Employ your five senses

When you walk into a new place, be it a cafe, a store or an office - what's the first thing you notice?

Well a couple of things actually - what it "looks" like, but just as importantly what it "smells" like. Imagine going into a cafe for some lunch and you could smell rotten cabbage or old grease would you still want to eat there? or would you be wondering if the roaches and rats got there first?

How about the reception area of an office block. You've gone to drop in your resume, but the overwhelming impression you get is that the receptionist should use more deodorant and less cologne to mask the clinging odour of cigarettes and garlic.

Does your office look inviting? Even better, does it smell inviting? There are a couple of old tricks employed by people who "know" that smell can be just as important as the look. One is car sales - we all know that "new car smell"....did you know you can actually buy it from a store? Handy if you're trying to sell one yourself. But make sure it's clean as well. And a giant super market chain in England, re-routes the outlet pipes from the baking bread back into the shop so that people follow their noses to the goodies being created. Yes it's sneaky, but it works.

How about you? Do you "smell" nice as well as look good? You can wear the most expensive suit on the market, but if it's creased, with last nights dinner down the front and reaks of stale sweat and tobacco - it's hardly going to impress - except in a bad way.

As we are coming up to a weekend, today is a good day to begin to employ your senses when it comes to your work places. In fact - Monday is the best day as your nose has had a couple of days off. When you get back into the office on Monday, make a note of what you can smell....if it smells bad to you, imagine what it would smell like to a potential client or customer.

Employ all the senses, it can really be an eye-opener.


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"Good temper is one of the greatest preservers of the features"
William Hazlitt
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