Dan Schawbel - Gen Y Expert RSS feed: Every Company Needs a Director of First Impress

[David Sandusky]

My RSS Feed is a Thinker and blog is #1 for online personal brand thoughts. Dan Schawbel is Gen Y and geared to Gen Y personal brand, but you will benefit regardless of generation. He has Just Posted the Following:

Since people are the face of the company, there must be an emphasis on each person who represents the corporate brand. Sure everyone needs to understand the corporate message and culture in order to be successful at their job, but what about the receptionist? When a customer, potential customer, partner or stockholder ventures to the corporate offices, the first person they meet is, yes you guessed it, the receptionist.

The receptionists’ job is not just to connect the visitor with the person they are their to meet. It’s not just to book appointments on calendars or transfer calls. They are also a resource that directs visitors or employees to specific parts of the building or may even just give advice on where to get lunch. They record the availability of staff members, conduct tours of the offices and they file and maintain records. There are various duties and titles associated with this type of administrative position, which you can view here.

In the above example (Note: I recreated the business card I had because I don’t have a scanner), you can see that Monster.com understands the importance of a first impression. Receptionists need to be some of the top marketers in the company, which means they should be invited to marketing meetings or at least be granted access to corporate messaging programs (high level training). If a partner, customer or any other visitor comes in and has a bad experience with the receptionist, they punish or blame the company.*

The attitude, tone, facial expression and personality of the receptionist is key to starting the experience the visitor has with the company, even before they interact with a hiring manager, friend or colleague. I’m not sure if a receptionist enjoys her/his title, but this new title surely makes them feel much better. People in lower level jobs wants to feel like they are apart of the company and not just some admin that adds no value to the bottom line. Using this title, they feel more empowered and controlling of the day-to-day outcome.

Today is the day where you change your receptionists title and business card.

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[Maria Elena Duron]

You know, Dan is always though provoking and that's why I enjoy writing and participating in his Personal Branding Mag endeavor.

He is correct in his assessment of the Director of First Impressions. It takes 7 to 15 seconds to create a LASTING first impression. It then take 56 other CONTACT TIMES (not minutes) to change that first impression. Who in our time deprived world has time to go back and "re-do" an unfavorable first impression? On the flipside, who can afford not to?