Customer Service Question: Do you speak with customers about your personal life?
Posted by: in Your BusinessMy final question for Customer Service Week: Do you talk with customers about your personal life?
In some professions, you’ve 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 speak 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 ideal service possible. Chatting about yourself not only reveals information that’s 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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