In today’s modern technological world, we place a huge emphasis on our devices: the iPad, smartphone, laptop, etc. How many times a day do we check Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and so on? Probably more than we think. And that’s okay! As marketers who utilize the inbound technique, we love that people do that!
We need them to do that. But there is a huge difference between automated responses and an actual human taking the time to write things out.
I’ve talked about delighting your customers before and I’m going to bring it up again. When you treat the customers AND the employees as human beings, you set yourself up for success. Sometimes we forget that we are dealing with people and people need human interaction. It is part of our basic nature to crave that human element. It is up to us as leaders to provide them with it.
I was listening to the Start With Why podcast and the hosts were talking about how some places rely too heavily on technology. They discussed an instance when one of them entered a restaurant but there was zero customer service. It was a seat yourself, order on an iPad, and then pay on the iPad kind of thing. The only time he actually interacted with an actual waiter was when they brought him his food. However, the waiter did not even talk to him. This is the perfect example of what not to do in business. Yes, it is cool to show how progressive we are with fancy technology, but you cannot just drop all forms of human interaction—no matter what field you are in. Like everything in life, you need to find the right balance in order for your business to thrive.
In the podcast, this quote really stuck with me: “It’s not about taking care about our customers, it’s about taking care of our people… Leadership is the choice to take care of our people… customers, colleagues and our families alike.” It is our job to make sure that everyone we interact with is left feeling delighted and satisfied. Personalizing your interactions usually does the trick. People trust other people. They don’t want to deal with automated phone services or copy and pasted robot emails. Press 1 for a clue—people hate having to deal with the automated systems. I once went through an entire eight-minute phone call without talking to an actual person at all. I had to jump through tons of hoops just to talk about my problem. I hung up feeling completely unsatisfied and frustrated.
Delighting your people starts with a personal touch. Personalize their experience by sending them the right information at the right time. Remember to fulfill your promises in a timely manor. People remember how you made them feel, not what you said to them. Make them feel important and cared for! I’m going to leave you with one last quote from the Start With Why podcast: “Anything worth pursing takes time.”
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