“To forget a friend is sad. Not every one has had a friend. And if I forget him, I may become like the grown-ups who are no longer interested in anything but figures…“ The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Don’t be a grown-up and love only figures. Relationship building is essential in your personal and business affairs. Become acquainted in your customer’s personal attributes. Become their friend. Only then will you understand their needs.
Many Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems go to great lengths to capture everything you always wanted to know about a customer. They claim to provide a 360 degree view of a client.
Years ago I recall helping develop a system that provided detailed customer information to the customer service agent while the client was calling on the phone.
The system would “screen-pop” personal information from the client before the phone connection was complete. We software architects thought it was the greatest thing since sliced-bread. Unfortunately the customers thought it was creepy. They didn’t like a strange voice answering the phone and asking about their birthday plans next week.
The customer service agents had to be trained to pretend they didn’t know who was calling. The intent was to shorten phone-time and optimize the conversation. Instead, we estranged the customer.
More from The Little Prince:
If you were to say to the grown-ups: “I saw a beautiful house made of rosy brick, with geraniums in the windows and doves on the roof,” they would not be able to get an idea of that house at all. You have to say to them: “I saw a house that cost $200,000.” Then they would exclaim: “Oh, what a pretty house that is!”
