The lobby in your office plays a crucial and interesting role. It’s the first and last thing your visitors see and experience during their visit – other than the front doors. This gives it a powerful position in the customer journey, as it can set the tone for the experience that day, and it can provide a final touchpoint in creating lasting brand awareness when your visitors leave. To make the most out of these first impressions, many brands are leveraging technology and interior design to create a unique office reception experience.
What does that look like? Well, depending on what’s desired for the space (entertainment, education) and budgeted toward it, these lobby experiences can take a few forms. They can be as simple as a single digital lobby sign to over-the-top immersive digital media environments that use custom millwork and embedded technology to create some magic. We’ve seen many interesting lobby experiences (seeking them out is something of a hobby for us), and from our visits, we have compiled our five favorite technology-driven elements for elevating lobby experiences.
1. Personalized Digital Signage that welcomes guests by name. If you already have digital signage in your lobby, this is a great way to elevate the touchpoint. A simple web interface lets you quickly type visitors’ names and have them appear on the screen within seconds. The best part about this is that text can be animated and otherwise treated to fit your brand with neat After Effects wizardry.
2. Visual canvasses that display data back as art. This is a really fun method of keeping signage content feeling fresh. Data that your business generates daily — weather, traffic, building occupation, noise levels, and just about any other data set that you can think of — can all feed regenerative motion visuals, bringing them to life and keeping things interesting for visitors for much longer. As we continue to see advances in AI, these concepts should continue to get much more interesting to experience.
3. Interactive company timelines or catalogs that visitors can explore. Since the lobby can act as both a gathering space and a waiting space, there is generally a captive audience hanging around, at least for a few minutes. Making self-guided interactive elements available can provide something intriguing for people to engage with while they’re waiting, and it transforms the wait experience into an educational brand touchpoint. We’ve also seen these interactives used by sales teams as part of a guided tour, which gives bonus points for the dual purpose!
4. Architecturally integrated media or “techoration.” These are visual canvases built in non-traditional ways. You can think of them much more like living art pieces than digital signage. They are created by using multiple-size displays in different orientations, mosaic digital screen panels, or LEDs that have been masked or trimmed into unique shapes. These setups are more visually stimulating than a single screen and, with the right content, can make nearly everyone pause to soak in the beauty of digital art.
5. Kiosks and interactive directories that guide visitors. Locate business suites, restrooms, or other amenities, such as pools, restaurants, and conference centers, with cleverly placed wayfinding signage in reception areas. With digital signage software and the right touchscreen, visitors can find the fastest route to their destination, place check-ins, monitor wait times, and so much more.
These are just a few of our favorite digital signage solutions. We call these out for their simplicity and effectiveness in creating moments of excitement for visitors. There are plenty of other considerations for pulling together an experiential lobby, but we’ll have to save that discussion for another day.
If you’re interested in exploring ways to elevate your customer experience and your lobby experience, don’t hesitate to reach out to our lobby signage experts. We’re happy to share with you what we’ve seen work and to help concept something perfect for you, whether it’s for a conference center, hotel lobby, or anything in-between. Just hit contact below and let us know what you’re thinking!
