4 Huge Mistakes to Avoid When Meeting a Customer For The First Time

Customers bring in cash, and that cash all adds up to major profits at the end of the year. 

However, running a business is about far more than that. Simply selling goods and services sounds easy, but in reality, it’s quite different. 

For instance, if you want to increase your market share and take over your competitors, you need to make positive first impressions on any customer who makes contact with you. You also need to have an in-depth marketing campaign that allows you to reach out to potential customers and entice them to do business with you. All of this needs to be done at the same time as keeping your promises and looking after your employees.

Nobody said that running a business was easy!

Check out this video which talks about some of the most important facets of customer service.

Your customers will make contact with your business for the first time either via telephone or email or via your reception area. For that reason, employees need to have high-quality communication skills, both written and verbal, and your reception area needs to be welcoming and professional. 

There are many mistakes you can make which scupper your efforts before you even get into the nitty-gritty of it, so let’s check out four of the most important mistakes to avoid making when you meet a customer for the first time. 

1. Rudeness - There is no situation which makes rudeness acceptable. Manners are a basic part of communication and of course, life in general. That means you need to be kind and courteous at all times, say “please” and “thank you”, and remember to smile. All of this adds up to a higher chance of a quality first impression. 
2. Not paying attention - Is there anything more annoying than arriving at a reception desk and asking the receptionist a question, only to be greeted with an uninterested look and a complete lack of attention? Make sure that you show your visitors that you’re paying attention by listening to them, displaying positive body language and, as before, make sure your manners are on point. 
3. Not greeting them in the right way - There is a right way to greet someone and a wrong way. Not paying attention and being distracted is the wrong way, however, the right way is to smile and if appropriate, shake hands. If you’re sitting at your reception chair, however, you don’t have to shake hands with every visitor, you simply need to give them your attention, smile, and say “hello, how can I help you?” Anything less is simply not good enough.
4. Not trying to find out what their needs are - A visitor hasn’t arrived in your reception or telephoned you just for the sake of it, they have done so because they have a need that they want attending to. This means you need to try and find out what their problem or query is and then seek out the best way to fix it or answer it. To do this, you need to ask them questions and listen to the answers, without interrupting. 

These four mistakes might seem like things you would roll your eyes at and wonder how anyone could be so unprofessional, but you would be surprised just how often they occur. In order to give your best customer service efforts, you need to make a good first impression and pay attention to your customers. 

By doing that, and by designing your reception area in a way which grabs the attention in all the right ways, you’ll not only retain your current customer share but hopefully increase it too.