Whether meeting new people or communicating with potential new customers, first impressions are lasting impressions.

Make a bad first impression and you can lose a friend or a customer forever.  That’s the bad news.  The good news is there are several easy things to do to make the first contact positive.

1.Listing False Contact Information If you have an old phone number or address listed on your website, customers will become very frustrated when they are unable to contact your business. Also, it is just as important to make sure contact information is updated on online directories like Yelp, Google My Business, and Facebook. Customers won’t want to take the time to figure out which number is correct, they will simply find another business.

2. Outdated Hours of Business If you forget to update your business hours online and a potential customer visits the store just to find out that you are closed, you’ve lost that person’s trust. Most likely that person will go online to look for another business that can fulfill their needs, and there’s also a chance that they will leave a negative review online for others to read. Adding special holiday hours to your website and social media pages is also a good idea!

3. Ignoring Online Reviews Because 85% of people trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations, you could be losing customers if bad reviews go unaddressed. There’s no way to ensure that bad customer reviews don’t happen (you can’t please everyone all the time), but if someone does leave a negative comment, be sure to reach out to that person and try to remedy the situation.