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Perception is reality

by Jerry Wilson

As a young man, when frequenting the barber shop, I always asked the barber to “thin it.” I had a full bushy head of curly-wavy hair that consistently required being thinned. I tell folks that God must have heard me and permanently thinned it as you can see by looking at the caricature that Randy drew of me at the beginning of the article.

Isaac, my 3 year old grandson, asked, “What happened to Gramps’ hair?” To which my son replied, “The wind blew it off.” We laughed at Matt’s humor. That became a running joke in the family for several months. When spring arrived, Karen and Matt put Isaac in the car seat one sunny day to run some errands. As they pulled out of the driveway and entered the road, Isaac started screaming and holding the top of his head. They pulled off of the road to discover that Isaac wasn’t hurt. He was afraid that his hair was going to blow off! Matt had to emphatically tell him he had only been joking and reassure him that he wasn’t in danger of losing his hair when the wind blew.

That situation reminded me of the statement “perception is reality.” Isaac adopted a belief based on his perception. The reality is that we do similar things in our interactions with others. We create perceptions of businesses and individuals that may or may not be accurate.

I’ve used an independent garage to maintain my cars for years. Carl and his younger nephew, Clark, each left a different brand of dealership and opened their own business. I had dealt with Carl for years since he specialized in BMWs, which I drove. Carl provided excellent customer service.

Clark, on the other hand, never interacted or spoke to me when I was in the shop. Based on my experience, I determined that I never wanted to employ him. He simply didn’t have good customer skills.

I was surprised when my wife utilized Clark and bragged on how hard he worked to please her. A few years later, I purchased a car in which Clark specialized. Edwina persuaded me to just try him one time. Reluctantly, I did and was shocked to discover that Clark was even better at customer service than Carl had been. My perception about him had been wrong. He was focused on his customers, not Carl’s, and was being efficient in the use of his time. He did fail to recognize that in the process, he created a perception in my mind of his customer skills. I assumed he treated everyone the way he had treated me. The perception I had prevented me from giving him an opportunity to service my vehicle.

The point is… to create ZING in your business – apply Sam Walton’s 10-foot rule. The 10-foot rule says to speak to everyone that gets within 10 feet of you. It creates a positive impression for you and your business.

Here’s another great example of a positive impression.

An air-conditioning unit in our building quit working. When the repair technician finished, he stopped by my office to show me the broken part and explain what he had done. It was the first time someone had taken time to make sure I understood what was done. He then asked, “Is there was anything else I can do?” I responded, “No.” He said, “Call if you have anything else. We appreciate your business.” That visit created a lasting positive impression. I’ve had a lot of different service people perform work, but most don’t stand out. The difference only took six minutes and an expression of genuine concern.

Typical service people make the repair they are assigned to do and leave. I assume that they are attempting to demonstrate the efficiency which all companies want. My experience made me realize that they leave the impression they create to chance. Often it creates the perception that we’re taken for granted, and they don’t care.

The point is … to create ZING in your business, take time to intentionally create the impression you want to leave.