The image your business projects to potential customers makes a very important first impression. When a customer is seeking out the goods and services that your business provides they form an opinion based on the image of your business.

Consistency in the look and feel in the way you communicate with your customers is a key element in making your business look professional – and it won’t cost you a cent.

  1. Don’t take creative license with your logo. Don’t stretch it out, change the colour or have different variants. I once worked for a company who had done this; to the extent they had a logo on each side of the business card, which were slightly different in look and colour. And each person in the company had a different business card layout and different use of the logo. Imagine a customer meeting with 2 different members of this organisation. Their impression of them would be if you can’t get your business cards to look the same how can I be sure that the products you are going to supply me are all going to be the same.
  2. Go easy on the use of colours, or your look may look like a rainbow caught in a blender. Your business should have one or two core primary colours. Use these consistently across all of your customer touch points. Use the same colour for your work shirts, packaging, website. Heck, you can’t even look at the colour red without instantly thinking of CocaCola. Find your colour and make it your Coke red.
  3. Pick a font and stick to it. It’s only a little thing. But different fonts send a different message. And if you are using one font for your accounts team. And then another font for your quotes. And a different one again for your website. You can start to look a little bit messy. Get your team on board and have them all use the same font in their e-mails
  4. On the subject of e-mail, a uniform signature used by the whole business creates consistency and a professional look. I worked in a business where the customer service manager insisted on signing off with a smiley-faced flower and “have a nice day” in a bold blue script font. The rest of the business had a company logo and statement at the bottom. Her personal touch to her e-mails, and hence the way she communicated with customers impacted the whole image of the business.

 

Talk to your team so they understand the importance of a unified look and get them to help you implement it. Things such as using the same font and signature sign off in e-mails are small things you can do that have a big impact on the professional image of your business. You’ll be surprised at the impact these small changes has on your staff as well.

 

Consistency implies professionalism. Try it with your business and see the results.

 

Natasha Buttler.