Houston outdoor signage is important for more than just advertising. It can provide important guidance to people visiting your facility for the first time. If your property is particularly large or you have many departments, many people may not know where they need to go. Outdoor directional signs include arrows and labels to get your customers to the right location before they even enter your building. In this article, we’ll discuss directional outdoor signs and why your business might need them.
Why You Need Directional Houston Outdoor Signage
Picture this:
Paul is new in Houston. Houston is a large city that is entirely unfamiliar territory for Paul. Getting lost is inevitable without a reliable means to find his way around, which can make his experience in the city unpleasant.
Similarly, new customers are like Paul when they visit your business premises, especially if you have multiple departments and are located in a large property with multiple entrances and large or multiple parking lots.
That’s where outdoor directional signs come in. Without clear and accurate wayfinding signs, a potential customer can mistakenly go to the wrong floor or enter a restricted building area.
No matter your industry, directional Houston outdoor signage can benefit your business. Read on to find out how outdoor directional signs improve customer experience and branding.
Why is Directional Houston Outdoor Signage Important?
Wayfinding signs have become crucial for businesses wanting to streamline customer experience on their premises.
A study of over 75,000 participants revealed that customers want a straightforward and fast solution to their problems. A clear, directional sign can be that solution for customers trying to navigate your business premises. Here are four reasons why businesses need directional Houston outdoor signage:
1. Instantly Show Customers Where They Want to Be
Imagine stepping into a large building with over 60 floors and hundreds of shops. If you don’t know your destination and have no one to guide you there instantly, you might be compelled to visit the easiest shop to find in the area.
But if your desired shop has a directional sign near the building’s entrance, getting to the business store becomes easy. The sign will show you which entrance to use to get to your destination and interior wayfinding signs can explain which floor to go to. This streamlines the process and gets rid of the frustrating need to ask people for directions. Houston outdoor signs can significantly help with your customers’ experiences.
2. Parking Made Easier
If you’ve been driving for several years, you probably have a crazy parking story. Maybe you parked in the “No Parking Zone” only to end up with a wheel clamp on your car’s tire. Or perhaps you unknowingly parked in a reserved space and had to move after paying a fine.
If such parking nightmares happen to potential customers, they may leave before entering your business premises. Houston outdoor signage guides prospective customers around your business to the correct parking spots with directional signs. People will know where not to park, understand what spaces are reserved, and know where to find public parking spaces.
3. Improve Your Brand Image
With reliable directional signage, customers can easily find their way around your Houston business and quickly get to where they want. Easy-to-interpret signs ensure parking around your business premises isn’t a horror story they’ll live to narrate to their future generation.
These positive experiences promote a positive brand image that can boost customer satisfaction and increase loyalty. Any good interaction with your brand, even in the form of using signs to navigate a parking lot, can help turn prospective customers into lifelong customers.
4. Reduce the Burden on Your Customer Support Team
Suppose a potential customer visits your premises in a commercial building but can’t find where they need to be. Supposing they don’t leave immediately and go to a competitor, they might call your support team for directions. This creates more work for your teams and may increase wait times for customer support, which no one likes.
If you have clear and easy-to-spot directional signs, a customer wouldn’t have to call for directions after reaching a commercial center. After all, wayfinding Houston outdoor signage is easy to understand. As a result, you reduce the number of calls, so your customer care team can focus on more pressing matters.
Are Directional Houston Outdoor Signs Necessary in Every Business?
Houston outdoor signage is necessary for nearly every industry. Why? Businesses rely on outdoor signs to create the best possible experience for first-time customers on their premises. These signs help customers navigate a business property seamlessly.
With the best directional signs, you also improve your brand’s reputation through a great first impression to new customers. Common industries that use directional signs on their premises include:
- Fast Food Restaurants: Fast food restaurants often have a drive through, places to park for in-house dining, as well as areas specifically for their employees to park. Directional Houston outdoor signage can help ensure everyone gets to exactly where they want to be. Don’t underestimate “enter” and “exit” signs for your drive through, they can help prevent customers driving the wrong way, which can be confusing and also dangerous.
- Hospitals: Hospitals can be huge, with many different departments and even different buildings. How will someone know where to go for the ER or where to check in for their scheduled surgery? Signs help direct people to the right part of your hospital to save time and hassle, especially during emergencies.
- Colleges and Universities: Directional signage in higher education institutions helps parents, visitors, and students find cafeterias, offices of different departments, and other locations to avoid getting lost.
- Car Dealerships: Car dealerships often have new car sales areas, pre-owned car sales areas, as well as service centers for their customers. Once again, directional signage can really save the day for someone visiting a dealership for the first time.
3 Useful Tips for Installing Directional Houston Outdoor Signage
Here are three factors that matter before installing outdoor directional signs:
1. Place Your Directional Sign in a Strategic Location
Customers should easily see your outdoor wayfinding signs. No matter how appealing the signage is, it will amount to nothing if your prospects can’t see it.
For example, you want customers to find the entrance immediately after arriving at your premise. Those driving should easily identify the parking area, maybe even from the roadway. You should place signs near entrances to your premises where customers can easily spot them.
2. Clear Communication and Appealing Design Are Key
The best directional sign informs people in your premises where they are, where they want to go, and how to get there. Your signs should be of the correct size with the right color combinations to send the right first impression to prospects. However, that doesn’t mean you can’t add a little flair to these signs to match your brand. Use easy to read fonts and clear language, but consider using your brand colors or incorporating your logo somewhere near the top for your design.
3. Keep Your Directional Signs Simple
Wayfinding signs with the simplest layout ensure people can easily interpret the directions. Remember, you’re trying to convey vital information quickly. Simplicity will help you achieve this. One tip we have is to group like arrows together, not alternating between right and left arrows, as this makes it harder for our brains to read and interpret.
Installing Your Houston Outdoor Signage Made Easier
Our team at 4D Signworx can help you with all your signage needs in Houston. We handle the whole process, from design to manufacturing and installation. Let us work on your outdoor directional signs as you focus on other core business activities.
Our services are affordable and high-quality—we manufacture signs for our customers in-house, from Houston marquee signage to monument signs, to save you money and reduce lead times. We operate locally and have been in business since 1968. Our experience puts us in a better position to provide Houston businesses with high-quality, effective signs. Get in touch with our team for a free quote for all your Houston outdoor signage needs.