DISCOVERY!
One of the most noticeable differences between escape room enthusiasts and someone embarking on their very first escape room adventure, is that the more experienced players are usually better at discovery.
In the first few minutes into an escape room game, you shouldn’t get lost in the detail of the room, but give everything a good “once over.” Move around and really examine the set and props, again, not exhaustively, but enough that you’ve put eyes on things that may be important later.
Found a box? Look at all sides of it. Found a key with a tag? Read the tag and see if it contains helpful information.
Once you feel confident everything that can reasonably be examined has been, then dive into one of the puzzles you’ve found.
Passing up the discovery phase to attack the first puzzle you find may make the group less likely to operate in discovery mode later because everyone assumes “anything that could be found would’ve been found by now,” and that can cause your team to miss out on information you could’ve had from the beginning.