Creating and maintaining the right personal image for you and your company

Funny how some stores think that by being snobby (meaning looking down on those who wear less than expensive brand names, or discriminating prospects who don't "fit" their ideal external image), they think they'd attract the richest and the best customers.

I sent a friend of mine, who travelled to Paris during the holidays, to get some cookies for me from a very, very famous French patisserie. This friend is from the average, middle class. She described the customer service as follows -

"The store was very small but neatly stacked with cookies and sweets. The server, however, looked rude and gay. When he heard me and my boyfriend ordering the cookies in Engish, he rolled his eyes. There was no smile, no thank you, nothing. We felt as if he didn't want to serve us."

Needless to say, "gay" is not the problem. The problem was the snobbiness, the lack of good manners. Each cookie worked out to be $2.00 CDN (maybe $1.70 or so USD). They were expensive cookies! As good as the products are, the image of the chef, even though he wasn't present at the time, and the store overall, scored 2 out of 5 in my mind. Only their cookies saved them, hence the score 2.

I'm not sure what the other customers think of the customer service. My point of view is that if I have to pay big bucks for something, they better treat me well! I'm not just paying for the product, I'm paying for the whole purchasing experience as well.

Since this is an image blog, how does this relate to image?

Image consists of the following: appearance (dressing and grooming), mannerisms (body language, voice), and words spoken. This store has a great outer image (chic store and great looking products). But it completely failed on mannerisms (customers service) and words (lack of thank you).

So, if you own a business, be sure that not only the company, the place, look good. The staff must carry themselves well in that they must look and sound good, in order to score high on image management. This is even more true if you offer high end products or services.

Nowadays, the class system is mostly passe. "Class" now refers to graciousness - the more gracious you are, the more comfortable people feel around you, the "classier" your image is. You know that if someone acts snobby, they are putting up an image to make themselves feel better than others out of competition and insecurity.

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