Ways to Make Your Business Warm and Welcoming

Open and accessible spaces are valued by both customers and business owners, as increasing functionality is important in making any business successful. However, customers are not only searching for practicality. It’s one thing to open your doors for clients and another to make them walk in and keep coming back. 

Why do you need to make customers feel more welcome? Customers come to you with their needs, desires and problems. They’re eager and sometimes even anxious to fulfil or solve them. A successful business owner is an empathetic one. You need to make your business space feel more like home, somewhere where clients can turn for advice or help, where they can free and open their minds to your ideas and solutions.

If you were wondering how to make a modern space feel warm and welcoming for your customers, here are the most important aspects of commercial interior design you should focus on.

Get the Look of Wood for Less with Vinyl Flooring   

You had a dream that your store could look and feel like a vintage, soulful house with wooden floors that brings back memories of childlike safety and comfort with every step you take. Unfortunately, wooden floors are harder to maintain, more expensive and are not waterproof. 

Luckily, you are born in a time when there’s a variety of vinyl plank flooring loose lay solutions available at the click of a button. Their simple installation is complemented by their durability, easy maintenance, scratch-resistant, slip-resistant and waterproof design. Beautiful as it is functional, loose vinyl flooring is perfect for a retail store, restaurant or even a healthcare office. Get the look you want for less with a plethora of highly authentic wood, stone, slate, metallic and abstract designs.

So, how does loose lay flooring work? Loose lay plank flooring consists of easily adjustable removable and re-installable rectangular pieces that have adhesive or groove mechanisms on their sides that keep them in place. You can even install loose lay vinyl floor tiles on top of an existing floor. 

Illuminate the Space With the Right Lighting  

Your choice of light can brighten a mood or dim the atmosphere in the room. Make sure you choose right. Besides basic functionality, it is an indispensable tool that can bring out your best or your worst. 

Depending on the purpose of your business space, you can choose from a variety of commercial lighting options. If you’re looking for flexibility, try track lights that can make your display shelves shine. Plus, you can redirect them any time you want. Wall lights or decorative pendants can turn that dark corner into an inviting, intimate and romantic space that’s perfect for a table for two. 

Don’t forget about colour temperature and colour rendering. Colour temperature determines how “warm” or “cool” a light looks to the human eye while the Color Rendering Index (1-100 score) describes how good a light source is at revealing the true nature and variation of different colour shades. The higher the index, the more realistic the shades are. There are some LED lights that go as high as 98, making them a great light source for your business space.  

Add Interesting Dimension and Texture With Wall Art  

What makes an artist’s work valuable doesn’t necessarily make the artwork valuable for your business. Colours, texture and patterns combined with lighting make people feel what they see. Before you start to mix and match, you need to strictly define your business service, the mood you want to convey and don’t underestimate the psychology of colour.

Yellow, red and orange shades are recommended for those of you who are in the food service as they arouse feelings of hunger. You can even spice it up and use photographs from the food dishes on your menu to create your own personalised wall art.  

To draw in a business or corporate client, use commercial artwork with more calming tones such as purples, greens and blues. For a mass appeal, like a clothing store, keep up with the latest trends and use a turquoise shade for your walls or wall prints.  

Think of a forest green hotel lobby with dark brushed oak loose lay vinyl floor tiles. What do you see hanging on the wall? Remember, a larger space needs a larger wall print for balance hence your hotel wall art may need to be bigger than usual.   

Accessorise and Add Personality with Decorations   

Armchairs and accent chairs can turn any business space more comfortable. If you own a more luxurious brand that’s all about pampering its customers, a lounge chair will suit your style perfectly. Add an ottoman to your shoe store to get a practical rest stop that’s less consuming than a sofa but more appealing and comfortable than a regular chair. If your customers don’t feel comfortable while trying on your good, it’s less likely they’ll believe in comfort while wearing them.  

Last but not least, one can never go wrong with plants. Outdoor elements and tones are the way to go when it comes to commercial interior design as they are more intuitive. Simply adding a few stylish pots in the right corners can improve your customer’s experience significantly. 

Keep Your Space Clean 

Before they feel comfortable, your customers need to feel safe. Would you want to eat in a dark place with a stale smell? Or buy goods and services from an employee that keeps biting his/her nails while working? Exactly. If the COVID crisis taught us anything, it’s the importance of keeping your hands and surfaces clean.  

Pandemic or not, hygienic working and shopping environments revolve around basic factors such as hand hygiene, using masks and physical distancing whenever necessary, and regular cleaning and disinfection. Experts also recommend ventilation interventions. These include opening windows, using fans, adding high-efficiency air fan/filter systems and using ultraviolet irradiation devices.