Last week, I had two very different experiences while visiting two well-known global companies?experiences that made an impact on me and experiences that every start-up company can learn from.
I arrived at the first company a little before my 10 am appointment and walked into the reception area. There was pandemonium there with a large number of visitors huddled around the reception desk.
The long desk in turn was ?manned? by about six or seven smartly dressed men and women and had three-four computers on it. I mentioned the name of the person I had come to visit to one of these persons and I received a blank stare.
I repeated the name and was asked if I had the extension number of the person. I did not. I repeated the name again as well as the designation of the person. Finally, the name and a mobile number was located. The mobile number turned out to be an old one.
The staff was running around without any clue as to who my host was. The cell phone number I had for the person did not work either. I was then asked to go to another reception area?same result and I was then asked to return to the earlier reception area.
Getting impatient, I walked out of the building and into another building where I was told the relevant department, that the person headed I had come to see, was based. There was no one at the reception area.
I walked into the lift and went up to the fourth floor?I asked some employees where this department was based. I was met by a guard on this floor. He asked me to return to the reception area I had just come from, which I promptly did. It was now 10.35 am. A vehicle pulled up at the building just as I was about to leave and the person I was supposed to meet jumped out.
I finally had to fill in a form, get my photo taken, have the ID card pinned to my shirt before I walked into the same building I was escorted out off by a guard. I was annoyed and irritated and angry?this in a company that F500 companies lean on for management and IT systems know-how.
Later on the same day, I visited another company. There was just one security guard behind the desk. The desk had a flat screen monitor displaying the company logo with a keyboard to enter my and my company name. My name and company name were then printed out on a rectangular sheet of paper with a sticky, peel-off back-cover.
While waiting, I noticed a screen on a wall in the reception area that had a list of phrases and words scrolling on it. I asked the security guard what those were and he smiled and said that those were some of the phrases and words that the world was searching for on this company?s system.
I stuck the printed ID paper tag on my shirt and was let inside the building inside five minutes. Completing my meeting, I noticed a football made entirely of these paper-name tags taken off earlier visitors lying on the reception desk. I too stuck my tag to the football on my way out with a smile.
The importance of creating the right impression doesn?t just end with fancy copy and glitzy media work. In fact, creating the right impression is a matter of company culture. The humble security guard (no smart jacket for him) knew more about the company he was working for than the team of smartly dressed men and women behind the desk in the other company, where hyper-activity was confused with output and efficiency.
The importance of creating the right impression on employees, customers, partners, vendors and others cannot be over-emphasised and it always starts and shows up in ?moments of truth? when the company meets its stakeholders. Every entrepreneur and startup therefore needs to inculcate the importance of creating the right culture right from the get-go.
Remember the old saying, you rarely get a second chance to make a first impression?
What do you think?
?The writer brings close to two decades of experience as an entrepreneur, corporate executive, venture investor, advisor and mentor. He can be reached at sanjay@jumpstartup.net. These are his personal views