Five Tips for Client-Friendly Office

Your clients are essential to the success of your business so keeping them happy when visiting your office proves just as vital to a sound business/client relationship as does providing outstanding products and services. Your office should therefore not only be aesthetically pleasing, but also a comfortable place where your clients are made to feel special and their business appreciated. If you recognise that you could improve your office’s ‘client-friendliness’ then this article is for you.

1. Have someone greet clients and invite them to wait

First impressions are widely considered to be the most important but there’s something to be said for having your clients greeted by a member of staff each and every time they arrive at your office. It isn’t enough to just welcome them warmly the first time; that warm reception should be standard; each and every time a client visits they should be greeted warmly and politely asked to wait. Offer them refreshments and when it’s time, ensure that it’s you who comes out to meet them and escort them to the meeting room.

2. Make the reception area a comfortable place to wait

The reception area should be the most comfortable space in the office. Don’t make the mistake of providing a substandard reception area and then invite them into your plush office, they’ll immediately form the opinion that you’re more interested in yourself than them and that’s not an impression you want to convey. Invest in comfortable sofas and armchairs and decorate the reception area in a professional manner, your clients are waiting and they’ve plenty of time to look around the room to form an impression of your business and you’ll want it to be a positive one.

By Mackenzie Kosut under CC BY-SA 2.0

3. Organise the office and keep it tidy

This furthers the last point made in that your clients will be forming an impression of your business as they wait and as that’s so, you’ll want the impression they form to be a positive one. Offices convey an important impression of businesses to their clients, which explains why many businesses operate from serviced offices in business centres like the MWB Exchange, so make the most of the opportunity to predispose your clients to form favourable opinions of your business through the way your office is presented, maintained and operated.

4. Provide free Wi-Fi and reading materials

Wi-Fi is standard in reception areas and put up a tasteful sign with the Wi-Fi code, that way your clients won’t have to approach the receptionist to ask. Don’t allow your clients to get bored, provide them with newspapers and magazines and if possible, keep the magazines relevant to your business interests. Moreover keep all reading materials up to date, this furthers the image of an up to date and relevant business. Don’t overlook the marketing opportunities presented either, provide business brochures and flyers for your clients to peruse, you’ll be surprised how much further interest in your products and services can be generated, moreover many will mention the products and services they’ve just read about in the meeting.

5. Soundproof meeting rooms or conduct meetings out or earshot

Confidentiality and privacy is essential in business, so either soundproof your meeting rooms or designate the room furthest from the reception area as the meeting room, your clients will be concerned if they can hear the business affairs of other clients being discussed whilst waiting. Ensuring a high degree of privacy helps to impart the impression of a confidential, trustworthy business, one with their clients’ best interests at heart, and that’s a business image you should be trying to cultivate.