By Missi Salzberg
March 3, 2014
It occurred again. every time it happens, I think, “I will never see one as bad as this again.” then I do. the time goes by, and it occurs again. Over the many years I have visited other grooming salons, daycare centers, and retail pet shops, I am frequently taken aback at that first impression—that first moment I step with the door. I composed about this many years ago, but so much has altered since then. I feel like I want to readdress this to the audience that perhaps had not been in expert pet care back then and hit the topic for those of us that just may requirement a reminder!
Here’s what happened. I walked into a consulting gig at a groomer’s shop. I opened the door, and the odor instantly triggered my fight or flight instinct. As I entered, I noticed indications everywhere. ALL DOGS must BE LEASHED! ALL AFTER-HOUR PICK-UPS will have A $25 SURCHARGE. $5 NUISANCE fee FOR UNCURBED DOGS. NO DOGS will BE accepted AFTER THEIR arranged APPOINTMENT. Wow. get me the heck out of here! No, but wait. She requested help, and boy, did she requirement some. The location was gloomy, even a bit dark. It didn’t look especially dirty or hairy, but I was believing that was because she was not especially busy. She was rather abrupt and started telling me all of the things she will not tolerate from her customers. Oh boy. Those seven seconds didn’t go well…
You have seven seconds to make a first impression! That’s it. In those seven seconds, the people that walk with your door will make a decision about who you are, and it’s somewhat indelible, like a bad mental tattoo. like when you didn’t want to see that person naked when you opened the wrong door, but—boom! There it is! Imprints on our visual mind. In expert pet care, it’s an imprint not only on the visual mind but also the olfactory sensibilities and the audible experience!
How does your area and personnel look?
How does your area smell?
What does it noise like?
In many expert business circles, they focus on things like preliminary handshakes, posture, personal appearance, and preliminary contact with the customer. While these things are all important, I find the seven seconds to make an perception on a customer unique to the grooming industry. perhaps your posture is a bit crooked after 25 years of bending over a table, and you are still grooming, and all of us understand the importance of the nylon, hair-resistant smock (ouch!). In my mind, the first seven seconds when you enter a business that is centered on animals and beauty are consumed by the following:
Second #1:
The customer opens the door, and the first thing they experience—even before they take in your shop visually—is exactly how your business smells. We are in the beauty industry, after all, and it is difficult to wrap your mind around providing a fantastic product (i.e. your grooming) in a area that smells bad. The fact is, however, that dogs smell. cleaning them gets smelly. A force dryer on a Bassett Hound that has problems can just about make me want to leave the building!
Maybe you don’t notice it because of olfactory fatigue. “Olfactory fatigue, also understood as odor tiredness or olfactory adaptation, is the temporary, typical inability to distinguish a specific odor after a prolonged exposure to that airborne compound” (definition taken from Wikipedia). For example, when I at first enter my salon in the morning, I am always hyper-sensitive to the odor of the store, but as the day progresses, my sense of odor kind of tunes it out. For your clients, every time they walk with the door, it’s like the first time they ever came in. Their sense of odor is sharp, and they’re leaving their pet to be pampered and beautified, so what do they want to smell?
As an exercise, travel with me tomorrow morning to the land of make believe, where your store is no longer your own. You are inspecting it out as a location to potentially leave your baby. open the door, take a whiff, and believe about what it states about that business. I do it every morning, and I adjust accordingly. We have pet odor candles burning and wonderful natural sprays to freshen up the room.
If your salon smells bad, you just lost round one.
Second #2:
As the customer begins to focus visually on their surroundings, the noise of your shop sneaks in and makes the next impression. Are the dogs absolutely wild and barking? Is there a surly groomer hurling expletives (fire them now)? This audible experience can be difficult in our business, especially if you do larger numbers of dogs at one time. We can have 40–50 dogs in the groom space and more next door in daycare. The noise can be truly alarming to somebody coming in for the first time. If I had my chance to redesign my store, I would make some changes, but for now, I handle the noise level the very best I can by doing the following:
Asking owners with truly vocal dogs to find in first thing and phone call them ASAP, onullnull
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