For a business to go from being barely profitable to highly successful, it has to do a number of things right. No business stumbles upon long term success. There is a lot of thought, planning, and effort that goes into the success of a business, and a big part of that needs to be focused on making a good impression on customers.

How do the most successful businesses make sure that they are impressing their customers? They do it from the very beginning and keep meeting customer needs all along the way. Here are a few ways that successful businesses impress their customers.

Keep the Business Pristine

Many businesses will settle for simply keeping their space relatively clean. That is all they aspire to, and they fail in this area that is so important for impressing customers. The more successful businesses know that it is important to not just clean up the workplace but to make it pristine.

That means they are aiming for a very high level of cleanliness, where dust is incredibly hard to find and pests are completely absent. Imagine what customers will think of a business when they come into the premises and see evidence of pests. What will they think if the floors are dirty and the air is unpleasant?

A pristine clean in Phoenix businesses is perfectly achievable, but it's going to take some effort and possibly require hiring professional cleaners. If it is necessary to have the business cleaned professionally on a regular basis in order to keep it looking spotlessly clean, then that's what a business will need to do in order to make a good impression on every customer.

The importance of cleanliness cannot be overstated. So many businesses lose customers simply because they didn't make cleanliness vital to their regular business operations. Many times, a business won't even know it's losing customers due to this issue, simply because the customer will see something that the business owner or employees do not.

Be Very Friendly

One of the top customer complaints for any business is that the service was poor. Even if a business has trouble meeting its customers’ expectations, simply having friendly employees can go a long way towards tiding things over. Customers want to feel like they are appreciated and valuable, and businesses can make them feel that way by being friendly and personable towards them.

In order to make a good impression in this area, business owners have to do more than simply work on themselves. They have to also make sure that their employees are trained to be friendly. Employees will need to be monitored to ensure that they're keeping up the standards of friendliness for the business. This means that the management team will have to be highly motivated to provoke friendliness in their employees.

It will be difficult when customer interaction goes bad or there is a problem for the employees to maintain friendliness. However, this is the most important time for them to be friendly, as it can help soothe the customer’s feelings and make them feel like the interaction is a good one despite the issues that were present.

You have to take a proactive stance in this area and look for ways to encourage friendliness in your employees. If you cannot be certain that your employees will be friendly even when no one is watching, you're going to have a problem in this particular area.

Cater to the Customer’s Needs

One important way to make a good impression is to be customer oriented and to consider the customer's needs. You may not have everything in stock that your customer wants when they come into your place of business, but you can make efforts to get that item for them as quickly as possible. Provide your customers with concrete information that is not simply pulled out of thin air in order to make them feel better and make the customer go away.

It is important to keep in mind that you and your employees need to be developing good relationships with your customers. Each customer interaction should not just be seen as a one-and-done encounter. Potentially, each person that walks into your business could become a lifelong customer. If you treat them that way, you're more likely to cater to their needs and try to meet their expectations.

When you are focused on the long term rather than the short term, you will look at more than just the bottom line and try to accommodate your customers as much as possible. This will take a lot of work, but this mindset is important if you're going to retain customers and continue to make a good impression with them even after the second and third visit.

Look Professional

Your customers will have a certain expectation about your business, even if they've never entered your place of business before. For instance, if you run a law firm, your customers will expect you to be dressed in business attire. They will anticipate formal business wear, and if you break that expectation and dress down, you may quickly lose your potential customers.

It is very important that you and all your employees dress the part to look professional and to meet customer expectations in your appearance. In some cases, that may mean matching uniforms, whereas in others, it should be formal business attire. In some instances, dressing up too much can be cause for a bad impression. It's going to depend on the kind of business you operate and the type of clientele you will tend to attract.

These are a few key areas in your business where you can make a great impression on your customers. If you're looking to retain customers and enjoy positive word of mouth, you need to focus on these areas. If there are one or two that need some improvement, you want to quickly get them up to mark.