What Do People See in You?
Your company’s image is a composite of all sorts of factors – your logo, website design, building exterior, service vehicles, tech uniforms, social media profiles, as well as online and offline advertising and even your call-taker’s phone personality.
Your image, therefore, is not actually “who you are.” It’s how people perceive who you are – based on the aforementioned factors and more. Building and maintaining your image requires connecting all of these factors into a complete picture.
If you expect to be seen as professional, reliable and service-focused but react with impatience when a hot customer calls for help, or show up in dirty uniforms, or cut people off in traffic in your service vehicle, or make jokes in poor taste on Facebook… your image will suffer.
And that’s not even getting to the real meat of what you do: delivering quality service, installing quality products, pricing at a solid value and standing behind your work.
Further, the marketing program that supports your image calls for consistency across media channels. Your logo, building signage, print ads, outdoor boards and digital ads, even your letterhead are part of this overall presentation. Being consistent will help customers recognize you in any channel.
Sometimes business owners who aren’t marketing savvy see “building an image” as an unnecessary expense. For example, a shortsighted contractor might ask, “Why spend money on vehicle wraps if it doesn’t help the truck drive better?”
Yet there is nothing more valuable to you than your image in your market. Your image is how you make a solid first impression with prospects, how you earn the sale, how you keep customers you’ve earned and how you build a strong team to serve these customers. Invest wisely in creating the image you want people to see.