You can tell a lot about a person from their house. It reflects their personality in ways that their words can't. The same is true for a business.

I have been working with a client to craft their story and one of the things that struck me is how their office mirrors their personality. It is an oasis. That sounds so corny, but it really is true. You walk in and it is light and airy. It is comfortable and well laid out. Beverages are offered and you feel comfortable. Everyone has an office. That is a big deal. In the world of public accounting where I began my career, you had to earn your office and you got rewarded for promotions by moving to offices with increasing numbers of ceiling tiles. And there was a rule about how many tiles each level of staff should have.  I don't have a clue how the office managers could manage the configuration issues that resulted. 

But in this company the office reflects their philosophy and the organization chart agrees - they don't have a big hierarchy with client relationships only happening at the top of the chart. They have people assigned to take care of clients at all levels.

Retail stores understand this. Walk into a Container Store. It is always cold, wide aisles, uncluttered, bright. It feels like you have left the noisy cluttered outside world and have entered the "everything in its place" zone. In my case, it lasts for much too short a time.

Walk through Nordstroms. You don't see a bunch of sale signs, the shoes are well laid out with plenty of space for sitting and viewing the wares. They have cafes in their stores, they provide nice restroom facilities. It seems like they almost understand that their customers are people. They probably get a million dollars in revenue a month as a result of that restroom traffic alone.

If you are in the service business and people visit your office, what does it say about you? Is it an oasis or Grand Central Station?  If you are a bank, is everyone behind a wall or are there people you can talk to?  Are you a discount store like Kmart or clean and airy like Target?