Imagine a guest is coming over to your home this holiday season for dinner.
What do virtually all of us do before they arrive?
Obviously we cook!
But what else do virtually all of us also do?
We clean!
Why do we clean before they arrive?
What is the goal?
What do we want?
What do we not want our guest to think about us?
So, again … why do we clean?
Most of us clean before our guests arrive to create a positive first impression.
We want them to think, whether true or not, that we value cleanliness.
Also, I think the goal is to show respect to your guest or visitor while having a clean and inviting environment.
If you are like most of us, we certainly do not want to create a first impression that we are either slobs or disrespectful to our guests.
I think universally, that is a shared goal.
We all know how hard perceptions and impressions are to overcome.
We also all know it is much better to make a positive impression than not.
However, what can possibly happen after they become our good friend, or in business, our partner or our customer?
In my experience, what I have seen is that often times people lose sight of the goal of cleaning before the guest arrives!
We stop cleaning because they are now our “friend.”
We may think “it does not matter because now they are our friend or customer” however it may change the way they perceive you forever.
Do you or have you ever stopped cleaning before your guest/customers arrive?
What potentially happens if they have just one bad experience with you?
How hard is it to change their impressions?
Imagine if the first time your new friend was coming to dinner, however your new friend and guest forgot to reset their watch from the east coast when they arrived in California, and arrived at your house three hours early to dinner!
Would they have a different impression of you in this scenario?
Or would you have been prepared?
Did you pre-clean?
In service, our guests arrive 7/24/365.
Are you prepared?
Are you ready?
Is your experience CLEAN?
Is your experience clean at each and every touch point?
Do you think so?
How do you know?
I would suggest you might want to investigate, which means experience your touch points from your customers perspective.
This means shopping yourself.
I define a “clean experience ” as one that is personalized, authentic, fast, friendly and hassle free.
I think these are the types of experiences we all try to create for our first time dinner guests; the bigger question is are you doing it everyday for your customers?
Over the holidays I think we should all clean up for our guests and also examine how it feels to be our customer too.
I bet if you are honest with yourself you will find some areas that require cleaning up for your customers.
I hope you take the right actions to create personalized, fast, friendly and authentic interactions for your customers.
Because, unfortunately if you do not, someone else will.
Happy cleaning.
Republished with author’s permission from original post.
