The Five Elements of Interior Branding

By: James Kuster Posted on: 2008-09-15 ** Print Article ** ** Copy Article ** - Category Feed

Article Summary: Okay. You’re a dentist. You even have the diploma on the wall from a prestigious university and possibly a myriad of other specialization certificates to prove it. And your very own shingle out front of a practice that is yours! So what. So do a lot of others. What is going to make a prospective patient walk through your front door and check you out? What is going to keep them coming back

Okay. You’re a dentist. You even have the diploma on the wall from a
prestigious university and possibly a myriad of other specialization
certificates to prove it. And your very own shingle out front of a practice
that is yours! So what. So do a lot of others. What is going to make a
prospective patient walk through your front door and check you out? What is
going to keep them coming back and telling their friends and co-workers
about you? Yeah, I know, you graduated at the top of your class and the guy
across the street barely scrapped by, but does that prospect know that?
Would she believe you even if you told her? All else being equal, the only
way you can differentiate your practice from your competition is through
branding.

Branding goes way beyond just having someone whip you up a fancy logo or
sign and plastering it on your business card or on the sign out front.
Branding is the emotional essence of what people think about you and your
practice when they hear your name.

What immediately comes to mind when someone mentions BMW? Is it the image
of being behind the wheel of a sleek, comfortable car, effortlessly winding
your way through an Alpine pass; feeling confident in the tight handling and
powerful engine snaking around the steep curves? That is the power of
branding.

For your practice, I want to focus on the five elements I call interior
branding. These elements all take place within the four walls of your
practice and work together to determine whether you’re going to land that
new patient in the first place and more importantly, whether she will keep
coming back. The five elements are:
- Color, Light, & Texture;
- Human Interaction;
- Application of Technology;
- Ergonomics;
- The “Defining Touch.”

In essence, these five elements define you and your brand.

Element One: Color, Light, & Texture
Every time you walk into a room you have an emotional reaction. The room
makes you feel something. This may be happy, excited, calm, cold, or any
variety of reactions. If you’ve never been in that particular room before,
then your memories of times spent in the room won’t be influencing your
reaction. Thus, the feeling you experience comes from the use of three
components: Color, Light, and Texture.

Colors impact our mood. I think most school kids are taught that some
colors are warm colors and some are cool colors. The warm colors (red,
yellow, orange) arouse and stimulate, while the cool colors (blue, green,
violet) calm us down. My high school used yellows and oranges in the halls
to excite us and help us speed from class to class during the five minutes
between classes. Then, the classrooms were painted in blues and greens to
calm us down and get ready to learn. I visited the school a few years ago
and found that the entire school had been repainted using the school colors
of blue and white in the halls and tans in the class rooms.

Obviously, whoever was in charge of the new color scheme missed the point of
the original one. Makes me wonder if kids still make it to class on time?

Similar to colors, lighting also impacts our moods. Soft, dim lighting we
find calming. Bright, intense lighting excites us. Lighting can be used to
create accents and draw our attention to specific objects or areas of
interest. Think of the emergency pathway lights in an airplane that are
designed to guide us to safety. Lighting can be one of the most dramatic
factors in creating a space. Additionally, we must pay attention to the
proper lighting for the tasks at hand. Without proper lighting eyestrain
can occur, which may lead to stress and headaches. Staff that has
responsibilities for interacting with patients may have a difficult time
being cheerful and friendly if the lighting is working to make them
irritable.

Lastly, texture is brought into the picture to round out the interior space
and impact emotions. The materials chosen on a project help dictate whether
an interior looks sleek and polished or rather cozy and earthy. Think about
the how you feel when you walk across a marble floor versus a slate one.
What images go through your mind in each instance? Does walking on marble
feel more formal and cold? Do you think of a bank or insurance company or
maybe even a lawyer’s office? With the slate floor’s uneven surface, do you
feel more relaxed?

Maybe you think of the entryway you had in your home growing up or the floor
in a lakeside cabin.

Now, think about sitting down in a worn, leather wingback chair versus a
wood and cane ladder-back kitchen chair. Which makes you feel more at home
and relaxed? By controlling the textures of the floors, walls, and
furnishings, the emotional reactions your patients, as well as you and your
staff are experiencing can be shaped. Taken together with the colors and
lighting, the mood for the entire practice can be designed.

Element Two: Human Interaction

Moving beyond just the materials that make up the interior of your practice,
the next component to defining your brand is human interaction. The focus
once again is on how patients feel about coming to your practice. Are they
greeted with a smile? Are their questions answered? Are procedures
explained in layman’s terms that are easy to understand or not explained at
all? Positive interactions with patients don’t just happen. In order to
consistently achieve high marks you need to sit down and think about what
the patient interactions should look and feel like. Then design them to be
that way and train staff to perform accordingly.

Probably the best example of a company that does this really well is Disney.
Every employee is hired for a role, whether that is operating a ride,
portraying one of the lovable Disney characters or sweeping the grounds.
They are then trained on how to perform in their role. Nothing is left to
chance or the personal experience of the employee. Think about the impact
this has on Disney’s brand. In order to secure your brand, the same thing
must occur. Yes, a dental office may look different than Disneyland, but
isn’t it just as important when it comes to your livelihood and reputation
and the health and safety of your patients?

Element Three: Application of Technology
The third element is what I call the application of technology. In the 21st
century, we are getting pretty used to having technology pervade almost
every aspect of our lives. How the latest and greatest gadget is used in
your practice can make a huge impact on how patients feel about you, your
technical competence, and your practice.

Having a good scheduling and billing system can make the check-in and
checkout process smooth and effortless for both patient and staff, and a
smooth transaction doubtlessly makes for a better impression on the patient
and causes them to go away feeling better about having just spent money with
you.

Installing chair-side monitors so patients can see what is going on inside
their own mouth raises the comfort level that recommended procedures are
necessary rather than in the old days of having to just take the doctor’s
word for things. These same chair-side monitors can double as video screens
for displaying educational videos before a procedure is performed or
entertainment videos while patients are waiting. Having cartoons for kids
makes them feel more at home and comfortable with the strange things that
are going on around them.

Now, I feel displaying educational videos on a large screen in your waiting
room is a bad idea. Who really wants to see the gory details of the inside
of someone’s mouth or of some miscellaneous procedure while they are waiting
for an exam? These videos are great as an educational tool to help a
patient understand the particular procedure being recommended as part of
their treatment, but wouldn’t watching a movie or music video in the waiting
room put you much more at ease about the whole experience of waiting?

The doctor’s technical expertise cannot only be demonstrated in how painless
the treatment experience is, but in what latest advances in dental medicine
are exhibited both during treatment as well as around the office.
Certificates on the wall can only go so far.

Element Four: Ergonomics

Ergonomics is the fourth element to creating strong interior branding and is
probably one of the areas that often receive the least attention. In order
for staff to have a positive experience at work, the desks, chairs,
keyboards, and monitors must be adjusted to provide a comfortable fit.

Repetitive use injuries, such as carpal tunnel, can result if proper
attention is not paid to the adjustment of these things. As previously
mentioned, improper lighting can cause eyestrain that can result in
headaches and even eventually to having to wear glasses. Storage cabinets
that are not designed properly can result in large or heavy objects being
stored in such a way that precipitates back injury or strain from improper
lifting.

Not all exam chairs are created equally. Some do a better job of
incorporating ergonomic features into their design. The positioning
features can impact how comfortably you work on a patient and how arms and
wrists tire by the end of the day. On the patient side of the equation,
good ergonomic design dictates the comfort of the chair during treatment.
This concern for patient comfort should extend to the waiting room as well.
How comfortable is the seating in your waiting room? Would you want to hang
out and have an extended conversation while seated there?

Element Five: The “Defining Touch”

The last element is what I call the defining touch. This is some element
that makes you and your practice unique and around which everything else can
be designed. Perhaps it is a favorite painting that will hang in the
waiting room. Maybe it is a love of golf or duck hunting. It may even be
the practice of always having the latest new technological gadget. Whatever
“it” is, it is important and is woven into the fabric of the design and the
brand to help generate the emotions you want patients to experience and to
carry with them outside of the office.

As can be seen through interior branding, the objective is to craft the
total experience for the patient and generate a set of emotional responses
that will keep them coming back and will cause them to tell their friends
about how great they think you and your practice is. By paying close
attention to the five elements: color, light, and texture; human
interaction; application of technology; ergonomics; and the “defining
touch”; and the interaction between them, what exists and occurs inside the
four walls of your practice will be a strong, strategic tool for building
your business. Competition is stronger than ever and the days of merely
hanging out a shingle and sitting back while the patients roll in are gone.


Every experience a patient or prospective patient has when they set foot
inside your front door defines your brand in their mind. Leaving that
experience to happenstance rather than having had defined and controlled it
is a sure way to gamble with your practice’s future health.

Article Source: http://www.upublish.info

About the Author:
James Kuster
Growing up in Indiana, James was enthralled with the sophisticated art deco and art moderne world of 1930’s Hollywood. The scenes and settings Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers danced their way through in "The Gay Divorcee" struck a chord, leaving a lasting impression. He longed to live in a world like the one he saw in the hotels, apartments, and nightclubs presented by Hollywood When he designs, he attempts to create spaces recalling these same emotions – spaces which are pleasing to look at, enhance their environment, yet just as the classics, never look dated or trendy. He founded Küster in January 2002 and immediately registered to exhibit at the International Contemporary Furniture Fair in New York. His work has been seen in Metropolis, Metropolitan Home, Home Décor Buyer, and Elle Décor. James’ background in industrial design lends a unique perspective to his work.

Keywords: interior+branding, office+decorating

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