When you walk into a customer or client’s office for the very first time, do you make judgments based on the environment you observe? What about on a job interview – you walk in the front door, walk across the green shag carpet that’s pulled up in one corner. The receptionist is smacking some gum, wearing a tank top and is generally un-kept. I’ve been there and wanted to immediately throw my hands up the air and walk back out the door. There’s no sense in wasting your time, this isn’t the place for you. Your next stop is a nice office, pleasant music in the background, clean and modern fixtures, people dressed nicely, well groomed working busily behind the receptionist.
There’s a vast number of environmental factors that we pick up on which persuade our judgment determining the type and quality of company you are in. Many of these factors are only skin deep, easily seen when you walk through the door, but there are also cues that go beyond the surface of a company that broadcast to the keen observer the level of professionalism in an organization. Such cues can be apparent as an un-tucked shirttail or as covert as shoddy and inconsistent documents such as letterhead and fax cover sheets.
On the surface, our company has all the visible delicacies to the casual observer relaying the quality of our organization through its appearance. Clean floors, fancy tile, sexy light fixtures and nice furniture. Far beyond this surface beauty, our company has some great growth opportunity to increase the level of professionalism through it’s people and process.
I have always been acutely aware of the level of professionalism individuals exude. By no means is our company a slouch beyond just our surface appearan ...