When it comes to making first impressions, nothing snatches attention like a well-designed and equipped office. Whether you’re part of a prestigious office complex or you own a humble little office on a main street, there are plenty of reasons to spruce up your environment and decor so that you impress your clients as soon as they walk into the door.
Isn’t it a waste of money?
Absolutely not! As the title of this article mentions, people are going to judge your business by its cover. Imagine walking into a restaurant where the tables have mismatched table sheets, dirty cutlery and bowls that look like someone forgot to wash them. Not only does it look unhygienic and disturbing, it will put your stomach off and make you run to the next place to eat. Your business is no different. If you have an office that looks like you bought all of the furniture from a charity store, then your business clients are going to ask themselves “is this a serious business?”.
Investing in a good-looking office or business is always going to be worth the money. Even if your IT department looks a bit shabby or your network room is dusty because you’ve been delaying the installation of an extractor fan, you should always strive to make first impressions count and remodel the front of your business so that people will see it and think “this is a great business”.
Ways to improve your cover
Let’s do a quick test. Walk into your office as if you were a client or customer, or ask a friend to do the same. Look around as you enter and try to pick out any flaws that you see. For instance, if you notice that there are a couple of old coffee stains on chairs, or if you realise that there are no comfortable seats in the first place, then you need to write these down and formulate a plan on how you can improve your reception area. There are websites that specialise in reception furniture where you can buy things to improve your business’s front cover and also gather ideas for future improvements.
Decor is important
Furniture isn’t the only thing that will define your business’s front cover. Your decor is another incredibly important component when it comes to making a good impression. If you walked into an American diner that had Chinese decor influences, pictures of dragons and Chinese symbols, then it would feel awfully out of place. Perhaps there is some reason for it, but at the end of the day, your customers are going to walk in and wonder if they strolled into a Chinese restaurant that forgot to replace the sign outside.
Whether it’s an office or a retail store, you need to make sure that your business has the correct decor that matches whatever product or service you sell. If you want to take it safe and produce a decor style that is neutral, then use simple plain colours such as white, black and grey. Don’t use anything that identifies with a culture, and try to use simple green plants for decorations and hang things on the wall that relate to your business such as awards and licenses.