1. Always Make Sure That the Customer is Entertained While Waiting
If a person is forced to wait for an hour without any entertainment (no, their own phone doesn’t count), they will be a lot more anxious and uppity. This is what we want to avoid. There are quite a few options to choose from to implement in the waiting room in order to keep the customers entertained. Some of which are:
• Offer Free Wi-Fi
This is the most universal one. If you expect people to wait for extended periods of time in the waiting room, at least offer decent internet access so that they can finish other things while waiting. Don’t go cheap and get a really bad connection that will disconnect them every few minutes, it will only drive them insane.
• Offer a Wide Variety of Readable Materials
You will have a lot of different people with a lot of different tastes coming to your place. With this in mind, it will be necessary to offer variety in your materials so that there is something for everyone. People, generally, appreciate the attention you give to lesser-known tastes.
Keep in mind that you don’t have to strictly follow these examples, while they have been proven to work, they aren’t exactly ground-breaking or unique. If you have a good idea, put it into practice.
2. Create a Soothing Atmosphere to Ease Their Wait
Think of the atmosphere like this, the waiting process is its own thing, but how people will react to waiting will heavily be influenced by the atmosphere. It can either make waiting a more painful or more pleasant process. It falls upon you to build the atmosphere as such so that it will put the customers at ease while waiting. This means you should have a unique layout and interesting pieces to look at while inside. Color psychology plays a big part in this as well, stay away from sterile colors such as black and white. Go for more appealing and friendly colors like blue and green.
Most importantly, always make sure that the furniture is comfortable. We seriously can’t stress enough how much comfortable furniture is vital to the pleasant experience of a customer. A person waiting for 30 minutes in comfortable furniture will be more friendly and understanding than a person waiting for 15 minutes in terribly uncomfortable furniture. So, try to make the waiting space as unique and comfortable as possible so that you don’t have to deal with even angrier waiting customers.
3. Offer Refreshments
This one is pretty straightforward. One way of lowering the frustration and impatience of the customer is by offering them refreshments while they are waiting. Whatever you do, don’t charge them for the drink. You don’t need to go overboard and offer complex cocktail recipes, no. People will be satisfied with simple black coffee or tea. If you want to be really caring, you can even offer them something nutritious. These small tokens can go a long way in building a relationship and put you in a good light as a prepared host.
4. Have Appealing and Unique Decorations to Look at
How you decorate your waiting room will have a big impact on how the people feel while waiting in it. Research has shown that patients spend about two hours on average in waiting rooms. With this in mind, if you decorate the place like a calming therapist’s office decor, it becomes vital to their experience since they spend such a large portion of time in the place. The decorations of the place directly influence whether the people coming will be entertained and if the atmosphere will be good or not.
Make sure that the seats are comfortable to sit in so that the guests don’t become extra grumpy and complain. You should always take into account the type of people that are coming to your place. Some will be families who would like to sit together, while others will be lone people who prefer to sit by themselves. It is wise to accommodate both.
You should have plentiful artwork so that people have things to look at while they are staying there. It soothes the experience more than people usually think. The more unique the better. For example, getting a photo booth hire and hanging the photos in the place can make it seem more unique and appealing to people.
5. Communicate with the Waiting Customers to Lower Their Impatience
Effective communication with customers is key in reducing their impatience when in a waiting room. This is usually done by giving them periodic updates about how long they need to wait. The best ways of maintaining effective communication are by:
• Using Technology
Technology is best utilized in this particular problem by building a transparent relationship with the customer. You can use text messages to notify the customers about their expected waiting time or whether it has changed in the meantime
• Admitting Your Own Mistakes
You need to make a massive mistake for the customer not to accept an apology for the delay that was caused. People are rational beings; they won’t be angry at you nearly as much if you frankly apologize for the delay or long waiting period
• Always Give a Notice
The best way of showing the customer that you care about them and value their time as you would your own is by giving them a notice that their appointment has been delayed. People won’t be too happy if you tell them their appointment has been delayed by 40 minutes when they arrived. Instead, implement a system (most notably via SMS or emails) so that you can update them at least a few hours in advance so that they can adjust their schedule accordingly.
