Meet the manager of Cheltenham's swanky new flexible workplace striving for five-star customer experience

The Boutique Workplace Company's new serviced offices and coworking space in Cheltenham promises to give small businesses 'a big experience'.

SoGlos sits down with general manager, Nathan Lewis, to find out exactly what that means – from offering its resident businesses hotel concierge-level customer service, to having its own signature scent.

Tell us about your career so far and what attracted you to The Boutique Workplace Company.

Like many people, I did a few different things when I was younger. 

I was self-employed as a personal trainer, which evolved into running my own fitness brand. I had a team of trainers at a studio based in Cardiff where we specialised in training people over the age of 40, to help them avoid injuries, which I did for around seven years.

I moved to Ross-on-Wye in 2020 and had a career change, working for a commercial property provider with offices, industrial units and self-storage. I was there for three and a half years, looking after a 38,000 sq ft office building and a 248,000 sq ft trading estate – so there was a lot of space, a lot of customers, a lot of demands, and huge variety.

I always found that I leaned more towards the office space side of things, and I really liked providing that higher-end service, so when I saw the role at The Boutique Workplace Company come up, that really appealed to me. 

I went for the interview and I got offered the job there and then. 

Has demand for high-end coworking spaces grown in the last few years?

I came into the industry after Covid-19, but the initial slump in demand for office space didn't happen straight away. 

Smaller companies got out of the market first and worked from home. Larger companies took longer, but eventually they left too. Then companies realised most people don't want to work exclusively from home, they want a mix, so instead of large offices, they started moving into flexible spaces like ours. 

Now, we're seeing hybrid working and a shift back more towards the office. More people want to use office space again, and it's picked up significantly over the last 18 months.

The Boutique Workplace Company offers small businesses 'a big experience' – what does that mean?

On the surface it sounds like a very common claim, but Boutique genuinely are offering a high-end experience in Cheltenham that I don't believe anyone else is. No-one puts the emphasis on customer experience like Boutique. We recently recruited a new head of customer experience, who spent seven years at The Savoy. We have our own signature scent. It really is that level.

Every single office comes fully kitted out, ready to operate, and has individually controlled air conditioning. 

You have full bean-to-cup coffee machines which offer everything from lattes and Americanos to hot chocolates. Tea, coffee, milk, breakfast cereals, all of that is included.

Everything is secure, maintained and looked after – and we have an on-site gym opening soon, too. 

So when we say big experiences for small businesses, most businesses that have this level of facilities and care are companies with 50, 60, 100-plus employees who have their own dedicated office managers. Sometimes even they don't have this level or service.

We take care of that office manager role for them, so they can run their business while we run the office. 

The Boutique Workplace Company's offices are very design-led, what's the reasoning behind that?

No two Boutique spaces are the same, they're all unique. Even in London where there are three different Boutique spaces within about three or four minutes' walking distance, they're all designed completely differently.

We have lots of period buildings within Boutique, which helps set them apart. In Cheltenham, Jessop House is a purpose-built office space, so we looked at ways we could make this different by incorporating things like archways to mimic the details in period buildings, a more traditional kitchen, quirky breakout areas. 

It's a way to stand out in a very saturated market and do something a little bit different. We're creating office spaces for people who don't want to work in an office!

What is the community at The Boutique Workplace Company in Cheltenham like?

We have a range of companies in everything from tech recruitment to landscaping. It's still early days for us, but we're seeing a lot of enquiries from law firms, solicitors, wealth management companies, so there's quite a variety.

We're growing every day – we've had two new companies move in within the last few weeks!

The coworking and breakout areas really are the beating heart. There's always a conversation, always a chat. I looked out at the terrace the other day and two different companies were sat there having a chat about recruitment. It's really interwoven.

A lot of companies are choosing to come here because trying to find and retain good staff is a challenge. There are a lot of options out there, and what they're finding is that coming to an office space like this, there's a good work environment, tea and coffee is included, staff can access the on-site gym when that's completed, there are all these benefits, so their teams are happier.

Two of the companies here have both said, independently of the other, that the first couple of weeks here saw them have their best weeks of business, because everybody was more energised and pushing harder. So having a great space like this is huge.