5 Tips to Help Make Your Business More Comfortable for Clients

There are a number of factors that can help attract clients to a business. In addition to having great products at reasonable prices, the environment of the building itself can also help influence if and how people engage with a company.

Thinking back to your own experiences with a vareity of businesses, which ones made you feel more at ease? The offices where everything was clean, decorated well and had a friendly staff or the places where the paint was peeling and the trash cans were overflowing? In the case of the latter office, even if that company had the lowest prices in town, you might not be inspired to return.

With this in mind, the following five strategies can help to maximize the comfort of an office space, and encourage clients to return again and again.

1. Train Employees to Treat Every Guest as Their Own

One of the easiest ways to help clients feel more comfortable when entering a business is to receive friendly and sincere greetings from employees. As The Balance Small Business notes, employees should be taught to treat each visitor as their own customer, even if they are not actually working with that person. By making eye contact, saying hello, smiling and asking if they may be of assistance, everyone who walks in will feel welcome and definitely not ignored.

2. Install a Security System That Is Easy to Spot

There is something about seeing a high-quality security system at a business that can help people feel safe and secure. Even if your company is in one of the nicest parts of town, investing in a security camera system is a way to show your clients that you care about their safety. Modern business security camera systems come with some pretty impressive bells and whistles; for instance, the surveillance cameras from Lorex take high-definition footage that rivals what you might find on an HDTV. The security cameras can capture crisp HD video, even in low-light conditions.

3. Keep the Store Clean

Making clients feel welcome can actually start in the parking lot, notes The Arizona Republic; the parking area should be clean, as should the outside of your business. Also, try to keep clutter to a minimum, especially in the lobby area. Look at your waiting area with an objective eye, and if you spot stained carpet, old tattered magazines on a grungy coffee table and shabby paint, consider giving your office a facelift.

4. Make Sure the Break Room Is Out of Hearing, Seeing and Smelling Range

If possible, the employee break room should be away from the front of the store. If you allow smoking inside the break room, this will prevent clouds of cigarette smoke from wafting into the waiting area, and clients will not have to smell whatever your team is microwaving for lunch. This can also help avoid having customers hearing possibly salty language coming from your staff, and/or gossip that you don’t want others to hear.

5. Offer Self-Service Snacks and Beverages

Another great way to help people feel more comfortable is by providing them with a self-serve snack area that is well stocked with water bottles, a user-friendly coffee maker, a fruit bowl filled with appetizing options (note: no wrinkly apples or spotty bananas) and other packaged snacks. Have the snack area in an obvious spot and have your employees point it out and ask if the client would like some water or anything to eat.

Comfortable Clients Will Become Regular and Loyal Clients

Of course, it is still important to focus on providing great products and services at fair prices. But by implementing these five strategies and doing whatever you can to help clients feel welcome and comfortable when visiting your business, they should be inspired to return to your company again and again.

Adam Hansen
 

Adam is a part time journalist, entrepreneur, investor and father.