First Impressions

"You only have one chance to make a first impression"

First impressions set the tone for what's to follow. Regardless of how great your company is or how great your people are, if that first impression isn't positive and spot on, your bottom line will suffer.

Technology is great, but it has brought our average attention span down to 7 seconds. When people meet you for the first time or come in contact with your company for the first time they will make a decision on you or your company within those 7 seconds.

When that customer stops in or calls in make sure that, regardless of how busy things may be at the moment, you pull yourself out of the lull and greet them with a smile, positive tone or body language, and are welcoming.

If you manage people then I encourage you to shop your people and watch or listen to how they first interact, whether it is face-to-face or over the phone. Watch their body language and listen to their tonality and verbiage so you can coach them on how to make the best possible first impression. If you're not training on first impressions as part of your service training then study it, learn about it, and start training on it immediately.

If you want any ideas on what you should be training on please feel free to email me at amarkos@thewac.com and I would be happy to share what we use for our initial front desk service training.