“You said ‘two’.” These were the three simple words she spoke to me and they set the tone for our business relationship and a lasting first impression. As I write this, it is early on a Sunday morning in Vancouver. I am staying at a downtown hotel and reviewing the details of a workshop that I am delivering to a group of technicians on Monday. I had decided to take a break and walk a couple of blocks to get some fresh air and cup of coffee.

One of the topics of discussion at the workshop will be the power of first impressions and how they can set the tone for a business relationship. When meeting customers for the first time, a poor first impression can greatly hamper our technician’s ability to build trust and negatively impact their ongoing relationship. That is because, once an impression is made, we begin to filter the information we receive about the person who made the impression to fit our view. And, it works for both positive and negative first impressions. For example, if a customer’s first impression is that we are lazy, they will filter their observations about us and pick up on any evidence that may reinforce that view and ignore evidence to the contrary. For example, they may come across us taking a well-deserved coffee break and chatting with one of their employees. If they are of the impression that we are lazy, then they may think, “There he goes again, taking another break! And now they are wasting the time of one of our employees as well!” If we are perceived as hard working by another customer and they were to observe the same situation, they might think, “Finally, she’s taking a break. And look how well she gets along with our staff”.

That is why, when meeting customers for the first time, we should take deliberate steps to create a positive first impression. That first impression sets the stage for the ongoing relationship and may have a tremendous impact on whether we can establish the level of trust needed to make the service experience exceptional for the customer; which brings me back to my coffee break.

There is branch of a very popular coffee shop chain just down the street from where I am staying. My first impression and overall experience was less than positive. The person serving was wiping tables when I entered. I was the only one in the store at the time. There was no acknowledgement of my arrival and she continued to wipe the table and then moved on to the next. I was beginning to think that she didn’t see me. She did, however, and after yet another table, stopped wiping and walked behind the counter to face me.

She had not yet spoken a word to me. She simply looked at me in anticipation of my order. I said “Good morning, just a medium black coffee please.” She tallied it up on the register and said her first words, “$3.34”. The cash register had one of those screens facing the customer that provides details of the order and I looked down to see why the price was that high. The screen showed that she had rung in two coffees instead of one. “Oh, I only want one coffee.” “You said ‘two’”, was her reply. “Actually, I only said ‘one’”, I responded, perhaps a little too indignantly. She said nothing more. She changed the order and held out her hand. I paid my money, she poured the coffee and back to my hotel room I went to write this blog.

The experience got me to wondering why a coffee chain of this size would not do more to provide its staff with basic customer service training so that each customer greeting created a positive first impression. It would not be hard to teach their employees how to acknowledge the customer, the importance of a smile and a friendly greeting and how to deal with any differences that might arise with the customer while serving. With a few changes and certainly no extra effort, my experience this morning would have been quite different.

I think this is a great lesson for all service providers. Are we clear about what steps we expect our technicians to take when meeting customers for the first time to create an exceptional service experience and positive first impression? Have we determined what training we provide to our teams and what tools and processes are at their disposal to help them execute this first impression strategy? Have we defined what ongoing steps we want our technicians to take to ensure that every customer interaction positively reinforces the first? If we want our customers to experience a positive and consistent service experience, then it is up to us to define it. Otherwise we just leave it to chance.

I’d love your feedback! And as always, please feel free to leave a link back to your own blog if you have one via the commentluv feature here on the site. If you are reading this blog post via email, you will need to locate this post on my website by clicking here. Scroll down to the bottom of the page where you will find the comment section.

Jim

“I never drink coffee at lunch. I find it keeps me awake for the afternoon.”

– Ronald Reagan

The post You Said “Two” – The Importance of a Good First Impression appeared first on jimbaston.com.

While visiting family in the UK, we decided to take a brief break in a part of the country we had not been before.  We headed for Cambridge and the wonderful colleges and booked a small inn in a village not far from the city.  It was an old stone building that had recently been converted.  We found it on the internet and were impressed with the descriptions previous patrons had written about it.  Quaint, attentive, old-world character, friendly staff.  Perfect.

We drove out to Cambridge full of anticipation and, by early evening, we found this small, quaint “post card” inn situated on the quiet main street of the village.  There was a newly constructed glassed-in dining area at the back and a large parking lot which was almost full.  Must be a popular spot!  As we walked past the dining room to the entrance, we noticed that it too was full.  It turns out that there was a wedding that evening.

Check-in was friendly but not exceptional.  The room was small, clean and functional.  It overlooked the glassed-in dining area – we could look down and see the wedding party having dinner.  We went out to dinner ourselves.  We returned about 9:30, both tired and ready for bed.  However, sleep was not to come easy.

By the time we returned, the wedding was in full swing.  The music was loud – very loud.  Too loud!  Our little room literally shock to the beat.  We called the front desk to ask for another room and were informed that they were fully booked.  There was nothing else available.  We were stuck.  The music continued until almost midnight.  We decided to grin and bear it.

At check out we expressed our disappointment.  We explained that we had expected a quiet, relaxing stay as promised on their website but we experienced just the opposite.  We felt that we should have been told about the wedding at the time of booking and advised about the noise problem associated with the room we were given.  We then could have made an informed decision about whether to stay there.  The inn should have been prepared to turn us away but instead chose to fall terribly short on their promise.  Instead of more raving fans, they created raving detractors.  We certainly won’t recommend this place and will avoid it on any future visit.

I think the lesson has direct applicability to the service business and yes we sometimes take on work or make commitments for which we have a low likelihood of fulfilling.  Usually the commitments come with the best of intentions and are often made in the heat of the moment.  Sometimes we think we are doing it simply because we don’t want to let the customer down.  Regardless of the intentions, whenever we make promises we can’t keep, it ends in the same result.  Disappointed customers and possibly raving detractors.

I’d love your feedback on this. And as always, please feel free to leave a link back to your own blog if you have one via the commentluv feature here on the site. If you are reading this blog post via email, you will need to locate this post on my website by clicking here. Scroll down to the bottom of the page where you will find the comment section.

Jim

“Life is like photography, we develop from the negatives.”

-Unknown

The post Don’t Make Promises you Can’t Keep – Especially in Business appeared first on jimbaston.com.