You Never Get a Second Chance To Make A First Impression
Once again, I open with something that is completely irrelevant to the post, but one of the greatest monologues in Saturday Night Live history was performed by the seemingly multitalented Taylor Swift. Eat your heart out Kanye.
On to business. Lincoln University, a historically black college in Oxford, Pa., is keeping some obese students from graduating. It seems there is a requirement, if you are obese, to either lose weight while at school or take a class in weight management. The idea is to improve students’ chances in life. Overweight applicants do worse in the job market, and worse in life expectancy. Go Lincoln. The first impression that your potential employer will have, regardless of how perfect you are for the job, just might be, “Geez this guy is big. What happens if he gets sick on the job?”.
For more on first impressions, check this out. No joke, this was probably the worst first impression customer service experience I have ever been involved in. At Mercedes Benz no less. The experience was perfect, because it provided lots of “DONT DO THIS” lessons for future use.
I went shopping for a car the other day. I went to Mercedes Benz of Larchmont. They had a nice website, they were close to our house, and my car was pretty much dying, so I was ready to buy. I pulled into the parking lot and it was full, so we found some room, turned the car off and went over to the valet to see where I should park. He told me there was room in the street. The street is a major thouroughfare, and at that point I was ready to leave. I made it clear that if I got back into my car and drove to the street that I wasn’t parking, I was leaving, so he moved the car and kept the keys. I then went into the showroom, and were greeted by a folding table behind which sat a very pleasant looking young woman. By “greeted” I meant that we couldn’t walk any further without banging our legs, not that someone actually asked what they could do to help me. When I asked about purchasing a car I was told that someone would be with me shortly. Given that there wasn’t much going on in the showroom, I thought that would be fine. Five minutes later I still had no salesman, so I turned to leave. As I got to the car somone finally came out and asked if he could help me.
The salesman was nicely dressed, and I am sure he is a wonderful human being, but he was certainly less than enthusiastic about the product. You would think that he would be gushing Mercedes, but he sounded more like he was reciting the periodic table than talking about the new Blind Spot Assist. When we returned from the test drive and went about picking options and colors the computer system was interminably slow, and we were forced to wait for statistics sheets that just never came. I finally gave him my email address and asked him to send the sheets when they came through. Two days later I got an email with no attachments. I pointed out the lack of attachments and finally got two sheets. Two. That was all the Mercedes Benzes that he thought I might like. Needless to say we are heading to Mercedes Benz of Greenwich next. Those of you who actually click to see the links will notice that the two Mercedes websites are identical. Smart move by Mercedes. Can you imagine what the Larchmont website might look like left up to their own devices?
Lesson One: If you want people to show up for job interviews, driver applications, etc, make sure they feel welcome. That means adequate transportation and parking assistance among other things. Furthermore, make sure the entry is welcoming. No obstructed door, secret areas into which they cannot see, etc. Whenever possible schedule appointments. You don’t want applicants to have trouble getting in to see you, or to be waiting in a line for service. They will assume that for the rest of their time with your company they will be waiting for everything else: Cashiers, dispatchers, assistance with problems. Not a pretty thought.
Lesson Two: Make sure the people who are greeting, talking to and helping applicants are smiling and enthusiastic about the product, aka your company. If they don’t sound like they want to be working there, why should applicants feel that THEY would be happy working there?
Lesson Three: Make sure that your personnel department has instant access to all the information about your company that they will need. No one wants to wait around for your computer to spit out information that your personnel department should probably know by heart anyway. If the computers are slow have printouts, or better yet, a live human with information at their fingertips, readily available instead. In worst case, when information is not readily available, don’t make the applicant wait, ask someone else to find the answers to questions while the applicant continues with the process, or get a contact number and send the information as soon as possible. Not the next day, or two days later.
Lesson Four: Follow up. I know it is a great market right now for hiring, but you should still make applicants feel wanted. They will probably call you, but call them anyway, even if you don’t want to hire them right now. You may want them later, or they may have friends who are looking as well, who may be more suited to your needs. Don’t get a bad reputation in the marketplace. If you want them, let them know as soon as you can that the position is theirs, even if it is just for driving a cab. EVERYONE WANTS TO BE WANTED.
Coming Next Week: The Chicago Sun Times declares me Emperor of Chicago (check out the opening line).
Kanye West screws up again (just guessing here)
Politician found in bed with his own wife. Okay. Really a stretch there, but who knows?