Making the right impression is harder than it seems.

– Robert Kruger 17 August 2009

Looking for opportunities to make a positive impression takes effort. Don't sit back and wait for a chance encounter with the exceptional. Keep "positive" as a priority and go after it every time you recognize an opportunity. You should exert an equal amount of energy avoiding negative impressions. This can apply to all areas of your business from managing staff to how you present yourself on the internet.

Here's an example. There is one grocery store I like better than any other grocery store in town for one reason. Every employee, every time I shop, happily greets me and asks if there is anything they can do to help. And they mean it. One time, the produce guy called me when he got some rhubarb in stock. And that solution was his idea.

On a recent trip to this grocery store, a speeding car cut me off in the left turn lane to the store parking lot. As I parked, I saw the rude driver walking into the store. It was an employee. As I shopped, I noticed that she worked in the pharmacy. As much as I like this store, the first thought that popped into my head was, "I'll but my groceries here, but I won't use their pharmacy."

Your website can be a great place to make a positive impression, but if you're not careful, you can also send the wrong message. Here's an example. The owner of a company thinks they know more about their company than anyone else, which makes them the best person to be the copywriter for their website. However, they aren't trained as a writer, and they don't fully understanding style, voice, tense, punctuation, or technical rules. If the content is accurate, isn't that enough? Not for everyone.

The same can be said about design. As you surf the internet, you can see which companies understand the importance of conveying a positive image (and which don't). Try looking at design this way: why would anyone trust you to do good work (e.g., landscaping, auto body repair, home remodeling, commercial printing, and on and on) if all they know about you is that you can't tell when something looks bad. Here's another way of looking at it: if your business looks cut-rate, you will only attract cut-rate customers.

Something as important as a website is worth the investment to involve experienced professionals. You can't know all you need to know to do everything well, so don't go it alone. Let your agency help you find the positive opportunities.