There are so many reasons to encourage a uniform for your business. This is true regardless of whether your employees are customer-facing or work behind the scenes. That said, you should be far more lenient in terms of what employees wear when they’re in the office, versus when they’re where customers can see them. 

For office attire, you simply choose an overall theme (like casual, business casual, or business) and then perhaps have a few specific rules to help everyone feel comfortable and like they’re part of the same team. For employees who work in a more front-facing role, however, you’ll want to be a bit more hands on with the uniform design process.

Benefits of a uniform 

There are so many reasons to require front-facing employees to wear a uniform. 

• It helps customers spot who works there and who doesn’t 
• It helps employees feel unified as a team 
• It advertises your merchandising line 

When it’s done right, uniforms can really boost morale, increase your revenue, and improve customer service across the board. Customers never want to be confused about who works there versus who doesn’t, and employees also benefit when they visually feel like they’re part of the same team. If you sell merchandise, then having employees wear a similar design is also great marketing. 

How to design a winning uniform 

So, how do you go about designing such a winning uniform? You use these top tips: 

Choose a great supplier 

You may think that designing your uniform is the first step. It isn’t. Your first step is actually finding a supplier. Each supplier offers their own customization options, meaning how far you can go in terms of customizing the branding will ultimately depend on the supplier itself. When choosing a supplier, you need to check that, one, they offer high-quality base products and two, they offer the products you want. 

If your team are regularly outdoors, for example, then a shirt and hat combo are essential. You can have both the shirt and trucker hat customized so customers immediately know who’s working for your company, even when they’re out and about. With this in mind, you’ll want to find a supplier that offers trucker hats, and gives you multiple ways to customise them, like you can with these trucker hats by Anthem Branding. In addition to hats, you can also have the same supplier handle your T-shirts, and the rest of your merchandising line. 

Create custom uniform branding 

If you’re going through the effort of having a custom uniform created, then you need to go the full mile and have custom branding made specifically for the job. This means redesigning your logo and even choosing fun colors so that your employees stand out, represent your brand, and are easily spotted as staff. You can add role names, like Sales, Manager, or Staff somewhere on their shirt or hat, just to make people easily identifiable for your customers. 

Make sure to differentiate uniforms from merchandising 

You can use many of the same elements from your uniform’s design on your merchandising product line, but make sure that there are key differences. You can choose a specific, unique color for your employees’ uniform to help them stand out from your loyal customers who happen to be wearing your shirt or hat. You can also have their role printed on their shirts.

Adam Mulligan, a psychology graduate from the University of Hertfordshire, has a keen interest in the fields of mental health, wellness, and lifestyle.