then the other part of it is people are really excited for the end product of what we do. So I think we have both different places. So, of course, I’m really passionate about the process and the client experience and I truly feel like because we have very clear lanes, what does a workplace consultant do? What does a designer do? What does a project manager do? What does a project coordinator do? that each person is allowed to show up every day and do the absolute best they can do, because they know what their counterparts are doing. And they know how to help each other get through the process because of all the amount of time we focused on, you know, bending the rules here, working together here, staying in your lane here. It’s, it’s built a culture of Within the teams, because we have this great team approach, so you get to truly know everyone on your team and how they work and what their strengths are and where their challenges may lay, and what their workload might look like on that day. So the culture is built by that team supporting each other through the whole process, because end of day, what we’re doing isn’t for us, it is for the client.

TIM: So at working spaces, we really do focus on the client experience and we focus on it so much that we wanna make sure that we, that we do focus on it so much that other people may look at it as unreasonable. So we wanna make sure that we are unreasonable in our Attacking the the client experience. And in that, we want to find and help create bespoke moments for our clients. We want to find moments that we can wow them individually. In a one size fits one manner. I’ve got to believe that that kind of approach and that mentality on a daily basis, finding moments to wow others has to fill the hearts of the people doing that, and it’s got to make them feel good, which then in turn helps the the culture, right?

VICKI: Yeah, and our employees have truly gotten to know our clients and are looking for all of those small moments within each special project to be able to do something for them that they were not expecting.

TIM: You deal with What some would consider a very dry topic on a Fairly daily basis and that is. Process. It’s interesting, I say it often, people that don’t have a process really, really wish they did, and people that do have a good process, sometimes really, really wish they didn’t, so they could just move things through very quickly. Ultimately, it’s always better to have a process than not. We have a very defined process. You deal with that every day and do it so well. Can having a process, good process. Affect a culture.

VICKI: 100%.

TIM: Having a good process affects the culture every single step of the process. And how can you do that? How can it do that?

VICKI: By having clear expectations. And being able to Hold each other accountable. And being able to Know where to go next and how to get things done.

TIM: Leadership is the number one thing we can do in as leaders is provide clear expectations. So I think you nailed, you nailed the head right there. That is. That’s the most important thing is clear expectations. Everybody knows what to expect, what the process is. They may disagree with parts of it, but they know the process, right? And so, if there’s no Enigmatic moments within that process, we know exactly what’s what’s coming, and that matters, right?

VICKI: It does.

TIM: So, Vicky, let me, let me just ask one last question, which is,, in your estimation, kind of what is the best thing. , working for working spaces and what is the best thing we can do for our clients at working spaces?

VICKI: The best thing at working spaces, for me personally, has been Having an opportunity to show up every day and lead as who I truly am, thanks to you for that as well. And I have had the chance to go from sales into leadership. And, you know, when I made that change, I was afraid I was gonna lose connectivity, like relationships, but in turn, I flipped them, and now I have the strongest relationships I’ve ever had in my life with. All of my team members and all of working spaces employees, in fact, because of the process, I’ve had the opportunity to really get to know every

TIM: Well, look, I, and this is a little inside baseball here, but, yeah, we, you mentioned moving from sales. Into this role of VP of client experience and. I know there was a moment. Oh gosh, it’s been now 5+ years ago that we made this move. And I’m certain you thought when we made this move that, you know, Tim’s the craziest thing a person I’ve ever met. And, but I gotta tell you. , you prove me right every day with the job that you do,, you’ve taken this and made it,, something that I couldn’t have even imagined,, and really, really make all of us at working spaces proud and so Vicky, I wanna thank you for what you do. I want to thank you for what you continue to do, the, the passion and drive you bring to, to improvement and excellence is unmatched, and we are very lucky to have you. So thank you for your time today and thank you for everything that you do.

VICKI: Love working at working spaces and look forward to a good future.