How can you invest in your atmosphere? This might be a fresh coat of paint, displaying artwork from local artists, or selecting music appropriate to your brand. People will pay more for the experience. For example, in blind taste tests, most folks have chosen Dunkin’ Donuts versus Starbucks coffee. Dunkin’ Donuts coffee goes for about ninety-seven cents per cup. Starbucks sells its coffee for four dollars, but it also provides its patrons with a warm atmosphere, hip music, and the luxury of wireless Internet access, and in doing so, it creates a meeting place. People will pay for the atmosphere, the experience—the opportunity to belong to a cool culture.
There is no better way to let your customers know you're struggling than to keep the temperature uncomfortable just so you can save on your energy bills. In the wintertime, ensure your customers can stay warm. In the summer, make sure they can stay cool. Your job is to make them feel at home while they're with you. They should be free from shivering or breaking a sweat while they're experiencing your brand.
Take photos of your happy clients (with their permission) and adorn your office walls with them. Pictures of other folks who have successfully navigated your process will have a calming effect on your future customers who see them. Seeing the smiles will instill confidence that you can get the job done with minimal pain or headache.
Examples: Happy kids holding their new toothbrush in dental offices, new car owners in the dealerships, and new babies next to the OB/GYN reception desk.
If appropriate, have toys, books, and puzzles in your waiting room. Both parents and children appreciate having the distraction. If your office is a little more highbrow, simply keep the toys in a nice chest and offer them only when children are present, rather than leaving the toys out at all times. Waiting rooms are not ideal places for high-energy children, so even having these things available for staff to hand out can go a long way toward making everyone's visit a more comfortable experience.
Always offer fresh, high-quality coffee or tea. Make sure it's good. It's this kind of touch that shows you care about your customers. You might also want to offer bottled water for those who don't care for coffee or tea. There is nothing worse than a company that cares so little about its customers that it makes them wait in a cramped waiting room with battery acid for coffee. The right beverage, at the right time, can have a very calming effect (even if it has caffeine).
Reassess your office hours. What do your clients want? (Hint: Ask them.) When are the shops around you open? While it depends on your industry, you may want to stay open past five so folks who don't have the opportunity to visit during the day may do so after work. Certainly, there is a balance to be struck between managing a store and the business to support it being open during those hours. A sure sign that a business is in trouble is when it cuts back its hours. A thriving business would be looking to expand hours—not reduce them.
Make your grand opening successful by: scheduling it during high-traffic times (if your location allows for it),throwing a big grand opening sale, offering food (make this appropriate to the clientele you are seeking),
providing a tent for seating outside, direct mailing the local market,
offering demonstrations of products or services, andinviting all local business owners, press, and the local chamber of commerce for the ribbon-cutting.
Display artwork for sale from local artists. In doing so, you support the local artist community, gain word-of-mouth through the artists, and bring more interest to your walls. This can be done by writing up an offer and presenting it to a local art gallery. You may want to bring focus to the display either by centering on a specific artist or by having the showing coincide with a particular (and appropriate) event.
Create an aromatic environment by using vaporizers or oils. Have you ever walked past a restaurant or café and been captured by the rich or appetizing aroma wafting from inside? Studies have shown that customers linger longer in aromatic environments. Our sense of smell is the only sense that isn't filtered by the brain. (It bypasses the limbic system entirely.) What can you do to appeal to this sense? What scent might coincide with your branding effort?
Better: Coffee and cookies are better than air fresheners. Many people may be allergic (or think they are—same thing) if the wrong scents are used. Some offices ban their use.