MAKING
A GREAT SECOND IMPRESSION
Michael Gifford
We've all heard how important it is to make a tremendous first
impression. As the saying goes,
"You never get a second chance to
make a good first impression." I'll not argue with that.
What I will contend,
however, is that making a good second impression
and then a third and fourth and so on is at least
as vital.
Picture
yourself in your living room talking with Joe from
Joe's Landscaping Service. You want
your yard beautified and you
feel that Joe might be just the one to do it. Joe wows you
with his verbal paintings
of luscious rose gardens and breathtaking
terrain. He impresses you with his knowledge of
design. He has quite a winsome personality.
You agree to give the
job to Joe. He made a powerful first impression. You both
agree that he will start the
work in three days.
Three
days pass and Joe is nowhere to be found. You call, you
page, you leave messages and
still no Joe. Three more days pass
and Joe calls to apologize for not showing up but promises
that he'll be there first
thing in the morning. Two days later you
are again calling and paging Joe because he has yet to turn
one spade of earth on
your property. After two more weeks of trying
to get Joe to start the job (you're a very patient
person!), you go on to another landscaper.
Maybe
that scenario has never played itself out in your life.
(Maybe I'm still bitter about
the 3 times it happened to me a couple
of years ago.) I think, though, that most of us have
experienced something like this.
What looked so promising and wonderful
at the outset turned into a nightmare in subsequent
dealings with the person or
company. Consequently, we will make certain
that we never recommend that person to any of our
friends and if anyone brings up their
name in conversation, we will
be quick to warn them to not get involved.
Raise
your hand if you've already made the application here.
Making that great first impression
is wonderful, but NEVER forget
how vital it is to continue to provide the service that
your new client figured they
would get from you when the two of
you agreed to do business together.
The
best way to make a great second impression is to follow up
immediately with a thank
you card or phone call or even personal
visit to your new client. That is so rarely done
nowadays that that one action will probably
get you more referral
business than you'll know how to handle.
Another
facet of making that great second impression is to be
sure that you keep the promises
you made in that first meeting. Do
you remember a television commercial from a few years ago
in which a family purchased
some major appliances? As soon as the
delivery people had closed the door to their house, the
husband thought of a question
he needed to ask. He opened the door
and all he saw was a desert, a barren wasteland. The
point was that while many companies
make a sale and then disappear,
this particular company that paid for the commercial
would be there whenever you
needed them. You can promise the moon
up front to a client just to get their money, but you'll
have a short-lived business
and a lot of legal headaches if you
don't make your promises realistic and then keep every one
of them.
Finally,
to make a lasting impression on your clients, be sure
that you keep a detailed record
of each of them. You can purchase
an organizer or you can purchase contact management
software. You might already
have it on your computer. I use Microsoft
Outlook which I bought as part of Microsoft Office
and it helps me track birthdays, anniversaries,
hobbies, and any
other pertinent matters regarding clients. I've also used
Claris Organizer. The purpose
for keeping this information on file
is not just to help you remind a client when their next
service from you is due or just
to remind you to try to sell them
something else. Why not make a practice of dropping a
birthday card or card of congratulations
when the situation presents
itself? This "extra mile" service will be way beyond
what they expected and
it will build a powerful business for you.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Michael Gifford and his wife, Shannon have more than 30 years
combined experience in operating successful home businesses. They
are the owners of NoBizLikeHomeBiz.Com, an unbiased and objective
resource for home business. Visit http://www.nobizlikehomebiz.com.
Michael can be reached at expectgreatness@nobizlikehomebiz.com.
|
