Let’s be honest most people hate waiting rooms because they hate waiting. But it’s something they have to do sometimes; they have to wait to get in touch with the expert they want to discuss. The waiting room is the last thing that pops into someone’s mind when they think about a feel-good ambiance.
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Put yourself in your clients’ shoes and try to remember how you felt the last time you were in a waiting room.
It’s easy to describe the average waiting room, it’s noisy, furnished with uncomfortable chairs, and the waiting line doesn’t seem to end before the closing hours. It’s a nightmare to be directed to one, but sadly most times, it’s a nightmare that comes true.
However, your waiting room doesn’t have to be this way and provide your clients with a negative experience. This article provides you with a couple of recommendations to consider when you layout and design a waiting room to make your clients feel welcomed and comfortable.
When ideal waiting room has to be useful, easy, and fun. How can you develop it to feature these three characteristics?
Tips to make it useful
Bring in furniture
Business owners are always looking for ways to save money and often neglect the waiting room’s importance and compromise when purchasing furniture for this space. Even if in some cases, old is gold, this is not the case because your clients won’t appreciate spending time in a dusty room with outdated furniture items. Don’t expect them to wait patiently in a room where the furniture breaks and smells. The waiting area is always full of anxiety, and the furniture and decorations can intensify the feelings.
Create a cosy space with new, warm coloured, and soft seated furniture to make them feel more comfortable. Seats with arms are more comfortable and allow your guests to relax in the correct posture. Plan spacing and seating well, and treat the process as you’d create a space for your friends and family.
Make the space useful
Your clients sacrifice their time to wait for you to see them and provide services. The secret to making them happy is to make them think they don’t lose their time while waiting for your services. Invest in laptops and tablets they can use to complete work-related tasks while away from the office or catch up with other activities. This positions your company as a business that understands your public’s needs and does its best to provide them with the best solutions.
When designing the headquarters, you should always plan the parking space dedicated to your clients because one aspect that is always making people lose time is the search for a free parking spot. Research reveals that drivers waste around 9 minutes searching for a parking place.
Tips to make it easy
Hire a greeter
Plan your customer’s journey at your business office from when they enter the premises until they are away in their car. What happens when they first walk in? They may feel confused because they don’t know where the waiting room is and what steps they should follow. Many questions are going in their heads that can make them feel awkward or uncomfortable.
A greeter can welcome them the moment they enter the building, help them register, and guide them to where to sit. It can save your customers from stressing themselves and feeling anxious and make them feel welcomed and appreciated.
Let them know what to expect
Humans are curious beings, and this curiosity increases when they do something for the first time or have time to think about it. They need to know that you’ll serve them as soon as possible. Use a TV to display information about your services and the waiting list so they can know when they’re next. Informing them of how many people are in line lowers their anxiety levels. The Tv can also provide information regarding the place where they need to go when their turn comes.
Tips to make it fun
Create an enjoyable atmosphere
When designing the waiting room, your goal is to make it feel like a welcoming and entertaining place—display interesting artwork from local talents to distract the visitors and let them enjoy some creative pieces. And since we’re talking about creating a welcoming environment, choose some relaxing playlist because the research reports that 88% of people think music can elevate their mood. You can purchase the music from a library like Melody Loops that offers royalty-free music you can play in your waiting room.
Provide them with refreshments
Make your visitors feel appreciated by offering them refreshments. Freshwater, tea, and coffee do the job most of the times. You don’t have to transform the waiting area into a bar or coffee shop, but a small thing as offering them free refreshments can make them feel welcomed. If you want to go the extra mile, collaborate with a local bakery to provide you with delicious patisserie goodies your clients can enjoy while waiting.
Bring in technology
Most people have smartphones nowadays, meaning that their primary demand in a waiting room is a high-quality internet connection. Ensure that you provide them with easily accessible internet so they can use their devices to entertain themselves while waiting. The majority of your clients expect you to have Wi-Fi and charger boxes for a variety of devices. Power outlets aren’t enough because most people don’t carry charges with them. When it comes to the devices and tech facilities you offer to your clients, being innovative is the best approach.
Final thoughts
The best way to create a welcoming waiting area is to put yourself in your visitors’ shoes. Try to identify the things you expect to get when you enter a similar space and have your employees provide you with feedback on what changes they would make. You can also ask your clients for suggestions to determine what their expectations are regarding this space.
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