Upgrading Your Lobby With Digital Lobby Signage

Your building lobby is the first thing visitors see when they enter your building. You can engage and impress them using digital lobby signage. Lobby digital signage solutions provide you with a hotspot for building your brand and informing your visitors, all while saving you time, money, and hassle compared to traditional lobby signage. With the right lobby digital signage software, you can easily get up and running with a variety of engaging content on your screens, and managing it is a breeze. This post will help you build the best digital lobby signage for your business by knowing the who, what, why and how of it. We also have an infographic that covers the highlights of this post.

1. Who uses digital lobby signage?

Lobby signage is a common use of digital signage that you’ve likely encountered before. Many different types of establishments use digital lobby signage, including but not limited to:

• Hotels: Digital displays for hospitality in lobbies can showcase nearby attractions, drive positive TripAdvisor reviews, and welcome guests.
• Offices: Both small businesses and corporate offices use digital office lobby signage for internal communications or welcoming visitors.
• Schools: Digital signage in school lobbies keeps campuses connected and students and visitors informed.
• Medical offices: With patient care technology advancing every minute, so has medical office lobby signage.
• Banks: Waiting at the bank is a lot less dull with lobby digital signage.
• Commercial real estate: Digital signage is a huge value add for commercial real estate spaces, especially when it comes to directories and wayfinding.
• Gyms: Screens in the front entrance or lobby of a gym are a great way to promote upcoming classes, welcome clients, and motivate staff.

The Manhattan Beach Marriott hotel uses digital lobby signage to welcome guests

2. Why use digital lobby signage?

Digital lobby signage has several advantages over traditional signage. Here are just a few reasons to switch to digital:

• Easy updating: Digital lobby signs can be easily updated at any time, with changes and new content appearing instantly.
• Liven up your lobby: Traditional lobby signs are static, whereas digital lobby signs are dynamic, interactive and adaptable. One lobby screen can show a wide array of content, from web pages to directories to news feeds.
• Modernize your lobby: Having digital lobby signs gives your entire space a modern, technologically-savvy feel to it.
• Enhance the customer/guest experience: In addition to serving necessary functions, digital lobby signage can make the customer/guest experience better. Digital lobby signs can provide them not only information they need, but also supplemental information they didn’t think of asking for.
• Help grow your business: Some uses of digital lobby signage can actually help your business gain exposure (we’ll go over these uses in the next section). Digital signage also gives your lobby a unique touch that will get people talking about you.
• Make your employees’ jobs easier: Your digital lobby signs can be a rich source of information, answering customer/guest questions that are usually left up to your employees.

3. How can digital lobby signage be used?

With so many types of businesses using digital lobby signage comes numerous potential uses of it, including but not limited to:

Digital wayfinding

Lobby displays featuring a map or directory of the building can help customers and guests find their way without even having to approach the front desk. Lobby directory signage is particularly fitting for hotels, commercial real estate and school campuses.

Soliciting and showcasing reviews

Digital lobby signage gives hotels and other businesses where reviews are vital a way to show off their star ratings and latest positive reviews, or even include a call-to-action asking patrons to submit a review.

Entertaining customers and guests as they wait

When is the last time you waited in a lobby without looking down at your smartphone? Digital signage displaying entertaining content in your lobby, such as a live news feed or social media wall, can give your patrons another way to pass the time. You may also want to provide them with other relevant content they may find useful, e.g. health advice in a medical office lobby or financial tips in a bank lobby.

Digital concierge

With the right digital lobby software, hotel lobby displays can act as a “digital concierge” showing guests what’s nearby, like restaurants, shopping, nightlife and other attractions. Run a local weather feed so guests know what to expect when they step outside and can better plan their stay. You can even monetize the opportunity by working with businesses nearby and having them compensate you for referring your guests to them.

Improving internal communications

The office lobby is usually the first area your employees see when they walk into work, making digital office lobby signs an ideal internal communications tool. Companies large or small can display news and announcements, employee achievements, KPI dashboards, or company social media feeds. It’s a worthwhile effort, as effective internal communications has proven benefits for employee engagement and productivity.

4. What do I need to get started?

There are three main components you’ll need to build a digital lobby display system:

Lobby TV display(s)

The first thing you’ll want to obtain is a TV screen or other display for your lobby signage content. If you’re on a budget, luckily it’s now easier than ever to find cost-efficient options without sacrificing quality, even if you need multiple screens. Not sure how to go about finding a lobby display? Our guide to choosing the best digital directory display can be applied to lobby displays in general.

Digital signage player

The next thing you’ll need is a digital signage player, a small device that powers digital signage content on any display. Depending on what type of digital signage solution you go with, the player (hardware) may or may not come with the software. We recommend going with a “plug and play” solution.

Lobby display software

The right lobby display software will help you get the most out of your digital lobby signage with ease. Look for a digital signage software with apps for wayfinding, reviews, social media or news feeds, weather, custom graphics, or any other lobby signage uses mentioned in #3 that you’re interested in. You want your lobby display software to be modern, easy-to-use and capable of powering the content you want to show. It’s also a good idea to find one that allows multiple user accounts, so it’s not up to one employee to manage the content.

5. Use Case

Enplug has worked with many businesses to add digital signage to their lobbies, in many of the ways discussed in this post – with real results. Commercial real estate developer Rising Realty Partners uses Enplug’s software to power a digital directory in the lobby of its 460,000-square-foot PacMutual buildings in downtown Los Angeles. This historic landmark is made up of three interconnected buildings and houses a large number of tenants, so it’s important for visitors to be able to find the tenant they’re looking for. Rising Realty Partners also loops in other content alongside its digital directory, like social media feeds, news feeds, promotional graphics and weather. Real estate developer Rising Realty Partners displays a digital directory along with a social media feed Remember how we said digital lobby signage can also help grow your business? Within one week of displaying a social media feed in their lobby, Rising Realty Partners saw a 35% increase in tweets due to 100% more users interacting with their brand on Twitter. You now hopefully have the know-how to build the best digital lobby signage for your business and give your patrons a positive, lasting first impression. To learn how Enplug can serve as your lobby display software, request more info today.