The reception area is one of the most important areas of your entire workplace. When people walk into your space, they will instantly be hit with a positive or a negative first impression, and your reception area is where that impression will be made. Did you know that most people make their first impression of a person or place within just 7 seconds?
That means you have 7 seconds to get it right!
Of course, you’ll also have guests and visitors waiting in your reception seating area until they are seen. It’s best to keep waits down to a minimum if at all possible, but during the time they are waiting, you need to keep them entertained and comfortable. This doesn’t mean you need to put on a show, but it does mean you need to think about magazines, TV, music, etc. What you should be aware of is that there is a right and wrong way to go about this also!
The Appearance of The Reception Area
Of course, the most important thing to remember is that your reception area needs to be clean, tidy, and even if you’re considering unmanned reception ideas, the space needs to speak volumes about the type of business you are. You don’t have to spend a fortune on your reception furniture, you simply need to make sure that it looks the part and that it is always clean, at the very least. You can find a cheap reception desk and make it look sleek by what you put on it, and of course, what you don’t!
Firstly, what are they going to sit on? Are you going to go with reception sofas? If so, you need to make sure that these are regularly cleaned and plumped up, to keep them looking their very best. Some people prefer chairs, and don’t want to sit close to another person on a sofa; in that case, think about different types of reception chairs as well as/besides sofas.
You can find many trendy office furniture ideas which will easily fit into your reception space, but the idea here is that you’re going for either comfortable and cosy, or comfortable and sleek – make sure that whatever type of premium office furniture you go for, it fits into your space seamlessly.
E For Entertainment
What you need to think about is the feel of your reception area first of all. This depends on the type of business you are. If you’re a business which specialises in making children’s toys, you could have bright and colourful decor, with equally as bright entertainment on a TV screen. If however you’re a construction company, you might prefer to go for a TV showing the news. It’s about keeping everything in-line with your brand and business identity. The same thing goes for the type of commercial office furniture which you have in that space, as we have just mentioned.
The general rules for reception area entertainment are:
- TVs should have the volume turned down, either very low, or completely muted
- The programmes you show need to be particular to the type of business you are; it’s no good showing kids TV programmes if you’re a tech start up company!
- Music should be low and bland, e.g. no rap and no deep love songs! Keep everything middle of the road and you won’t go far wrong – it’s not a good idea to accidentally offend someone with an Eminem song which comes on your Spotify playlist by accident!
- The radio needs to be a station which is either local, giving local news and traffic updates, or it needs to be a main national radio station, e.g. Radio 1 or 2. Again, the volume should be low
- Magazines should be tidied regularly; these should be in neat piles
- Any magazines you have should be inoffensive and should be relatively new – nobody wants to read Cosmopolitan magazine from two years ago! Again, make sure that magazines are in-keeping with the type of business you are
- Have some brand information on your reception tables too, as this will help increase awareness of what your company does
If you follow those guidelines, you won’t go too far wrong when it comes to entertaining your visitors. Despite that, you should always offer refreshments, and ensure that you don’t keep your guests waiting for too long, no matter how long your corporate furniture is!