Customer Service Question: Do you talk with customers about your personal life?
My final question for Customer Service Week: Do you talk with customers about your personal life?
In some professions, you have little opportunity to talk to customers about yourself. You’re busy doing the work or sending off the product. But in many professions, you interact with customers, and there is plenty of time to talk about yourself. But should you?
Two schools of thought on this one:
School A: You should remain focused on the business, on the customer, giving the best service possible. Chatting about yourself not only reveals information that is personal and not appropriate, it also distracts from your main purpose of business.
School B: Providing some personal information works to your advantage, because the customer sees you as a “Real Person” rather than a business person. It feeds into the “know/like/trust” phenomenon: When people get to know and like you, they trust you. If you want to establish a long-term relationship with customers, you must give them information about you/your family/your hobbies, etc., so they get to know you, like you, and trust you.
OK, so what do you think? Vote on my POLL. Let me know.
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POSTED IN: Business Improvements, Customers, Marketing, Mindset
3 opinions for Customer Service Question: Do you talk with customers about your personal life?
Douglas Karr
Jun 27, 2008 at 11:40 am
So where’s the poll?
Suzanne Wells
Jun 27, 2008 at 12:09 pm
I like to be a real person in the eyes of my customers - not just some generic human sitting at a computer. I will share tidbits of my personal life with customers, only if they ask. I try to keep the answers as PC as possible, protect my privacy, yet appear as a real, down-to-earth person that my customers can relate to.
Jean
Jun 28, 2008 at 6:56 am
It’s down on the right - keep scrolling down. I’ll see if I can get it moved up.
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