I was in Dunkin Donuts this week about to grab some coffee. Finally when it came to be my turn to place my order, I looked at the woman behind the register who was looking at me with a warm, welcoming smile. Then, I happily returned the big smile on and said… “Medium dark roast, with cream and melted sugar please.” Naturally, she smiled back and then delivered my coffee to me piping hot and exactly the way I wanted it – life is good! Of course I went back the next day. Now that’s good marketing and a great first impression.
The First Impression
This story has no digital components to it at all. But it does translate perfectly for when marketing is being produced and customer touch points are created. Marketing professionals needs to ask themselves, “What impression are we making when the consumer sees us for the first time?” In the digital world there are lots of touch points. Break them down one by one and figure out what message will work best and on what channel should it be delivered?
Back-Up – Start Again
Nobody is Talking about the value of the first impression any more. Everyone seems to be talking about engagement, relevancy, customer path, conversion, big data, mobile, actionable insights, predictive modeling, and segmentation… whew; there are a lot of things to remember. While all of those things are very important, I say that marketers need to back up and get to the very first touch point and really think about the impression we are making. Maybe we need to stop for a minute and reverse the speed of execution. Slow down and stop pushing so much content out. Let’s find out what impression is most important to your customer and deliver that digital experience to them – every time.
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Scott MacFarland
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