Forming an Impression of a Business - What's Involved?

How is an impression formed? 

The work of two marketing professors suggests that a customer’s impression is formed by a process that involves integrations, inferences, and attitudes (Schmitt & Simonson, 1997). Integrations involve taking the known information about a particular business or profession and creating a logical understanding of what it is and how it is to be engaged.  Information that is not known but is added by the customer’s previous experiences is called inference. As the customer fills in these blanks of factual information with his own understandings from earlier situations, it also fills in the impression. Attitudes then project a feeling or response that can be positive, negative or neutral.  The internal processing of these three parts forms the overall impression.

These three aspects of the process are difficult to delineate because they reference each other’s information.  When entering any place of business, an impression is formed. Earlier thoughts and experiences about this profession cannot be extracted from the mind.   A preconceived idea of what and how this business and its staff are to be experienced has already been formed in the client’s mind.  If the first impression matches or exceeds this, the client feels they have entered a professional environment and will likely transact business.  If not, it is possible that the client will not elect to do business.  

The client picks up non -verbal messages through the design of the office space. Many businesses are unaware of how important this area is to their image.  The business reception area introduces the business to the client – positively or negatively. 

Previous research results indicate that people may form quick impressions on limited information. This information may be too easily placed into categories which create stereotypes and form an impression about the qualities that a professor, a dentist, or a lawyer possesses.  This stereotype is then transferred to the place of business.  The combination of the stereotype and the environmental impression influences a person’s thinking about the person and place.

Think about what a client ‘expects and has experienced’ in your line of business.  Does your place of business meet or go beyond those integrations, inferences, and attitudes of your clients? 

(BTW -  the photo above is of a children's dental office.  Now there is a place to make SMILES happen!!)