If you’ve been thinking about making over your office but are afraid of the process, then talk to Kate Valdes-Flores, project coordinator at Cleveland Clinic Florida in Weston, Florida. She is in charge of facilitating moves on the medical campus, which includes a state-of-the-art hospital with a 24-hour emergency department, 200 physicians, 40 specialties and an outpatient surgery and diagnostic center. That’s a lot of people and spaces.
Kate is in charge of at least three to four moves a month. In the past two years, I’ve worked with her on at least 60 moves. You heard me right, 60 office makeovers or moves. So how do we it and still keep smiling?
Let me walk you through the process:
- PHONE CALL or EMAIL – “Steve is very instrumental in my space planning,” said Kate. A makeover begins with a simple phone call or e-mail. A client, like Kate, reaches out to tell me when she needs to move an employee into an existing office or move an office altogether. She tells me what she wants; which means I do a lot of listening and sometimes a little hand-holding.
- SCREEN SHARING – Once we discuss needs, I offer my clients a unique and interactive approach to an office makeover through collaborative screen sharing. Basically, I give my clients an email to log into and then we share the screen and work on the design layout process. “I like it because he has a new program so you can actually manipulate what you’re seeing on the screen, ” said Kate. “So if I can’t describe it in words, I just slide the mouse and start clicking, and Steve will take it from there.”
- DESIGN & SPACE PLANNING – The next step is for me to sketch out the layout and design the room.
- FURNITURE SELECTION – Selecting from thousands of items and hundreds of different manufacturers can be a daunting experience. But product selection is easy with the use of a custom web album. It can easily be updated if a client changes his or her mind. When a final decision is made, I order the furniture, it’s shipped to the office and installed in place. That’s it! “It’s always a pleasure to work with Steve. He’s very easy to get along with. He is very accommodating and efficient,” said Kate.
Kate is the perfect client. Whenever she needs office furniture, help in design planning or wants to work together on creating a new space or re-modeling an existing one she is a pleasure to work with on a project. Thank you Kate!
Having an office makeover should bring a smile to your face; if it doesn’t, then e-mail or call me and I will change that. Until then, keep smiling!