It absolutely does.
I cannot express how important first impressions are, you literally have seven seconds to make it. Within that first seven seconds, the person who you're meeting in your practice will decide whether they are going to have a positive experience or negative one. And in that first seven seconds, we actually take in a lot of information. So, they are absolutely imperative to do your best to get right. First impressions count.
Firstly you need to know this - what is a good first impression?
Research suggests that there are 3 main factors people use to determine whether or not they like you and want to work with you: Warmth, Trustworthiness and Competency.
Warmth
Are you approachable, friendly and do you make the other person feel understood?
Trustworthiness*
Are you the right person to help them with their needs? Do you make them feel listened to?
* New research suggests that people respond more positively to someone who comes across as trustworthy rather than confident.
Competency
Will you follow through with what you say? Are your intentions sincere? Or are you just “going through the motions” to get their custom?
So, to make a good impression, you need to have these 3 aspects at the forefront of your mind, and let them be the driver of your patient interactions.
However, in order to make your first impression great, you can’t afford to let this flow over into your work life. (People are there to talk about themselves, not hear about you). So, the important take home message from this, is that part of being a healthcare professional, is to park your "junk" at the door. We don’t have the luxury of having a bad day, which I guess is a round about way of saying we need to have a poker face. This is true of both a client interaction and a business meeting or event. People don’t want to hear you ranting on about whatever problem you have – in fact, largely they don’t care. Put on your poker face, and forget everything else.
All that matters in the moment of meeting a new patient is that their first impression of you is a good one. Otherwise, your first impression is their last impression.
Can you change a first impression?
You can, but you’re really fighting an uphill battle to do so because first impressions tend to be made quickly and in a permanent manner. We can all recollect a time when we’ve met someone we immediately didn’t like – perhaps they were rude, abrupt, ignored you or made you feel small. For me, this makes me reluctant (putting it politely) to put any further effort into getting to know them. There are so many people out there to get to know, why would you bother to go back to someone you didn’t like? You certainly wouldn’t want to go back to them to ask for help with your health.
So, yes, a first impression can change – but it takes a lot of hard work to do this. And you might not get the chance. Not to mention, even one slip up thenceforth “betraying” a person’s trust and they’ll think – I knew that clinician rude / abrupt / incompetent.
Top Tip:
Think about things from the patient’s perspective – are you welcoming, friendly, smiley, humble, professional and sincere? Do you listen? And do you have the expertise to solve their problem (or at least try to!) If the answer is ‘yes’, then you shouldn’t need to worry about having to change your first impression.
Worry not allied health professionals! I’ve put together a list of 6 simple strategies you can use to simplify the process, and apply it to your patient interaction.
