For those of you who have walk-in customers in your business, it’s important to ask yourself a simple question. What does the customer see? Do they see an employee sending a text? Do they see a neat work environment, or do they see stacks of papers in disarray? This especially applies to times when a first time customer enters your business. The first impression says a lot. At that moment, it defines your business to them. The safest approach is to error on the side of making the business as presentable as possible. Take pride in what you’ve built.
PS – This post was inspired by a first time visit to a coffee shop. I was the only customer at the time. My body was leaning against the front counter and the employee was standing about 4 feet from me on the other side of the front counter. He was typing a text, looking down at his phone. It seemed like an eternity before he looked up. I wasn’t upset or angry. I would have stood there for 5 minutes, just to see how long it would take, purely out of curiosity. All I could think was, “What if this was my business?”