How well do your customers know YOU?

January 17, 2005 2:12 PM

Helping customers “get to know you” isn’t just about names, it’s about information. In other words, it’s about self-disclosure, which is the process of revealing your personal information to another.

This process starts with a small piece of information, i.e., your name. Then, as the relationship develops, it progresses into more intimate territory with the sharing of opinions, preferences and experiences. What’s more, because of its reciprocal nature, self-disclosure has incredible power. It creates comfort, establishes rapport, helps discover the CPI (Common Point of Interest) and builds trust between you and your customers.

Great examples:

I once worked at a mom-and-pop furniture store in Portland, Oregon called City Liquidators. Their walls donned family pictures, clippings from nostalgic newspaper articles about the owners and various personal memorabilia that brought the store to life! Customers LOVED coming to their store.

Ed, a Cornerstone Financial Consultant, spends a few hundred dollars a year buying copies of his favorite books for his customers. He tells them how the books improved his life in the hopes that his customers will reciprocate their similar experiences – which they do.

My friend Dennis is a doorman at the Ritz Carlton. When a family with young children pulls into the front drive, he never hesitates to share information about his own family. Sometimes he’ll even show guests a picture! But every time, he makes that instant connection.

Your ability to educate your customers not only about your products and services, but about yourself, is critical to your success. So, remember what my friend Jeffrey Gitomer says: it’s not what you know; it’s not WHO you know – it’s who knows YOU.

LET ME ASK YA THIS…

How do you help your customers get to know YOU?

* * * *
Scott Ginsberg
Author/Speaker/That guy with the nametag
www.hellomynameisscott.com

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