{"id":83,"date":"2009-07-14T07:51:24","date_gmt":"2009-07-14T13:51:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shaydigital.com\/?p=83"},"modified":"2010-01-06T21:23:56","modified_gmt":"2010-01-07T03:23:56","slug":"latest-impression","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shaydigital.com\/index.php\/insights\/latest-impression\/","title":{"rendered":"The Importance of Making a Good Latest Impression"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.freedigitalphotos.net\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-224\" title=\"thumbs_up\" src=\"http:\/\/www.shaydigital.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/07\/thumbs_up.jpg\" alt=\"thumbs_up\" width=\"150\" height=\"100\" \/><\/a>As a society, we are very focused on first impressions:\u00c2\u00a0 clothes,\u00c2\u00a0good looks,\u00c2\u00a0jewelry, etc.\u00c2\u00a0 It&#8217;s not much different in the business world.\u00c2\u00a0 First impressions in\u00c2\u00a0business are obviously important\u00c2\u00a0because without a good one, you may not have a chance to\u00c2\u00a0make a second impression and those good impressions are needed to make a sale.\u00c2\u00a0 However, the value of that first impression only lasts so long and is eventually replaced by the combined value of all impressions.  In fact, the benefit from the good first impression usually lessens over time and customers start\u00c2\u00a0determining your value based as much, if not more, on your latest impressions.\u00c2\u00a0 That&#8217;s why companies must focus as much\u00c2\u00a0attention on ensuring a positive latest impression as they do on creating a\u00c2\u00a0great first one.  All of your company touch points &#8211; customer service, account managers, internal sales, receptionists, invoices, newsletters, participation in social networks,\u00c2\u00a0etc. reflect your company and the value you provide and any one of them can be an asset or a liability.  I have\u00c2\u00a0worked with software companies\u00c2\u00a0that had great products and were wonderful courters during the sales process only to be ultimately undone by very poor customer support and follow-up services.\u00c2\u00a0 For example, how often\u00c2\u00a0have you met a senior executive during the sales process telling you how important your business is but once the sale is closed, you never hear from that person again?  The following are ways to help ensure your latest impression is as good as it should be:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Have a clear understanding of what your brand promise is\u00c2\u00a0with respect to the customer experience.\u00c2\u00a0 Even if you aren&#8217;t trying to be Nordstroms, there is some minimum expectation from your customer in terms of follow-up, support, etc.<\/li>\n<li>Ensure that you aren&#8217;t so focused on getting\u00c2\u00a0the sale that you sacrifice the post-sale experience.\u00c2\u00a0 For example, in b-to-b situations, salespeople are\u00c2\u00a0sometimes incented\u00c2\u00a0only\u00c2\u00a0to\u00c2\u00a0close the sale and there isn&#8217;t focus on creating long-term customers.\u00c2\u00a0 This can create situations in which the salespeople make promises that the implementation and support teams can&#8217;t keep.<\/li>\n<li>Review all of your touch points and decide if any are a liability.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0Don&#8217;t forget to review each and every touch point and that includes the person who answers your phone and welcomes your clients, invoices,\u00c2\u00a0security guards, website, etc.\u00c2\u00a0 This is more difficult than it\u00c2\u00a0might appear\u00c2\u00a0because touch points usually\u00c2\u00a0span several functional areas.<\/li>\n<li>Implement metrics\u00c2\u00a0that help you measure your success at providing a great latest impression and review them on a consistent basis.<\/li>\n<li>Continually remind all key parties of\u00c2\u00a0the importance of that latest impression.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>What other ways can we help ensure that we are providing a great latest impression?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As a society, we are very focused on first impressions:\u00c2\u00a0 clothes,\u00c2\u00a0good looks,\u00c2\u00a0jewelry, etc.\u00c2\u00a0 It&#8217;s not much different in the business world.\u00c2\u00a0 First impressions in\u00c2\u00a0business are obviously important\u00c2\u00a0because without a good one, you may not have a chance to\u00c2\u00a0make a second impression and those good impressions are needed to make a sale.\u00c2\u00a0 However, the value of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-83","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-online-strategy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shaydigital.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shaydigital.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shaydigital.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shaydigital.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shaydigital.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=83"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.shaydigital.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shaydigital.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shaydigital.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shaydigital.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}