Impressions, especially first impressions, count. Who you are, the way you speak, the way you dress, the way your work looks, how you manage your finances and cash flow, the environment where you work, where you meet your clients — it all matters. Every little detail sends a message and every detail helps someone make the decision to say “yes” or “no.”
I have assembled this list of the five places you should never meet with a client. All of these have been recommended as potential meeting sites by professional consultants.
1. Starbucks or any other Wi-Fi equipped coffee house
2. Barnes and Noble, Borders or any other high-end bookstore
3. Public Libraries
4. Hotel Lobbies
5. McDonald’s or any fast-food restaurant
Photo by Harbourlight.
Duane on February 13th, 2007 at 8:20 am
It’s worth noting that the original article does go into detail about why each place is a bad idea, in case anyone is curious. However, it does not ever give any alternate ideas for what would be a good place to meet with clients, so just how helpful is it? The author of the article runs a company specializing in providing short term office space, so I think it’s obvious how he’d prefer that you meet with your clients :).
Anita on February 14th, 2007 at 7:03 am
I’d think there’s a lot of places worse than those. A Chuck-E-Cheese’s, the mall food court, a parking garage, a strip club, etc. ;)
Terry on February 14th, 2007 at 7:38 am
I agree with Duane, the article is self-serving. I personally don’t know anyone who arranges meetings at a public library or McDonald’s and those seem like they were just made up to round out the list of 5 places.
As far as Starbucks goes, it is pretty common for people in all lines of work, from Real Estate to High Tech, to arrange meetings at a coffee shop. It’s a neutral place, with food and drink, and there’s no annoying waiters interrupting or pushing you out the door.
The negatives of meeting in a coffee shop is the total lack of privacy. I’m sure many of your readers have overheard conversations, as I have, that were meant to be private (and should have been) and don’t belong in a public cafe. Just like talking on a cell phone, for some reason people think it puts them in a cone of privacy and that nobody is listening in. They are! I’ve overheard people give complete credit card information loud enough for people around them to hear, and if I had been so inclined, I could have had this persons financial info in a heartbeat.
So, a better reason to keep a meeting out of these public places is just that - they are public - and you never know who will be listening or how they could use the information you just divulged.