Five Ways To Make Your Reception Area Really Welcoming
Posted by aonenetworks On June 1, 2014
Nobody likes to be kept waiting, but sometimes it happens. One way you can ease the pain of having to wait is to make your waiting and reception area come to life for your visitors. The best part? You don’t have to spend an arm and a leg to do any of this. Read on to learn more.
Style and Presentation
You don’t need to hire a professional designer to have a stylish waiting and reception area for your visitors. Stylistically, it should match the look and feel of your company, and your logo and colors should be on full display here. This is your first chance to make a good impression on a new visitor to your facility, so you want to not only showcase your brand, but show off your company and what you can do. Style matters here, so you’ll want to spend time, if not money, carefully considering how to maximize the impact of your reception area. Décor should be warm and inviting, yet meld seamlessly with the overall image you want to project with your company. Fresh flowers or attractive plants, a chance to help yourself to a hot or cold drink and a small snack – fruit is always good – easy access to clean, well fitted bathrooms, today’s newspapers, this week’s magazines; all of these are a must.
Staffed
Reception and waiting should never be an empty, anonymous room. There needs to be a warm, friendly, knowledgeable person on hand at all times to personally greet anyone who walks through the door. This person should not be just some minimum wage person hired without a thought. In many ways, this is the point person for your company, the public face. As such, this is actually an important PR position, and should be treated as such. If you need to have an operator to route calls, don’t do it here. PR is too important to be distracted by call routing.
Wi-Fi
Wireless connectivity is a must. If you’re going to keep your guests and visitors waiting, then give them something to do. You already know they’ll almost certainly have a laptop or handheld with them, so let them make use of those tools. Even better, you can use the Wi-Fi connection screen as another opportunity to help put your brand front and center.
Flat Screen In The Room
A wall mounted flat screen in the reception area is also a must, but don’t just have to turned to some random TV show. Instead, use it to display live, real time data and information about your company, latest happenings, industry wide statistics, stock tickers, and other compelling, important information. You could even use this as a platform to give your guests ideas of where to surf when the connect with their own handhelds, and be sure to make mention of your in-company app they can download while they’re waiting. This will give them a virtual tour of your business, and provide them with a virtual concierge, who can answer any questions for them, while they wait. To take it a step further, make the virtual concierge a real person they can speak with live, in addition to having the front desk staffed by a competent PR person.
Charging Ports and Electrical Outlets
Even the best batteries have notoriously short use times, so be sure to have plenty of charging ports conveniently located next to the comfortable seating you’re providing. It’s thoughtful touches like these that make a big impression.
Again, nobody likes to wait, but done properly, your waiting and reception area can make the waiting a lot less painful, and even enjoyable.
