We have a very unique entrance to our space. Most elevators in an office building open up to a hallway or vestibule of some sort. When the elevator doors open on our floor, you walk directly into our lobby. Directly to the right as you step out, you can see a hallway and a small directory of the offices on our floor. Unfortunately we don't own the whole floor yet, it just looks like we do when you arrive.

This unique design has created many awkward moments. Our guests were expecting to get off the elevator, then go find sparkspace down a hall somewhere. Sometimes they had directions in hand, prepared to embark on a quest to discover "Suite 206" where sparkspace is rumored to be located. Little did they know, they were already standing in Suite 206. It often resulted in a bit of a Twilight Zone experience. Many times, they would drift out of our space and start searching the hall.

To us, awkward is bad. It means the customer is uncomfortable or confused. Neither are good feelings, even temporarily. After witnessing this phenomenon for several months, we finally pulled our team together about a month ago to figure out what we could do to eliminate this moment of weirdness for our guests.

We literally got on the elevator, rode to the first floor, rode back up to our floor and stepped off so we could try to see it from our customer's eyes. What we discovered was that even though there are several signs in our lobby that say sparkspace on them, there really was no clear "lobby sign." You know, a sign with a BIG logo or a welcome message. In other words, it really wasn't obvious to a new visitor.

We had Jenny Ledman from Real Brand Design come up with a stunning design and had it produced by Skyline Exhibits. When it arrived, we experimented with placement in several places. It now sits directly in front of the elevator and is the first thing your eye finds when the elevator doors open. We noticed an immediate improvement. Guests now step off the elevator, see the sign, and realize they're in the right place. We haven't lost anyone down the hall since we put it up!

Why this is our favorite spark today:
We had to shift our mindset from thinking this was just a little problem to realizing that the first impression our customers had when they arrived was confusion or discomfort. We hadn't recognized how off-brand that moment was for guests of the "most exciting retreat center on the planet." As customer-focused as we thought we were, we had still overlooked a very important part of our customer's experience. By first noticing, then shifting our thinking, and finally, DOING something about it, we made what we feel is a significant improvement in customer service.