First impressions are everything

We know it’s true for us, personally. This article shows how important it is for a company to make a good first impression.

Here are some tips from the article:

1) Do customers feel welcome? You’d want that for visitors to your home. You also want that in your place of business.  Also, things should look nice. Everything neat and clean. No clutter. Good signage.

2) Smile.  The staff must smile always, even when they don’t feel like it.

3) Welcome customers. This is a tricky one. Often a busy clerk doesn’t see the customer or the layout of the store hides his/her presence, etc.  Whatever it takes, make sure the customer knows that you know somebody is there to help.

4) Similarly, make sure that, even if the customer declined your first offer of assistance (she’s just looking, for example) make sure you’re still around to be asked for help if the need arises.

5) Anticipate needs. If a customer can’t decide, provide more information about the product.

6) Say thank you. This one is so easy, yet so often overlooked.

Using a customer experience evaluation service such as Customer Perspectives can highlight whether or not your staff are following through with key behaviors such as those listed above.