Inside the four walls where your company resides lies a surprising opportunity to tell a story through thoughtful planning, good design and branding. The interior of your business should tell the story of your company’s history, core values, mission, and showcase your brand promise. Furthermore, it should be attractive and easy to read by all who enter, a source of pride for existing employees, and a point of interest and education for prospective clients and employees.
The story you tell through your workplace design and branding has strong influence over your culture, who you are today, and the future you will create going forward.
Make a Lasting First Impression
Your lobby serves as the first impression of your company. It receives, greets and welcomes everyone who comes through your door, and establishes that critical first and often lasting impression about your company in the first few seconds of arrival.
When considering the story you want your workplace to impart, take time to plan ways to infuse it with energy and demonstrate your company’s unique personality and style. And remember, your employees are your brand ambassadors. When they buy into and feel connected to the company’s brand and understand the “why” of the importance of the work they do, they will be more inclined to talk more about their workplace but talk with pride.
Bring Your Story to Life
Using design elements and décor can capture the culture of a business and show its history. One of the best ways to do this is to incorporate imagery and use items or artifacts that are relevant to the company’s products, services and history.
For example, we recently created an in-depth history wall in a manufacturing client’s newly renovated headquarters. In addition to describing the company’s extremely unique, rich and interesting history, the exhibit showcased their penchant for product detail and high quality, as well as their sincere love for and pride in their work and company.
Feature walls, such as these can also help illustrate a timeline of the company’s major events, while a feature map can be used to highlight geographic reach of products or services. Likewise, completed projects can be showcased and used in conversations with clients to demonstrate product details and commitment, while reinforcing employee pride.
Telling the story and achievements of your company in an engaging form reminds employees why they work there and inspires motivation and commitment to their work.
Build Rapport and Trust
The very nature of storytelling evokes emotion. When visitors enter a space and are transformed to a place in history, or suddenly become aware of something new and interesting they feel an emotional impact, and connection.
Think of walking into a three star hotel versus a five star hotel. A different expectation is created in your mind as a result of your surroundings. Some design elements may include smell, texture, scale and story. How you perceive each of these elements contributes to the level of trust you put in that product, service, or organization.
When clients enter your workplace and see a product they’ve commissioned featured in your space, that supports a feeling of satisfaction and trust in their decision to retain you as their business partner. When your service promises are reflected in your space, confidence grows that the relationship will follow suit. These emotional touchpoints create stronger bonds with our clients suggesting the care taken in the office space will be comparably reflected in the relationship. Let us help you tell your winning story.