It doesn’t really matter too much what the first touchpoint is with a prospect, what matters is how you and your brand come across in that first touch.
It is said one should never judge a book by its cover and that you really need to forge a deeper relationship with someone before you can really get to know them but unfortunately, first impressions do count and that first impression could be the moment that they step across the threshold of your bricks and mortar store; the first email that they get from you; a flyer or ad in their mailbox or a local rag; a TV or radio slot or a cold call.
Whatever the mechanism or whoever the messenger, what is being delivered by your employees in marketing, sales, support, or service, how confident are you that your prospects are being greeted warmly and with a direct invitation to do business with you and your brand?
In the not-so-distant past, the receptionist, concierge, or front of house greeter answered all the calls and greeted every walk-in. Their effectiveness was measured by their friendliness attention to detail and attentiveness and service. Everything was semi-scripted but often there wasn’t actually a script, there was a particular work ethic that these types of people subscribed to and executed on. They are more difficult to find these days, but we still crave that kind of attentiveness.
We may still see glimmers of this kind of reception in hotels and restaurants, medical offices, and the dentist, but it isn’t really that common these days anywhere else and if it is there it is probably because of distinctive personalities or extensive staff training.
In fact, most office complexes these days intercept you in the lobby before you even get to the elevators, often with barriers and insist on you checking in with perhaps an auto-attendant. Walk-ins are rare and advance appointments online are pretty normal. Something in the personal touch that was there before has perhaps been lost for the most part.
In a previous piece, we remarked on how bad impressions stick, it’s human nature to really only see and more importantly remember, the negative. Negative introductions, negative first-time use, negative renewal, negative payment settlement. It is also crucial to communicate and recognize that every employee is responsible for working towards making a positive first impression. The question top of mind, is how do they do that?
Focusing on the CX (Customer eXperience) is recognized as something that doesn’t just happen naturally. Rather, a good CX doesn’t materialize by accident. Companies that provide an above-average CX have often invested heavily in making sure that the CX is important enough that the revenue and business returns almost become secondary. The reason that they do this, is because the CX is closely tied to the brand and the brand is deemed so valuable that it shouldn’t be compromised. We believe that personalization is a critical piece of this puzzle, but for that you need data.
Brand literally takes decades to build and develop, and a bad customer experience can effectively ruin it overnight, especially if the brand kicking goes viral. So, from this, we can conclude that brand or reputation management is critical and expensive if not maintained and protected well.
At Pretectum we recognize that the more you know about the prospect the more informed you can be about the way that you want to interact with them. We also recognize that how you gather that information is varied. You could obtain a lead from a marketing event, a trade show, a webshop visit, a cold call, or a walk-up. What you do with that lead at the time of capture and every subsequent step of interaction matters. A lead can quickly become an opportunity and then a deal or it can disappear forever depending on many factors, some of which are within your control, some of which are not.
The point is, the moment you capture something, you need to consider what you can do with that piece of data. You also need to act quickly. A fresh lead has a limited shelf life. Can you verify the attributes, can you standardize them, can you enhance them? All of these changes to that data can help to hone the kind of message you want to convey in the next step. With a customer MDM platform, we believe you can. With a customer MDM platform you have many more options than you have if that contact simply sits in your ERP, CRM, or CDP, unverified, un-evaluated, and limited in value.
Contact us to find out how the Pretectum CMDM can help you greet your prospects and your customers in a new way!