First Impressions Count — Add Them Up

To everyone out there, you and your business are inseparable. Every time you meet someone and every contact you have is an opportunity to make a good impression for your business.

Make a good first impression and both you and your business will be seen in a positive way; make a poor first impression and you may not get another chance.

Whether someone is a customer or not, they can still influence others who could become customers. It can be an office cleaner or a delivery person. If they have a strong impression about you and your business they can talk to others and give them the same impression by proxy.

Think of how many “first impressions” you can make every day:

– When you make a telephone call at work
– When you send an email from work
– Whenever you personally meet someone
– When someone sees the exterior of your place of business
– When someone enters your place of business
– When someone sees your vehicle on the road
– When you’re seen after work
– When they see someone who works for you

The composite impression you communicate to others is often called an “image”. It’s not necessarily who you really are, but it’s how they perceive you. It’s a hairstyle, a motor vehicle, a suit, an address and it all adds up to “you” as you are to them.

You can change many of your own image dimensions yourself. First, write down the components of your own image as it now stands. Be honest. In fact, it’s best to find all of those “rough edges” that need smoothing over so you can have lots to work with. If your appearance is less than ideal, put it down as something to improve.

Now, write down the details of what you’d like your image to be. Relate your “ideal” to the realistically-appraised dimensions and compare your ideal to your reality. Where is the “real you” a mismatch to the image you want to give to others? You won’t be able to change everything all at once but the sooner you start the better.

Your business is a lot more than just you. It’s your team, your premises, your signage and your products and services. The following points will indicate other kinds of areas you should get right to make your first impression a good one:

– What’s your office environment like? Are people positive or always griping? Is there an energy there or are things dull and stodgy?
– How do people look? Are they neatly dressed or sloppy? Is their grooming less than appropriate?
– How attractive is your place of business? Is it always clean and polished or dirty and dingy?
– Is your corporate identity up to scratch? Is it modern? Is your signage and other naming attractive?
– How is your stationery? Does it say something about your business and is it well-designed or outdated and unappealing?

Examine each of these components of your first impression. Do the same with them as you did with yourself and compare the reality with the ideal. Polish and improve things so that you get them as close to the ideal as possible.

It’s even better if you involve others in the first impressions project. Ask your family and friends to help you evaluate your own image. Ask your customers and team members to help evaluate the impressions your business conveys. And while you’re at it, ask others to help you identify what the “ideal” for both you and your business should be.

As you’ll find, it’s really a big project but one that’s well worth doing. Get started now and get things moving. Changes of this type are always best done gradually, but keep working to improve the first impression you make on others and it will pay off where it counts most on the bottom line of your business.

Copyright 2004, RAN ONE Inc. All rights reserved. Reprinted with permission from www.ranone.com