No doubt you have heard this before, but at the start of a new year, it bears repeating – first impressions do matter.  Of course, if there is a bad first impression, it may be possible to save the relationship through further interactions with a customer or an employee, but it isn’t wise to rely on that plan.

An organization had recently acquired a new customer and had given them a specific point person for any needs.  Early on in their communications, the customer sent the employee a requested document via email.  The employee responded to the customer telling them that the formatting was wrong.  The customer thought that they had double checked the document to verify that everything was as the organization requested it to be, but decided to take another look to see if they had made a mistake. 

The customer realized that no, the document they had sent to the organization was exactly as requested, so the problem was either that their system was changing the document en route or that the organization’s system was changing it.  The customer took the initiative to not only reiterate to the employee that the document was sent as requested, but also, that the customer would they themselves get in touch with the organization’s IT department to uncover the cause of the problem.

It took several days of back and forth, but the customer was eventually able to speak with the organization’s IT department.  The IT team looked at their internal systems and verified for the customer that what they were sending was indeed what was showing up in their system.  The problem, according to the organization’s IT team, was that the employee was opening the document in the wrong way.  By this point in time though, the customer had discovered a work-around way to format the document so that it didn’t matter what the employee was doing, the document would still look correct.

Now, this may not have been a big deal – maybe the employee just needed further training.  However, the employee throughout the entire situation blamed the customer.  Never once did the employee take ownership for the problem or even consider that they might be the one causing the issue.  Not once did the employee say to the customer that the problem might be on their end.  Instead, the employee told the customer that the customer was doing something wrong.  When the final IT ticket was labeled as “resolved,” the employee wrote that the customer “had realized what they were doing wrong,” absolving themselves of any responsibility for the issue.  

No ownership, no responsibility, no accountability.

I understand that taking responsibility is difficult, and for various reasons it can be tougher for some people, but this story should have never happened.  The customer may not always be right, but when they are not wrong, don’t tell them that they are wrong.  It wasn’t the document problem that was the problem.  Or generally any problem that is the problem.  The problem is really the lack of accountability.  That is a real problem.  For a customer, this type of negative impression of an organization is unforgettable. 

And because this was the first impression the customer had of the organization; it then inevitably leads to thoughts of – is everyone at this organization like this?  The IT team seemed more reasonable, but what about everyone else?  And why was it that a customer had to contact the organization’s IT team, why didn’t the employee do that?  Is this the type of behavior approved of at this organization?  Is it encouraged or accepted?  Or is it ignored (which is another problem)?  Or is it not noticed (which is yet another problem)?  

If this is the introduction a customer has to your organization, all that they have to go on to form an opinion about you and your products, good luck to you.  When it comes to any issue, you must see it as a percentage, meaning what is the percentage of the problem compared to the total experience with your organization.  You can’t see it as, “it was only one small issue that the IT department solved within 5 minutes.”  You must view it as, “the customer has only been our customer for a short amount of time and already they’ve had an issue.”  If a customer has only had a brief experience with your organization, it has to be good.  It must be good if you want to keep them.  It’s a numbers thing.

So before you think that a small problem or a short interaction doesn’t matter, stop.  Judge it by percentages.  That will tell you how important the interaction is.  This is the same for employee interactions as well as customer ones.  An employee who has been there for a while might understand that when you’re having a bad day, you may be short-tempered.  A newer employee might view you as a jerk.  Does it matter?  It does if you want them to stay.

Customer retention, employee retention, customer satisfaction, and employee satisfaction are all the same at the root.  Understanding a situation from someone else’s perspective.  You don’t have to agree with anyone else, but you must show them that you are working to understand their perspective.  Impressions matter.  Especially the early ones.