Making the right impression on a customer is one of the crucial roles a uniform should play. You can spend a great deal of time and money putting together the perfect uniform, only to finally see it on your staff and feel like something is missing. Perhaps, that last finishing touch that really helps your uniform connect with your staff, business and customers.
We explain some key ways to add the right finishing touches to a uniform and help make it truly special.
Suitable accessories
Accessories can really complement a uniform and make it into something unique for your business.
The right accessories can accentuate an employee’s role, helping customers to identify members of staff more clearly. It can also help a customer identify who might be best to go to if they need help or have a query.
Aprons, for example, come in a variety of styles. This allows different aprons to be assigned to different roles for different staff. Take a restaurant, for example. Smaller aprons might be perfectly suited for waiting staff, while larger aprons can be a fantastic additional uniform element for a kitchen brigade.
It works to help identify management and senior staff too, waiting staff wearing a shirt and tie, while the head waiter has an additional waistcoat to help make them easily identifiable. This helps customers to identify who they need to direct queries or complaints to without disrupting the other staff within a busy working environment.
Within the beauty sector different colours could be used in a spa to identify different service areas and treatments, with the colours of tunic used to reflect which staff work in which area.
Tied to branding
The best finishing touches will tie your uniform together by linking it to your brand.
Some uniforms only need to feature a glimpse of a bright, brand orientated colour to tie a professional look to their business and finish off the right company image. This can be a subtle use of colour, which adds a subdued and elegant look to a uniform, or it could be a much larger statement block of colour.
Sashes, scarves and ties all serve as a great way to add colour in a simple, subtle way. This is a really effective way to bring colour to a uniform, while also allowing for a degree of versatility. This allows the accessory to be changed to reflect a change in the colour of your brand, without having to change the entire uniform.
You could also use coloured piping or trim on a uniform to add that subtle link to your business. However, should your branding change colour, there might be a much larger cost involved in changing your uniforms to follow suit.
Larger statement blocks of colour are best achieved through shirts, blouses or aprons. Again, this can be changed to reflect shifts in seasonality (warmer colours in summer, for example). But it’s important to note that something like an apron is significantly larger, and will probably cost more to change, than a tie or neck scarf.
Personalisation
Aside from including colour, another way to properly finish a uniform and make it reflect your business is personalisation.
This can be a branded accessory, or an embellishment on a garment, which includes your logo and becomes another identifier for your staff. A name badge, featuring your branding, is the simplest addition you can make to a uniform. It can also be removed, allowing uniforms to be changed without having to replace your accessories.
You can also personalise garments directly. This could be something subtle, like an embroidered logo on a polo shirt.
While this might not sound like a huge addition to a uniform, keep in mind that it can make it more representative of your brand and your business. This can create a look that feels like it has a level of prestige to it, which, in turn, should be a motivating factor for your staff.
Alternatively, you could opt for something larger than an embroidered element. Screen printing, for instance, can be used to add a much larger image to a garment. However, this is often better suited to one-off uniform pieces, which promote a specific offer or seasonal deal.
Helping you create add that finishing touch to your uniforms
The finishing touches to your uniform should always be complementary to the rest of the uniform. This helps to bring the different elements of a uniform together. If you don’t do this, it can create a uniform that looks confused and is made of disparate parts, with no thought put into them. This can also give the exact opposite effect of the confident, professional impression you want staff to make on your customers.
At Simon Jersey, we pride ourselves in providing workwear that’s:
- Selected based on expert knowledge – We have 45 years’ experience providing brand-enhancing uniforms
- Easy to care for – Most of our garments are machine washable and made to last
- Styled with every-day practicality –Our fabrics are tested for durability that provide comfort and look all day, every day
To find out more about our impressive selection of affordable final flourishes for your workwear, take a look at our range of accessories, request a catalogue by filling in our form, or speak to a member of our team on 0370 4609 047.
