You Said “Two” – The Importance of a Good First Impression

“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