What image are YOU projecting?

 Very few of our clients visit our office; therefore, the senses that help to form an image of a company are not all used.  Clients can’t see the colors of our space; they can’t smell the potpourri; they can’t touch the fabrics.  Nor can they identify the people they have spoken with on the phone.   All those key components of the essence of our company are missing for people who only speak to us on the phone.  

The things they can’t touch, smell, or see, are things that would help them to have a visual of our company.  Their image of our agents and their clients is formed by the things they see in their messages and hear in their conversations with us.  Our agents then, help form the mental image our clients have of us.  As an employee in this industry – you create the image our customer sees in their mind.  How does it look and sound?

Our Visual Image is provided by your message – our product; how does it look?  Are your sentences written with both upper and lower-case letters?  They should be.  Typing in all lower-case or all upper-case letters presents a very poor image.  Not what we want for our company.

Are your sentences grammatically correct and punctuated properly?  They should be.  Are the words you used spelled accurately?  Poor spelling and grammar are signs of sloppy work; not how we want our clients to think of us.

Our Auditory Image is formed by our voices.  Your voice should be strong (not loud), clear, and warm.  It’s important to keep in mind that our voice loses 30% of its energy over the phone.  Exaggerate your voice a bit, and consciously make it more musical and more uplifting.  In face-to-face conversation, body language and facial expressions, as-well-as-words, help to convey our meaning.  Only 16% of the message is usually understood by our words.  To compensate for the lack of the visual tools we use so automatically, and listeners rely on, we need to emphasize our voice inflections to get our points and feelings across.  

Using a welcoming, energetic voice saves time, too.  Listeners can understand you better.  It builds confidence in the listener and inspires their trust; you sound more in control of a situation.  It increases rapport when you sound upbeat and interested in our callers; they want to “know” you.  Callers accept what you are saying and ask fewer questions if your voice is confident and warm.  Ask to review your written messages and to listen to recordings of your conversations.  You will know right away where you can improve your image; which, in turn, will make your callers more satisfied at the same time.


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