An organisation wishes to be known as having a professional image. How will this affect customer perceptions?

Professional Image and affects on Customer perception:

It directly impacts the company because of the success image linked with good attitudes, work ethics, skills to deal with customers, knowledge of the company activities and events, position in the market for the company share and the way an employer and employee carries themselves on an everyday basis.

A positive professional image is essential to a successful career, no matter your age or field. Whether you are looking for a job, starting a new job, or a seasoned workplace veteran, it’s a good idea to learn (or review) the basics of creating a positive professional persona. A professional persona includes four elements:

• Attire and clothing: How you look.
• Body Language: How you hold and present yourself.
• Attitude and behaviour: How you think and act.
• Conversation and language: How you communicate and engage others.

Your professional image speaks volumes about you and will help you develop and establish a positive reputation. Here are some tips:

1. First impressions are critical. This is especially important for those entering the workforce, interviewing, or starting a new position. People form their first impressions in three seconds. In a flash, they are forming judgments about your competence, your personality, and your values. And once that impression is formed, it is very difficult to change. So be sure your first impression says what you want it to say—namely, that you belong.

1. Look the part. Dress for success by dressing like you belong at that company. Your professional attire should say, I belong here, not look at my cleavage. You want people to imagine you not just in the position you are in or interviewing for but running the show someday.

Of course, much depends on the profession and field. What is appropriate and professional for a television station may be different from an investment bank. So look around the organization. Who is really successful? How do they dress? What do their clothes say about them? Follow their lead. And remember: never out-status the person interviewing you or managing you. 

1. Act the part. You need to exhibit a positive, respectful attitude. You want to be confident but not cocky, polite but not obsequious, friendly but not annoying. Are you someone they will want to hire or work with? Can you fit in and get along? Are you a team player? Be authentic, polite, and positive. Be your best self.

1. Use positive body language. Your body language is a crucial element of your image. It has to inspire trust, because business is a financial venture, and approachability, because business is conducted through social networks. Creating a professional persona through body language means:

• Carrying yourself confidently.
• Making eye contact when speaking.
• Offering a firm handshake.
• Sitting and standing up straight.
• Using open body language—facing the person speaking, squaring your body directly toward others, without folded arms.
• Smiling and saying hello to people.
• Putting away the iPod. When you listen to your iPod, others may view this as disengagement, and that is not the message you want to send.

1. Make sure your e-life matches your professional image. Say you’ve created this terrific professional image at work but your on-line image is that of a weekend boozehound, or you are notorious for sending annoying chain e-mails. That’s a bad move professionally. Everything you post and send on-line—and everything posted about you by your friends—can and will be seen by your employers and colleagues.

Clean up your e-life. Do a search and take down anything that makes you look bad, and ask your friends to do the same. And make this a weekly thing—be proactive and regularly search for negative images and posts. Don’t let your on-line life sabotage your well-crafted professional image. Be as careful on-line as you are in the office.

Your professional image involves the way you dress, speak, interact with others, hold your body, and use electronic media. Knowing the importance of image and the way others see you is the best way to project the professional image that will help you be successful.

The representation that employees have to other people is their professional image. We can say that it is the image they project to people who they have contact with. This image is formed from countless variables such as: care for appearance, communication, etc. Each one of these variables contains any numbers of points to be controlled, if one wishes to have a positive image. Furthermore, the ethical behaviour has been having an increasingly higher weight in the formation of an employee’s professional image. Clients are now more attentive than ever to these issues, and they value ethical employees whose main goal at work is the well-being of the client. All the variables together with these information will form a reflection that is perceived by others. Thus, it is important to become aware of this and carefully manage the image each one puts in their reflection, since having a positive perception from clients and society is decisive for a company's professional success.

Everything depends of the culture and habits of the customers targets.

For some open minded it will be interesting and will mean that the organisation is at the same level of many international firms.For some traditional cultures, it may be an insult or to sell the traditions,For many cultures may mean a way to get to a new level of development.So, it will depend of the kind of customer you are trying to reach

The image a business projects helps build customer confidence. Some firms use uniforms to create the impression of professionalism. Others develop a corporate culture of service. Companies providing both a professional image and quality service attract and retain customers

The perception of customers might come from word of mouth and also by who is their first contact it is important to have great communication skills to win customers

Customers perceptions depends on those who are called front liners.