What Impressions Do You Make?
Whats Your First Impressions to Others?
“You never get a second chance, to make a first impression”
In fact, I would add to this in your line of business, if you don’t make a good first impression, you will never see that potential customer again! It’s that straight forward. The good thing about first impressions is they are not that hard to create good ones…
Most people’s first impression of you in today’s world will be one of three things:
- Your website (or social media pages).
- Your premises.
- Speaking with staff over the phone.
Let’s start with your website and social media, I appreciate we have already covered this in other articles in the Beauty & Aesthetics Resource Centre however I find people learn better and are more likely to remember to do something when told of it multiple times, your website and social media need to be:
- Clean simple designs – No Clutter!
- Vibrant and positive colours.
- Good quality information and advice that helps your customers.
- Great quality photos of the excellent work you have done e.g. before and after’s.
- Easy to contact you i.e. phone number in lots of different places so easy to find.
- A helpful feel to your digital platforms.
Your Premises, now this is probably the simplest to implement (and most boring), however has one of the biggest impacts and even more so if you have a busy frontage with lots of passing trade:
- CLEAN, yes absolutely bloody sparkling, EVERY DAY! Pay a cleaner an hour a day if your staff won’t do it or you don’t want to. The number of dirty clinics and salons I have been in never fails to amaze me.
- Tidy and clear of clutter, a similar ilk to above however this one is easier to spot as sometime with dirt you have to get up close but with clutter it can hit you from miles away.
- Signage, do you have stupid fonts in fancy writing that no one can read, this annoys people! If they have an emotion of annoyance associated with you, they probably won’t want to use you.
- External paint, is your paint peeling, tired looking and dull? If so, get the decorators in faster than you can say “it’s like watching paint dry”. Your frontage needs to be appealing and inviting.
- Your front entrance, as you are about to walk into any clinic the thing staring at them for a few seconds before they enter the building is your door! Does it look amazing? Clean? High level of finish?
- Window and advertising displays, are they inviting? Do they create intrigue? Does it make your potential customers want to walk in to find out more? Are they clear?
- Waiting area/reception is this a friendly and comfortable place to be? Good looking chairs, which are very comfortable.
- What’s the atmosphere like? Is it like a doctor’s waiting room, with that ghastly cold silence? Your customers will hate this! Have happy warm music in the background to create a nice atmosphere, staff’s aura is also key to this feeling.
- Internal decoration, are colours appealing to your desired customers? Is the paint bright and cut into a high standard with no marks to the walls? Are door frames and skirting boards finished to a high standard? All this is a reflection of you whether good or bad!
- Toilets, women love clean fresh toilets and as most of your customers will be women, you HAVE to get this right! Luxury loo rolls, beautiful smelling hand washes in high quality containers, fresh smelling fragrances, thick high quality paper towels or thick Egyptian cotton hand towels, big mirrors, something interesting to read facing your customers when sat on the loo (most likely the back of door!). I am sure there’s more, but you get the feel…
- Do you have cheap posters all over the clinic walls or have you had them framed to give a higher quality feel over a poster curling over where the cello tape or blue tack has lost its adhesive!
The last category, customers first point of contact with you, will be speaking with staff over the phone.
- A friendly and helpful hello, with a what can we do for you attitude.
- Answer the phone in under 5 rings so that people aren’t fed up waiting on the other end of the phone (this I appreciate can’t be done all of the time).
Key Points
All of the above!