| Take a number, press 1 for technical service, all of our | | | | commonplace, we still need it. |
| service representatives are busy. Does this sound | | | | Maybe I'm bragging a little but we really like to touch |
| familiar? If your like me I've had to succumb to the | | | | customers at our company. Yes we accept faxed, |
| inevitable world of technological advancement but | | | | mailed and even orders submitted through our sterile |
| somewhere along the way I (a person) have got lost | | | | web site but we jump at the chance to help our |
| in the shuffle. I (we) have an inert need to be special, | | | | customers. They're not just an order number. They are |
| important, noticed. We're all human beings, not | | | | a person, with real lives, issues and problems. Quite |
| machines. We're designed to experience life daily as a | | | | possibly, we can help them solve some of those |
| new, fresh and invigorating experience of interactivity, | | | | problems but even if we can't, we want them to |
| relationships, and comparisons and yes maybe even to | | | | remember us. Cordial, honest, bend over backwards |
| just talk about the weather for a sentence or two. | | | | those are the characteristics that make partners out |
| We're sharing life, together. | | | | of customers. |
| Having to deal with auto menus and robotic web sites | | | | How many times have you ordered something over |
| to place an order or ask a question has become a | | | | the telephone and a week later haven't the foggiest |
| matrix of sterile graphics and personless decision | | | | who you spoke to. I'd bet you a dollar to a doughnut |
| making. The need for speed in our ever changing, pick | | | | that if that order taker had invested in you as a |
| up the pace, get it done as fast as possible, society | | | | partner, you would remember. |
| has left an empty vacuum in a lot of us. Yes, I do need | | | | Developing customer partnerships is an investment. |
| the product or I do need the technical question | | | | Touching people in a way that says 'We really care'. |
| answered but there's more to a day than just the | | | | Investing in people never goes unnoticed. Sure the |
| product or the question. We all need the touch and feel | | | | phone call takes a little longer, a couple of seconds, |
| and value added of interaction with people just like us. | | | | maybe. What is that worth to the person on the other |
| Something is amiss if we've lost the touch with others | | | | end? Priceless, I bet. |
| whether it's good, bad or even plain old everyday | | | | |