If your reading this you probably have an infatuation with social media! Don't be ashamed, everyone's doing it. Don't kid yourself either, you are addicted and you can't stop at anytime! That's fine, social media is here and its here to stay. I currently have five apps running on my Android phone to help me keep up with Twitter, Facebook, Buzz, Linked In, and Blogger for both my personal and professional accounts. As a person in business today, if you are not up on utilizing these technologies to market and grow your business you are falling behind.
While social media has created a way for people to feel more connected to the world, and has allowed modern business people to reach new customers and markets, social media has disconnected us from being social people. That amazing run on sentence is not back talk and double speak but a comment on how we have changed doing business from something intimate to something almost voyeuristic.
Using social media we send broad messages to mass groups with everyone watching. As I have dealings, as a consumer, in the retail world we have lost the basics of human interaction. These things must be corrected to SAVE HUMANITY!
Whats my name? The the most part I am a creature of habit, and I frequent the same spots on a regular basis. What happened to ye olden days when you were recognized and were greeted by name? It is very important to differentiate yourself from the cold big box stores, endear yourself in the hearts of your customer. Being greeted by name shows the consumer that they are important to you and your business. This also serves a reminder that they have been to your store before, that they enjoyed the experience there, and that they like coming back
You never call! When is the last time you followed up with a customer? Not because they had a bad experience in your store, or a problem with something they bought, just because? Make the connection with your customer that they are more than a wallet carrier to you. I like to call a few customers each week to follow up on there last purchase and see how everything is working out, or if they brought in a water sample to see if the recommendations worked. The simple act of dialing the phone emphasizes to the customer that they are important to you and why they shop with you instead of the nameless faceless corporation. This is a good time for you to solicit information on there experience in your store and what can be done to improve it from the horses mouth.
How about them Panthers? Chat with your customer! Talk about almost anything (avoiding religion and politics always a good idea) with your customer. Get to know who they are, likes and dislikes and what common ground you share. Bantering with a customer works great at the water test station, kills the time while your testing and gives you both the opportunity to evolve your relation ship. Its important to approach banter like you would on a first date. This is the time you need to be using to get to know the other party with hopes of the relationship going further. Customers are more likely to do business and continue to do business with someone who they share common interests.
Look at me, look at me, look at me! So its the middle of the summer your Twitters tweeting, phones are ringing, emails beeping and you have a dozen customers waiting on you to finish up with the person your helping! IGNORE THEM ALL!!! Not rudely, let the customers who are waiting know that you'll be right with them, and let the voice mail handle the phones. Your only job at that moment is the customer in front of you. Too often we are running around handling the day to day operations of running a business, plus all the social media and everything else that comes are way that we get distracted from the only thing that matters... the customer. Not just any customer but the customer you are helping at that moment. Making them your focus will make sure that you can help them with 100% of your ability, that you do not miss a key piece of information they are telling you, and most importantly showing the customer that they are important to you. Everything else can wait, take time with this person, answer there questions completely and calmly, its what they deserve.
The begging of this blog was not to bash social media, but to keep it in its place. Social media is just a tool, a means to an end. Utilize those tools to get customers in your door. Once they are there remember that the “old school” traditional human interaction is what is going to keep the customer coming back to you time and time again.
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Comments
This topic should serve as a good reminder (especially to those of us who rely so heavily on, and have becomed spoiled by, social media) to keep that human interaction from becoming obsolete. Great article!