How to Make a Great First Impression With Customers
First contact with any potential customer is absolutely vital. Just like in a job interview, what your customer see’s and interacts with in their first encounter with your brand will dictate whether they explore further with you, or bounce to a competitor.
First Contact
Via Website
A website should be the tool that converts customers that find you, into a sale. Many people in business have a website…to have a website. This isn’t good enough. Your website is a tool and it must do and cover the most basic and essential things to help guide your customers through your sales funnel. A guide is going to come on how to optimise your site for use ability and conversion very soon, but for now here are the key things to remember.
- Have your own unique domain name. www.your-business-name.co.uk (Or your ideal target keywords as your domain). Subdomains aren’t going to cut it, you can get a domain name for relatively little cost with incredible web hosting for only a few pounds a month, we strongly recommend Krystal for Domains and Web Hosting. (We have not been paid or have any affiliate link to those guys, we use them and have done so for many years).
- The website has to load quickly but don’t get too hung up on page speed metrics at this point. If its comfortably quick and not taking ages to load at this point that is a great start. There are some fantastic themes for WordPress and one the fastest loading is GeneratePress.
- The ‘above the fold’ section is the most critical, for any page that a user first lands on. Above the fold means the visible section, on the screen, when a user comes to your site. In order to get a user to interact or scroll your page, this area needs to be treated like royalty. Include exactly what you do so the user knows they’re on the right site. Provide social metrics (Google reviews/Trustpilot) and a call to action, such a form or a button to click, along with an offer if possible.
- The rest of the page needs to answer the problems the customer has, what problem or need, does your products or services solve and why should they choose you over the competition.
That in a nutshell, is how to make a great first impression with customers from you website! We’ll link to our full website guide when it is ready, it’s currently being curated to provide an all in one essential guide to bring your website up to speed in 2022.
In Person
Dress Code
Dress accordingly to the situation and the part you’re expected to play. Sounds like you’re going for an acting job but in reality, sales visits and first contact meetings really are just that, you need to put on a show your potential client wants to watch and that starts with the way you look. We’re all told to never judge a book by its cover but it’s a fact of life that we all do, in some form or other and if somebody is going to spend their hard earned money with you, they need your book cover to look great!
Be Happy
Bit of a sweeping heading that but nobody wants to do business with a grumpy guts. Nor do they want to do it with an arrogant so and so. It’s give and take. So be personable, smile and be positive about your interaction with them. You don’t need to go overboard and be an overbearing over the top hooman either. That comes across every bit as needy and fake as you think it might. Find a groove and settle in.
LISTEN!
Equally or maybe even more importantly, please listen to your customer/client/associate. If you overbear or constantly talk about what you offer or how you can help without even really understanding what they need. It’ll not only show that you aren’t capable of listening but it’ll also show them that you don’t have the capacity to truly understand and care about them, their business and what they want from you. Listening intently and fully and responding only when needed to not only gives the impression you care about this interaction but it may actually help you formulate a plan on how to sell to them.
On The Phone
This one you can get away with whilst sitting in your pyjamas or underwear. Hey any entrepreneur or worker, especially in the past couple of Covid enduring years can attest to doing at least a bit of work in their jammies recently.
Answer The Phone
This one is self explanatory. If you don’t answer the phone, you don’t get to speak to your customer, potential, new or old! Just like if your website is a bit icky, people want fast results these days and if you don’t pick up that call, you’ve given them an excuse to look elsewhere. If you cannot commit (and you shouldn’t always) to answering the phone all day every day (hey you’re trying to run a business over he-arrrrr – terrible NYC accent), then a telephone answering service is a vital tool you can utilise.
Smile
Smile? WHAT? On the…phone? Where they can’t see me?…. YES. Don’t look at me like that, just smile. Smiling creates a natural response and positive demeanour, have a looky here at benefits of smiling more in your general every day life.
Be personable and listen
Just like in person, listen to the caller and only interject if absolutely necessary and wait to respond to their questions. A positive, well thought out response again will let them know you did in fact just listen and you care about what they just said. If people think you care (and you do because otherwise you shouldn’t be doing what you do) they’re more likely to trust you and accept your advice and recommendations.
