How to Enhance Customer Experience with Interior Design

Every business wants to enhance customer experience, regardless of their industry or sector. Many focus on the service they are providing to help shape a positive experience for customers, but interior design is also extremely important.

To leave a long-lasting impression on customers, businesses need to offer the full experience, from the service they provide to the environment customers will be spending time in.

If you're interested in finding out how to enhance customer experience using interior design, consider the following points:

Ensure Consistency Between Brand and Interior

Offer an experience like no other with a stand-out interior // The Man Behind the Curtain, Leeds

To help give your customers a positive and memorable experience, the interior of your space should reflect your brand and the service or product that you’re offering. Consistency is key!

As a casing point, a leisure centre with a dull and tired interior isn't likely to make customers feel inspired or motivated. Equally, if your bar serves smoking cocktails and exciting concoctions, your interior should also reflect this level of excitement! Interior design has a huge impact on the atmosphere of your premises, and atmosphere is everything when it comes to customer experience.

Think About First Impressions

Make the first impression count // ResearchBods, Leeds

First impressions count, and one of the first aspects a customer will pay attention to - and ultimately judge you on - is the interior of the space they have just walked into. If it's drab and dated, it doesn't set your business off in good stead, and if they haven't walked into a well-designed entrance area, it can feel unwelcoming and disorientating.

Instead, think about how your interior looks from an outsider's point of view to help enhance customer experience. Decorate the entrance in a way that feels welcoming, rather than having customers walk into the middle of a restaurant's seating area, for example, or an empty corridor in a leisure facility. Provide some stylish and comfortable seating if customers will need to wait to be seated or seen to, and offer some eye-catching features such as artwork, vibrant indoor plants, quirky lighting, etc. It's all about enhancing their experience with your space, so make sure you're doing just that.

Cater to Social Media Users

Create an interior worth photographing // North Brewing Co. Tap Room, Leeds

You might have seen last month's blog post on how to make your bar or restaurant more Instagrammable, where we talked about the influence of Instagram on where people choose to spend their time and money. Many social media users enjoy snapping the impressive interiors they encounter and choose to share them with their friends and followers. By offering an interior that is worth photographing, you're adding to the overall customer experience whilst also receiving some great advertising. Take a look at last month's blog post for some tips on how to do this!

Carefully Plan the Furniture and Layout of Your Space

Invest in functional, comfortable and innovative furniture // Leeds United Legends Club, Elland Road

Furniture impacts customer experience in a variety of ways, not just in terms of the aesthetic benefits it can have, but through comfort and functionality also. The layout of your furniture can affect the overall feel and ambience of your business, so consider the flow of your interior and the journey your customers are going to have within it.

Fine dining establishments might choose to concentrate on stylish, intimate seating with sophisticated materials and colours, whereas bars and leisure facilities might focus on designing a sociable space with vibrant shades and quirky furniture. Think about your brand and target market to consider the type of environment customers will expect and want from you.

Interior design says a lot about a business, so it's important that yours is giving off the right message. It seems that customer experience is becoming more and more important, with one study in particular showing that 76% of UK adults find a positive customer experience to be more important than the product being offered.

This demonstrates the importance of customer experience on people's perceptions of a brand, and a good customer experience can help your business to stand out from the crowd. It's certainly not something to be overlooked!

Improvements can always be made when it comes to customer experience, but if you're unsure how to adapt the interior design of your business to enhance it, we can help. Get in touch to discuss your project and let's make great things happen!