Tips for Creating an Inviting Float Center Lobby – DSP 113

Not all of us are interior designers, but we all want to have a space that is welcoming to our customers.

Graham and Ashkahn definitely have an eye for this, especially after visiting so many float centers. They share some of their favorite designs they’ve seen, as well as common tactics to help make your center comfy and inviting without necessarily breaking the bank on furniture. They also share some of their pipe dreams for their ideal designs that never came to be.

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Transcription of this episode… (in case you prefer reading)

Graham: And today’s question for you is, “What makes an inviting lobby for a float center?”

Ashkahn: Yeah. Okay.

Graham: Chairs.

Ashkahn: Roof.

Graham: Roof. Great idea. I’m just gonna toss that out there. I know we all used to think you didn’t need roofs…

Ashkahn: Okay, so lobbies. I think lobbies can be important, because it’s not just about where people are hanging out before their appointments, but it’s often where people are hanging out after their floats. Sometimes for hours. Drinking tea, hanging out, enjoying themselves. I almost view our lobby as the in-between world between the float tank and the outside world.

Graham: Like, the nice form of purgatory.

Ashkahn: Where you don’t have to stay, you can leave whenever you want. It’s like, you come out of your float, you’re not quite ready to go out into the world again. Especially for us in a city, where once you do step back out into the street, you’re in a city again. I think it’s nice to have an inviting and warm lobby in a place that people could hang out if they want to, and kind of an interesting place to look at and be. Ideally, it’s comfortable is another big one, right?

Graham: I think we covered that with the roof portion of this conversation.

Ashkahn: And chairs. That pretty much covers comfort.

Graham: So, without going into too much detail about it, like Ashkahn said, it is worth noting that a lobby is a place where you hang out before and potentially after. Sometimes that’s divided up into pre-float and post-float lounge kind of areas.

Ashkahn: And I’m assuming everything we’re saying is kind of true for both scenarios.

Graham: Yeah, exactly. So for the sake of this conversation, let’s just say those are all one environment. Basically, your non-float-room areas where the public hangs out.

Ashkahn: Right. That’s not the bathroom. You should have a warm and inviting bathroom, too. You know?

Graham: So, you take back that.

Ashkahn: I take it back. I take it back. It should include the bathroom.

Graham: So bathroom is included in all of this, too.

Ashkahn: They should include the bathroom.

Graham: Yeah, yeah. So, comfy chairs …

Ashkahn: Roof then applies.

Graham: Okay, so. Let’s start at the beginning which is as they walk in the door, easy to access check in area that’s very clear. Kind of, what’s going on. I’ve gone into not necessarily float centers, but different smaller wellness practices. Even walking in the door, I’m not actually sure what is going on or where I’m supposed to go.

The person who’s supposed to be there greeting me ducked off to the restroom or whatever, and there’s not an obvious thing or place that I’m supposed to walk up to, to get attended to. You know? Which is fine. I mean, ultimately, you’re in that building.

They’ll figure out what to do. In our case, you walk in and our weird kelpy front desk area is right there, and it’s very obvious who you’re supposed to talk to, where you’re going, who’s working there. That kind of thing.

Because our staff is running around so much, just in that little intro area there are some things that are nice. We have a little buzzer that will buzz either a thing that’s attached to our staff or do a little ding in the back room, so that if no one’s there, they can get help.

A little sign that says “He! We might be running around like crazy, cleaning rooms.” Actually doesn’t say that. It says “We might be very calmly and meticulously cleaning rooms.” Right.

Ashkahn: It doesn’t say that either. It says “We’ll be back in five minutes or something.”

Graham: Right. But a little sign that basically explains hey, you can sit down, don’t wait for us. This is all normal.

Ashkahn: Everything’s fine here. Move along. So most float centers have tea. Something like that. Some floats even go as far as oxygen bars, massage chairs.

Graham: Kombucha on tap.

Ashkahn: Kombucha on tap is what we have, as well. So, you know. A lot of people try to add to that experience. You’re coming into float. You’re trying to make it a nice relaxing experience. Here’s some extras to kind of accompany that nice warm relaxing feeling you get from getting out of the float tank.

I know we’ve talked about chairs a lot already but-

Graham: Seriously that roof.

Ashkahn: I really think it’s nice to go for seriously like plush comfy sort of furniture. We have big cushy couches and stuff like that. You see people come out of their float and they’re slumped over. Almost like they’re in their own living room. That’s like my goal. The more our lobby feels like a living room, the more I like it.

Graham: Yep. So, definitely comfy. I mean, yeah. You’re so tactile and your senses are so engaged. Especially getting out of a float. The idea of even having slightly uncomfortable or awkward shaped furniture just sounds so unpleasant.

Ashkahn: From there you can go to all sort of crazy places. We’ve, for a long time, wanted a giant jellyfish aquarium, but turns out those are like $20,000.

Graham: Yeah and we don’t trust our staff to just not immediately kill all the jellyfish.

Ashkahn: Yeah, jellyfish are really hard to take care of.

Graham: Not out of like spite or anything, Just, you know, it’s really hard to take of.

Ashkahn: Yeah. So we never really pulled that one off. I’ve seen a float center that had a sweet fireplace with seating on both sides of it as part of their lobby, which was awesome. I bet in winter months was a really really great place to sit after you floated. Anything that’s kind of really interesting to look at, I think, is really nice after a float.

Graham: Art would go in that category. We have a rotating art gallery, for example, that I really enjoy. As far as inviting too. There’s inviting to your customers. There’s also inviting in the sense that someone walking by might actually want to come in to find out what the heck you’re doing in there. You know? Our art gallery has definitely been great for that.

People wander by and they actually assume that we’re an art gallery. Come in they’re like “Oh! These paintings are great. What where am I? What am I doing here?” So art is great for that.

Plants.

Ashkahn: Plants.

Graham: I’d put in that same fun to look at, decorative kind of category.

Ashkahn: Yeah.

Graham: Also in that same you need to take care of it, like jellyfish kind of category. So make sure that you have a watering schedule for …

Ashkahn: They don’t move around as much as fire or jellyfish. So, they’re not quite as interesting to look at, but they provide a nice atmosphere, I think.

Graham: Yeah, yeah. Get the really mobile plants too, you know.

Ashkahn: We’ve seen some float centers that have like a looping video going in their lobby. Something like that. Whether it’s just kind of beautiful nature documentary sort of shots. I’ve seen some float centers looping the Float Nation documentary. With a TV in their lobby. So, you know. There’s all sorts of various iterations of something like that that I’ve seen people do.

Graham: That one’s an interesting one for me, personally too. Having just any kind of video or screen in there. I think it can be really nice, and you know, especially something like Planet Earth or something showing that. I can imagine watching post-float and really enjoying it.

Ashkahn: Yeah.

Graham: But then another part of me kind of doesn’t want to expose people to screens. Either before or after the float. It’s like the float purist part of me just doesn’t like it even if it’s Planet Earth and it’s beautiful, I just don’t sort of want to engage that part of the brain or something.

Ashkahn: Yeah. We just hire live actors to record all of our nature documentaries and then they perform it in front of people after their floats.

Graham: It’s expensive but I think, in the end, people will really appreciate it.

Ashkahn: It’s worth it. Kind of like roofs. Same heading. Expensive but worth it.

Graham: All right. So … Some cool videos. Mimes.

Ashkahn: Here’s a question. I know we already talked about all lobby space kind of being the same, but what about … There are some float centers out there where you go in, they have a much more decked out kind of post-float lounge, but the initial space you walk into is a usually small, usually not as comfortable sort of front desk space.

You go in, there’s just a few chairs along a wall. Almost kind of like a chic doctor’s office or something, is sometimes the impression I get from from this sort of set up. And you’re really only in that space for a few minutes as you get checked in and then taken back into the float room and the area where you undress or stuff like that.

Graham: Yep. Wait is there a question there? Oh. The question was what do I think of the room?

Ashkahn: Yeah. What do you think about that?

Graham: I think that it is a great way to save space. Right? If there’s any part of the float experience that’s more important, it’s what happens once you get out.

Ashkahn: It’s like everything after that.

Graham: And that’s by far the part that’s worth doubling down on. And a lot of those places have gone in that have the much smaller front lobby. You know, not big cushy chairs, but just little metal frame kind of chairs or something.

Ashkahn: Right.

Graham: Classy, but not as cushy. I don’t think that they’re doing that because they had all this extra square footage, and they’re like “I specifically want the aesthetic of a really small front room and a really big back room.” You know. It’s like they have to compromise somewhere.

What they’ve decided is that the least important part is what happens in that five minutes when you first come in and get lead to your float room and all the magic after is what they want to double down on.

Ashkahn: Which I’d say is true. That’s definitely a like. Where you would prioritize. Often these places have really sweet post float lounges.

Graham: Yeah.

Ashkahn: That’s what I found.

Graham: I can think of one where they actually specifically did. It’s like one place that wanted that aesthetic of you come in. You don’t even realize that it’s going to be any different. You know? It’s like it looks very gray and kind of drab and it was almost designed to be that way. And the post float lounge opens up to a big forest view in the back. It’s gigantic huge cushy couches. That was amazing.

Yeah. So, again, you can do that little bait and switch with your customers, which is hilarious. So what else? There’s obviously all the little accessories that we’ve talked about a lot of times. A post-float journal is an awesome thing to have. I like having crayons.

Ashkahn: Yeah.

Graham: …Around for it specifically so people don’t feel like they have to write technically or draw technically. It’s like no color some things, or just write the word love, you know with a bunch of hearts around it or whatever you want do with crayons is nice.

Ashkahn: Adjustable lighting.

Graham: Yeah.

Ashkahn: Especially in, you know, most float centers are open for long hours. Morning to usually pretty late at night. So being able make the lights kind of nice in the evening, especially people coming out of their floats, when they’re more sensitive to light they don’t necessarily want to come right back out to a bright, well-lit lobby or something. So having the ability to adjust lights is great.

Graham: Yeah. Yeah, yeah, definitely. This gets beyond decorations, but there’s something about just the conversational tone of the lobby too, that can make it more or less inviting. It’s one of the reasons I actually like having the same pre- and post-float lounge.

I like when people are coming in to to float. And there’s already people who just got out of the float, whose hair is wet and they’re kind of like there and spacey, and it feels like you’re immediately walking in to this float environment. You know?

Based on the people around and the décor and everything else and … Yeah, I think there is something to that ambiance. It’s also why people train their staff. Right? There’s like the classic spa voice. There’s something like that in more traditional spas, but at your individual center you’ll also have a certain personality that you want your business to take and your staff kind of have to represent that.

So, again, kind of intangibly there’s just the social atmosphere or a people based atmosphere that I think can be really inviting as well.

Ashkahn: Definitely. I actual think that’s one of the most important and like impactful ways you can set up your lobby is focused around that kind of social interaction. And I think there’s two parts to it. We’ve noticed that in our lobby, we have some seating that’s a lot closer to our front desks and some seating that’s a lot further away. And that people will tend to gravitate to their seats based on whether they really want to talk to you or they don’t want to talk to anybody.

When people come sit real close to the front desk, they usually really want to chat about their float and their experience and what is was like and what they’re thinking and that sort of stuff. And when people go to like the far back corner of our lobby and sit in like the furthest chair away, they’re the ones that often just want to like process and don’t necessarily want to start engaging in speaking or social interactions again or something like that.

It’s nice to have the ability to accommodate both, and it’s a nice kind of small clue for your staff, when you can accommodate both ways you can approach those different people. Took your first clue as to whether you shouldn’t really engage someone in conversation or maybe kind of just let someone be.

Graham: Yeah. And another one that’s a point that we always like to drill home too is just having it be clean, organized, look really nice, you know. As unfair as it is, people will judge the quality of your water, and the quality of your float tanks, and everything else just by the physical appearance and whether shelves are dusty and things like that in your lobby.

So, making sure whatever you put together is well-designed, kept clean, organized. That’ll just bode well for people’s impression on the rest of what you do and, in fact, the more important part of what you do, which is the floats.

Ashkahn: Yeah. The other thing I find to be really nice is in terms of seating and conversation, again, is having the almost little bubbles of seating areas, if possible.

Graham: Yeah.

Ashkahn: Is, in my mind, great. There are just times that two people come in together, maybe three people come in together, and if they have their own little section of the lobby, for them to sit and chat and just like discuss their experiences with each other without being too close to be really overheard by other people or stuff like that, then those people will often hang out for 30-45 minutes. Trade tea, chat about their floats.

Like it really seems to add something nice on to their experience if you can accommodate that. So having giving people like little areas to kind of co-mingle amongst the groups that they came in, if you have the space and your able to do that in your lobby, I think is an awesome thing to aim for.

Graham: I’m so jealous of centers that have a little more lobby space where they can do that even better, even though we kind of have little designated spaces. They’re all within two feet of each other or something just because we have to …

Ashkahn: Yeah right next to where everyone is getting tea.

Graham: Yeah. Yep yep. So we still managed to do it, even with a really small lobby but I am jealous of places that have twice as much lobby space as we do and can actually have a more kind of public area and also three or four little private nooks where it actually feels like anyone could go and have a private conversation.

Ashkahn: Yeah definitely.

Graham: Yeah. It’s cool. Different seating can be nice too. If you have room for it. You know, having places that have pillows on the ground that you can sit on, with kind of lower tables, versus couches and things like that. And even some standing room might be nice if you can actually afford the real estate.

Ashkahn: It was my dream when we first opened to hang hammocks in front of our windows, and then people could just lie in the hammocks. I thought people would be walking by and thing “What is this business of people like sleeping in hammocks in front of it?”

And they’d come in, and they’d all float and we’d be millionaires. That was my master plan, at first.

Graham: But none of that happened.

Ashkahn: I know. We never really got the hooks for the hammocks so it all fell apart there.

Graham: So let’s talk about a couple things we don’t do that other places do. One of which is play music. Either outside the space or inside the actual lobby area. And things like also I guess incense or anything like that. I put these in sort of the same category which is things that are going on in the atmosphere that you can’t turn off if you don’t enjoy them.

And for us like music or even sound, I’m sure that we could choose things that are really pleasant and generally non-offensive and that almost everyone is not going to raise a fuss about or anything. But there’s this worry that we’re pre-priming people for a float or that by playing certain music they have an idea of what their float should be or who we are as people or even what their experience needs to be.

Ashkahn: Or even afterwards, people might not want to listen to that stuff. When they get out. Not overly, but their senses are all heightened. Extra sensitive.

Graham: And same for I would say especially incense. Some people have strong reactions to fumes in the air and to scents, even when they’re normally really pleasant. So that one, I think, is one consciously that I would strongly consider not doing if that’s something you like.

Again, it works fine for some places. Music, again, is a lot less offensive. But again, you can’t turn it off. Like if you have a painting that someone doesn’t like, they don’t need to look at the painting, and they can do something else.

Music kind of permeates the air in a way that you can’t actively avoid it, if you’re in a space. So again, that’s just kind of our Float On decisions. That’s why we personally don’t offer music or do incense or, as much as we can, anything that’s there in an omnipresent kind of way.

I recommend bright yellow walls. Sort of like, orange and blue stretch fabric maybe, people seem to really enjoy that.

Ashkahn: Yeah. Yeah it’s not usually the directions you see float centers go. Our lobby’s very vibrant.

Graham: That’s about it. Honestly if you go into your lobby when you’re designing it or if you’re just even working on paper and figuring out how to lay out your lobby or re-lay it out if it exists, float first. Definitely be designing this when you’re in a floaty state of mind. Not only do good ideas come from there, but I think that putting yourself in that frame of reference will really help you think about this a lot better. Not as a business owner but as someone who’s actually coming through the doors and being in that state and what you’d want to interact with.

Ashkahn: Cool. Okay. Well if you guys have other questions our there, you can always hop over to floattanksolutions.com/podcast and type them in.

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