In this modern day of technology where people can literally find anything or anyone they want at the touch of a keypad, first impressions mean everything!
When putting together a gathering for a workshop, one thing that gets my goat is when I contact a possible venue, vendor, and/or rental company and they either don’t respond or take forever to respond. At that point, you are SCRATCHED! Why? Because I now feel you are too busy for me or simply don’t care.
One thing I never want you to do is to make the mistake of making people feel that they don’t expect you to respond quickly…well they actually do! Do you have to? Of course not, but the quicker the better with clients and potential clients. People know people and many of your new clients come from word of mouth. Once again first impressions mean everything!
Of course, our days are filled with work and we can’t always answer our business phone lines. But here are a few things you can do to make sure you don’t let potential walk out the door:
- Make sure your business line has a welcoming greeting as well as a statement letting people know you will get back to them as soon as possible or within the next 24 hours (I advise you not to go over 24 hours because they just may go somewhere else).
- Set a time in the day when you respond to e-mails
- Have an automatic response set to your e-mails letting people know what time you respond to emails during the day
Your clients and potentials client want to feel valued and they are valuable. This makes you look professional and the more professional, the better your chances of having great business! Habits develop character! So if we are going to get it in, LET’S GET IT IN!
