If you run a corporate environment, then you may already know how important it is to impress everyone who enters. While training your employees to create a welcoming environment is essential, you need to be a role model yourself. Here are some thoughts on how to create a welcoming environment that will impress visitors to your workspace.
Create a Welcoming Lobby
The first area that most visitors will encounter in your workplace is the lobby. Make sure that it clearly lets the visitor know how glad you are that they stopped by your office. Employ a receptionist with a great personality to greet each guest as they enter. If someone must wait in the lobby, have good snacks like fruit and fruit juices available for them. Post your company’s mission statement prominently. Provide good up-to-date reading materials related to your industry.
Provide Personal Escorts
While you may know your work environment so well that you can get around in the dark, that is not the case with visitors. Either go to the lobby and meet the person there so that you can personally escort them to your office or send someone to greet them. Allow time to use a stylish restroom if needed before starting the meeting. If the visitor is carrying supplies, offer to carry them for him or her. Discuss what makes your company unique while escorting the person to the meeting.
Provide a Clean-Looking Atmosphere
Companies can become messy without anyone who works there realizing it. Invite someone outside your organization to come in and give their honest opinion about your workspace. Encourage employees to complete messy jobs in areas of the workplace that cannot be seen by the public. If the outside of your office’s view isn’t the most pleasant—such as a construction site—you can use motorized window shades to block that view so that clients won’t be distracted by it.
Make Friendliness Everyone’s Job
According to The Balance, each employee should be instructed to be friendly to everyone that they meet that they do not know. Consider implementing the 10-foot rule in your workplace insisting that everyone make eye contact and speak to everyone that comes within 10 feet of them throughout the workday. You may even want to come up with a small reward for being the friendliest employee. Make sure that you are speaking and smiling at everyone as you move through the workplace to set a good role model. Post friendly signs and funny posters to remind workers of this responsibility.
Use these ideas and your own creativity to make sure that your workplace is an impressive one to visit. It will definitely pay off in the long run!
