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Nine Seconds to Make a First Impression

You meet someone for the first time – it could be a new client walking through your doors, someone at a grooming trade show or a new team member.

The moment that stranger sees you, their brain makes a thousand assumptions. It might be a new client or someone you meet anywhere else. You are giving off clues about yourself before you ever begin to speak. They are gathering a wealth of nonverbal clues about you.

What are nonverbal clues?

Nonverbal clues include all the ways you present and express yourself, apart from the actual words you speak. Things like eye contact, gestures, posture, body movements, and tone of voice. All of these signals can convey important information that isn’t put into words. They are extremely important at work and in business. Perception is reality.

If you are dealing with a prospective customer – the following items will instantly fly through their head upon your first meeting:

Are you trustworthy?
Will you be kind to their pet?
Do you have the skills required to groom their dog or cat?
Are you likable?
Are you confident?
Will you charge a fair price for your services?

These impressions form at lightning speed. Making major decisions about another person happens within seconds of meeting them.

In business, first impressions are crucial. You can’t stop people from making snap decisions – the human brain is hardwired this way as prehistoric survival mechanism. However, you can understand how to make those decisions work in your favor.

First impressions are more heavily influenced by nonverbal clues than verbal clues. In fact, studies have found that nonverbal clues have over four times the impact on the impression you make than anything you say.

Here are nine nonverbal ways to make a positive first impression with a grooming client, a new team member or a new business associate.

Present yourself professionally. Blue jeans, sweatshirts, T-shirts and a baseball cap are not professional. If you are in your shop or van, wear fresh garments that repel dirt, grime and hair. At a trade show? Dress in ‘professional casual.’

Pay attention to details. Hair style, light make-up (for women) and your nails all give strong visual cues. Having fun with personal style is fine – as long as it stays a little more on the conservative side. Over-the-top piercings, tattoos and gauges will not instantly form a positive impression on most people you meet – especially prospective clients.

Attitude – attitude – attitude. People pick up on your attitude instantly. Before you turn to greet someone, or address a team member, or walk into a trade show, think about the situation. Make a conscious choice about the attitude you want to project.

Fine-tune your posture. Position and authority are non-verbally conveyed by height and space. Standing tall, pulling your shoulders back, and holding your head high are all signs of confidence and competence.

Facial expression. Human faces are incredibly expressive including the eyes, eyebrows, mouth, and any other movement. Open your eyes slightly more than normal to simulate the ‘eyebrow flash’. This is the universal signal of recognition and acknowledgment. Emotions such as anger, happiness, hurt, and boredom are all easily expressed with facial movements.

Smile more. A smile is an invitation, a sign of welcome. It says you are friendly and approachable. Smile at the pooch too. Owners love that!

Make eye contact. To transmit energy look at someone’s eyes. Looking into someone’s eyes indicate interest and openness. And if that person has a pet in tow, make sure you look into the pets eyes as well.

The handshake. This is the quickest way to establish a connection. It’s also the most effective. Here’s an interesting fact. On average it takes about three hours of continuous interaction to develop the same level a rapport that you get with a single handshake. A firm handshake indicates a strong personality. But don’t crush someone else’s hand – as groomers, our hands are typically really strong! A weak handshake is taken as a lack of strength.

Lean forward slightly. Leaning forward shows you’re engaged and attentive. But be respectful of the other person space. That normally means staying about two feet away.

Every encounter from chatting with new clients, going to trade shows or attending training sessions presents an opportunity to meet people. It’s a great way to network, expanding your professional contacts. Making a positive first impression counts. You’ve got nine seconds – but if you handle it well, those nine seconds are all you need.

~Happy trimming,

Melissa

PS.

You should check out our videos on Learn2GroomDogs.com. Here is a featured video clip from our channel on YouTube:

The Importance of Systems

My husband and I were just at the hospital for a scheduled surgery. Luckily, it was a non-emergency situation – just to get his nose repaired so he could actually breathe out of BOTH nostrils. Still, it was surgery and as much as he wanted to have it done, the anticipation levels were running high. We were a bit nervous.

The medical team was great. Their thorough procedures helped squelch our anticipation jitters. Everything, from the pre-screening call days before… check in… pre-surgery… waiting room… recovery… home… and follow-up, was explained to us. At every step along the way there were systems in place to ensure that the surgery went off without a hitch, which put our minds at ease. There weren’t any hiccups in the communication process or the surgery itself.

Checks and balances were firmly in place. Everyone in the medical team clearly knew their job. They understood how important their roles were, no matter how large or small. If even one of them made a mistake, it could have a devastating effect on the outcome of the surgery. We’ve all heard the horror stories.

If you stop and think about it, a grooming salon client has the same kinds of anticipation levels. They are entrusting you with one of their most precious possessions – their pet. Most clients are not that familiar with the grooming process and have no idea what truly goes on behind closed doors.

Is you grooming salon set up like a well-oiled medical team? We may not be doctors but our “pet clients” are extremely important to their owners. There are many steps within the grooming service procedure that could turn into shining moments – or go horribly wrong:

They get the wrong haircut.
The pet isn’t done when promised.
They’re charged the wrong amount.
They get the wrong collar or lead – maybe even the wrong pet!
A pet is injured – or worse.

This list could go on and on. The larger the team that works together, the more processes you need in place for a smooth running operation.

Every grooming salon needs:

a customer service team (even if that team is YOU)
a bathing department
a drying department
a grooming/styling department
someone in charge of client records/data entry
client education
marketing
proper cleaning and sanitation

To be successful in the long-term, you need to spend time in the short-term setting up processes. Systems are your routines – the way you do things every time. Here is a short list of items that need to be in place for systems to work:

Every procedure needs to be broken down, step by step.
Each process needs to be written down and reviewed regularly.
Every person participating in the activity needs to know and understand how to correctly perform the procedure.
Every person then needs training and follow-up supervision until the task is perfected.

Accountability is the key to success. Positive and negative consequences need to be in place and consistently enforced.

If you don’t have any systems in place at the moment, don’t fret. Take one procedure at a time and break it down into smaller chunks. Figure out what needs to be done or happen for each piece. Then move to the next one – and the next one.

Remember the story book fable about the tortoise and the hare? You don’t need to be a jack rabbit straight out of the gate. Slow and steady will win this race. It all starts with the first step. It might take you a month to get your systems in place – it might take a year. If you are in a state of growth, creating systems for your business might be an ongoing process. The trick is not to be overwhelmed by looking at the big picture. Keep it small so you don’t give up – and keep going.

At the end of the day, you always need to focus on your overall goal: to offer outstanding, consistent customer service – just like my husband and I received with his recent operation.

… As for those horror stories? Don’t be one of them. The salons that have the right systems in place will be prepared. Their staff will offer better service and the guests (furry and human) will feel better knowing that they are in good hands. it’s never too late to start. Do it now! Take that first step.

Happy Trimming,

-Melissa

New Year’s Resolutions Can Be Dreams with Deadlines

A recent study divided people who made New Year’s resolutions into two groups.

1. Those who made New Year’s resolutions and wrote it down.
2. Those who made a New Year’s resolution but neglected to write it down.

You know what? The results were amazing. For the group that did not write down their New Year’s resolution, only 4% of them kept their resolution. However, for the people that wrote down the resolution, a whopping 44% of them had kept their New Year’s resolution.

“You can’t hit a target you can’t see” says motivational speaker Brian Tracy. And he is so right. A dream is a wish. Most people don’t write down their wishes – Thus, most wishes don’t come true.

Another one of his famous quotes is, “Goals in writing are dreams with deadlines.”

So have you made your New Year’s resolutions yet? Have you put pen to paper or your fingers to keyboard? If you’ll just take a few minutes and get your dreams down on paper, your odds for success are going to increase tenfold.

So what are your goals — what are your dreams — what are your aspirations? If you really want to make them happen, put together a plan.

Do you want to go for doing six dogs a day to eight? Have you divided your day so you know how long you have to spend on each pet and still get the job accomplished? Maybe your plan includes dividing the types of dogs you take each day in order to accomplish your goal. This division might come from the size of dogs you take. Or it might be the degree of difficulty. Obviously it’s going to be easier to wash a Beagle than it is to do a full scissor job on a poodle.

Do you want to become a certified master groomer or enter the competition ring? What type of knowledge do you need to gain before you’re successful at that endeavor? Do you need to learn the foundation of dog grooming first? The foundation would be anatomy, structure and movement. Next will come mastering technical skills like; bathing, brushing, dematting, drying, clipping, scissoring, hand- stripping. Once your foundation work is down, now it’s time to take a breed. Pick one breed — and one breed only. Focus on that single breed. Read the books. Watch videos put out by top professionals on the breed. Study with professional breeders and handlers. Go to conformation dog shows. Attend workshops and seminars. Once you master one breed, you’ll find it much easier to learn additional breeds.

Do you want to own your own business? What will it take to make that happen? Outline the steps it’s going to take for you to gain the experience necessary to open your own salon or to go mobile. Once you have the experience, then it’s time to create a full-fledged business plan. A well thought out business plan will be your roadmap to starting your own business successfully.

Whatever your goal, the important part is to get it down on paper. The style that you get it down will be all your own. Some people do better doing outlines. Other people do better with simple lists. Others find mind maps work extremely well. Whatever your style, write it down. The more detailed you are about the necessary steps required, the more likely you will succeed.

Then, post it where you’re going to see it. Set a timeline to it and then energetically take action to complete each detailed step. The steps can be small — and sometimes smaller steps are good. It gives you a sense of accomplishment each time you get to move up the staircase of success.

2014 is just around the corner. What do you want to accomplish? Make those New Year’s resolutions. No matter what your goals, remember that just by simply writing them down are more likely to happen.

Happy Trimming!

~Melissa