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There is a lot to be said about first impressions. There are numerous sayings and hundreds of books on the topic. Simply put, first impressions (and every single one after) count.
Today at my local Subway, I got a real life glimpse into the impact a first impression makes for a business. I’m not talking about my local Subway (they do a great job), I am talking about the Talking Phone Book and the representative who was delivering the latest edition of the Talk Phone Book.
Dis-shoveled. Dirty. Silent.
That’s what first came to my mind and what still sticks in my mind. Upon first sight of her, I could tell she wasn’t particularly thrilled with her lot in life and that she was out in the cold delivering Talking Phone Books. I’ll bet money that she was a temporary worker (I actually “held” this job before when I was in college) and she was definitely putting in what I would consider a “temporary effort.”
Now, I can get past this representative’s look and appearance. What I couldn’t escape, though, was the fact that she said nothing. Not one word. The entire time she was there. She merely walked in with Talking Phone Books and a sign-off sheet, nudged me out of the way (I was checking out), laid the phone books and a sign-off sheet on the counter. Then stood there.
I took with a grain of salt. Not sweat off my brow, but then I as I walked to my car, I thought about what a big deal this really is.
In that one moment, the Talking Phone Book representative just put off three users and a potential advertiser - all because of the interaction we had with their representative.
I know why the Talking Phone Book uses temps (scale, cost), but why not give them a Talking Phone Book hat or shirt? Why not spend a few minutes coaching them on how to smile and be pleasant? Is the savings in cost really worth what is potentially lost by interactions such as this? (I think not)
After all, the only time most people will interact with the Talking Phone Book (outside of using it) would be when someone delivers it. Instead of leveraging this as an opportunity to positively interact with users and potential advertisers in order to increase user loyalty and even drive sales, this turned in a net negative for everyone - all in the attempts of saving money.
This is sort of thinking is not exclusive to phone book companies. It is probably creeping into your VoIP business. Everything from your auto-attendant, to who and how the phone is answered, to what your website looks like and most importantly how your representatives look and act in the outside world all says something about your business. Are you sure you and the rest of the organization are always “saying” the right things about your VoIP company?
So, the next time you are about to send someone out to, or do something that will, touch one of your VoIP customers, here’s a little insight for you - make sure it represents your VoIP company in the right light. After all, you wouldn’t want your customers to “go silent” on you, would ya?
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I preach this fact continuously. Your company is only as good as the face it puts forward. I think that’s why McDonalds is one of the Worlds best run companies. They train and re-train their staff. ‘Time to lean, time to clean’ and phrases like that pepper their vocabulary and I rarely have a bad experience with them. They make it fun to work there.
I’m sure that if that ‘rep’ had the chance to go out on a few calls with one of the companies more experienced people, she would have learned just how enjoyable it could be.
One of favorite things to do is get out of the office and go meet clients. it’s a blast.
This is interesting, but standing there get 80% of the job done, although you can argue she’s doing a poor, non-interactive job. But maybe she’s in bad mood, she’s sick, she’s…… Maybe not as effective as she could be, but I’m sure she can still sign up a few prospects. It would be better for the company to send people in groups, when people work in a group, usually they are more motivated. A lonely warrior is a tough role to play.
Image is really important. And an incredibly daunting task. Thankfully, good service, developing relationships, and word of mouth can really make a difference. The smallest kink in the end users experience can cause a lot of damage. With evolving technologies like VoIP , there is always room for improvement and room for creativity. We enjoy going through that process with our customers.
Selling and marketing of VoIP services is extremely challenging if you are not one of the large providers. We have begun using the web 2.0 tools, but it is a slow process at best.
VoIP providers targeting the SMB market have to have enough of a web presence that when a potential customer is researching VoIP, they are somehow found on the web be it either a website, blog, Twitter, Facebook or all of the above.
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