Organize + Energize: Making a Great First Impression With Customers

Tuesday, February 03, 2015

Kristin MacRae, GoLocalWorcester Organizing Expert

You’ve all heard the expression, “You never get a second chance to make a first impression.” This is very important when you own a business in any field. If you have customers visiting your office, this is a must read article.

My objective for this article to make you think about some important issues relating to disorganization and the presence of your office. As you read this article, think about how you feel when you walk into a disorganized office. Does it make you feel uncomfortable, stressed, distracted, overwhelmed, or anxious? How does it make you feel if it is your office? Are you ok with feeling like that?

If you want to create a great first impression, here are 5 areas of your office that will need attention:

Phone receptionist. This is actually the first person your customer will be in contact with. If your receptionist doesn’t represent your company well, you may be losing customers. This person should be organized, efficient and have a pleasant phone manner.

Waiting room. If you have a waiting area in your office, be sure this area is kept clean, neat, and organized. Have a few decorative pieces and a few pictures on the wall and keep a matching décor. Keep magazines contained and organized in a wall organizer. Weed through them on a regular basis and get rid of old magazines. If there is a TV or radio in the room, keep it at a volume where people can hear it, but please don’t blast the volume.

Front office reception desk. I can’t stress this enough. Be sure that your front office person is organized. Aside from the phone receptionist, this is the second person they will connect with. You could be super organized, but if the front reception desk is disorganized, customers will have already formed an opinion about the company. This desk will also set the tone as to how the office runs.

Think about what’s going through customer’s minds. Do you ever think about how new clients feel when they walk into your disorganized office? If you have paper piles, clutter all over your office, or don’t have any working organized systems in place, your clients will take notice. You may find that as you are speaking with them, they are distracted by your disorganization. They will be asking themselves if they should go with another (more organized) company.

Efficiency and productivity. When a new customer walks into your disorganized office, they will think about the company not returning their calls on time, misfiling their information, or even worse, their information getting mixed in with another client’s information. They want to know the company they are dealing with is efficient, focused, and productive.

Do you find yourself distracted by your disorganization? How long does it take you to find a file, or important information when a client is in your office? Are you embarrassed when they have to sit there and wait for you to search for information or try to remember where it is located? If so, you need to think about getting organized before you start to lose clients.

Walk into your office and write down all the things you want to change. Do you want to re-organize your physical space to make it more esthetically appealing to the eye? Do you need to re-structure your filing systems? Can you see the top of your desk? Get the piles off your desk and into working filing systems and try to keep as little as possible on the desk. Does your front office need some new working systems? It’s time to re-evaluate your office on a whole and make some changes that will allow you to save money, have more free time, be more efficient and productive, and allow your clients to have more confidence in you and your business.

Kristin Carcieri-MacRae, the founder and owner of Organizing in RI, has always enjoyed finding creative ways to streamline the environment around her. She has appeared on air on Patricia Raskin's Positive Business Radio and her articles have been published in the Rhode Island Small Business Journal and New England Home Life. Kristin's CD, Organizing Basics, is a 1-hour guide for the person who wants to get organized but doesn't know where to start. She is also available for organizing workshops. Tune into her weekly radio show, Organize, Energize! on Mondays at 8:30 a.m. on http://www.talkstreamradio.com.

Related Slideshow: 10 Minute Organizing Projects

Declutter and Organize

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Spices

As you take all of the spices out of the cabinet, check for expiration dates and smell for potency. Categorize and itemize your spices to how you utilize them. Contain them in a spice rack that fits the space where they are kept. Don’t purchase a spice rack until you are finished organizing. You want to measure the space and make sure the rack fits and holds all of your spices. There are a variety of spice racks out there. Choose the one that best suits what you need it to hold.

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Makeup

How many items do you touch in the morning to find what you need? You want to be as efficient as possible in the morning and having your makeup organized will be a big time saver. Do you have difficulty deciding what to keep or toss? When is it time to throw away makeup? Aline Sarkis, a Providence, RI-based makeup artist, states lipstick can be used for 2 years or until it starts to smell like a crayon. Mascara is good for 2-3 months. Eye shadow is good for 2 years and foundation is good for 1-2 years. Aline also states that some makeup and skincare will be marked with an expiration date of 6-12 months. Begin counting once you start using the product

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Women: Purse

Depending on the size of your purse, and what you keep in your purse, this may take you a little longer than 10 minutes. Empty the entire contents of the purse on a table. Declutter, categorize, and itemize the contents. Break this process down and take it one category at a time. Develop a system going forward so the inside of your purse doesn’t look like a cyclone hit it. Contain receipts, gift cards, money, and makeup.

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Men: Wallet

It’s time to empty all of the receipts out of your wallet. Do you also store receipts and random items in your car? While you are tackling this project, head over to your vehicle and declutter the center console and glove compartment.

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Underwear drawer

If you aren’t using drawer organizers, you should start now. They are very inexpensive and will maximize the space in the drawer. How many of you wear the same item over and over again? With drawer organizers in place, you will be able to see everything you own and can categorize and itemize. Nothing will ever get pushed to the bottom of the drawer again.

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Under the bathroom sink

If you haven’t taken everything out of this area in awhile, you may find some scary items under the sink. Empty the contents, itemize, and categorize. Throw away anything that you can’t recognize. Contain items in containers that fit the space like a puzzle. Once again, utilizing containers will maximize the space and allow you to store more items. Develop a simple system where you can locate items and locate them quickly.

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Pets

Ninety percent of my clients have a pet. It’s time to organize their belongings. Medicine, leashes, bandanas, clothes, dishes, food, etc. Take this time to also organize any paper work related to your pet. Set up a filing system for your pet. Keep their medical records, rabies and vaccination information categorized in these files.

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Junk drawer

Nobody says you can’t have a junk drawer. Junk drawers can be organized. You just have to think about if you need everything in this drawer and if there is a better place to store the items. Remember, store like items together. If you have tools in the junk drawer, maybe you should keep them with the tools in the basement.

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Office supply drawer

So many people have office supply drawers that are out of control. Money is wasted on purchasing duplicate office supplies. It’s very difficult to figure out what you need to purchase if items are scattered all over the office and are disorganized.

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Top of your office desk

If you can’t see the top of your desk, take this time to focus on this area and categorize and itemize what is there. Do you have a working filing system in place? If so, once your desk is cleared, make a habit of filing once a day or a couple of times a week. If your system isn’t working for you, it may be time for you to re-evaluate your system and make it work for the way you function.