If you’ve ever placed a sign somewhere, you know that it isn’t a foolproof means of communication. You can ponder and postulate on best placement and design strategies for days, and some of your target audience is still going to fail to read your sign. But why? You bring the drawing board back out and start analyzing colours and placement and font size and copy.
What if you just have too many signs? When customers are in a hurry or already overloaded with information, they tend to ignore signage because they already have a lot on their mind. How will you know? Here are some signs that you might be overdoing your signage.
- People constantly ask where the washroom is: When scanning for washroom signs, customers are looking for something familiar like the literal word “Washroom” or universal symbols for the bathroom. If that customer also has to read department signs, directional signs and sale signs, their gaze may glaze right over the one sign they need most.
- When you ask a customer if they’re aware of the sale, and they appear uncertain: Not that they have no idea, but that they indicate they sort of know about it, but can’t recall details. This may happen because they started reading an informational sale sign, but became distracted by one that shouts “40% OFF!” and didn’t finish reading the details.
- If customers mention they had a hard time finding your location: it may mean that the fabulous SALE sign you have outside overpowers your logo and store name.
- If customers repeatedly ask you questions you have answered on signs throughout the store.
What do you do? Remove signs that aren’t vital and see what happens. Play with colours and font size. It could be more that your signs aren’t visible enough than that you have too many, so you have to be willing to experiment. Ask customers questions to see whether they saw signs. Add images to your signs to make the message immediately obvious. Include as little text as possible on your signs so that it only takes a few seconds for customers to get the point.
Make information extremely easy to consume.
Also take into account that not everyone learns the same way. Visual learners will feel more comfortable with signs that have images demonstrating instructions. Kinesthetic or tactile learners will fully understand once they’ve done something at least once. Keep in mind that not everyone can see or read signs. Finally, sometimes customers just prefer to ask for help than search for the answer, which is lovely because it provides you with the opportunity to get to know your target market a little bit better.
Your best bet is to pour resources into quality signage that provides the most important information, and support that with friendly customer service to answer questions and provide further assistance. Grand River Sign Design is ready to help you create a dynamic promotional display with signs sure to catch the eye! Drop by our showroom at 25 Struck Court Unit 5 in Cambridge, or call 519-740-7272 to book a complimentary consultation.
