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