Do you subscribe to my weekly email? If no, please do! If yes, you may have noticed I no longer address you by your personal name.
There is a reason. A client called me on it. (Thank you Ali!) He said, “I know that’s slipped in there to get my attention.”
That was a kind way of telling me, “I know it’s fake. A computer sent it.”
If this is our world …
… you need to be careful about fake-personalizing your customer interactions. (Seth Godin, one again, briefly summarizes this really well.)
Don’t make your one chance to connect just one more thing customers do to pass the time. Don’t make your one contribution to their day the fake feeling of productivity when they delete your fake email.
I know we are all short on labor.
I know in some cases there are just too many customers to respond to.
But the only way to make long-term customers is to give them an experience that actually touches them.
Suggested homework: Try an A-B experiment.
Respond to half of your customers, at random, with your templates.
With the other half, respond with three-sentence emails, written live by an actual employee: Answer their question; notice something about them (“your email address is GrandmaOf6 … will you be hauling your grandkids in this car you’re exploring?”); ask them for a next step.
Maybe I’m full of hot air. But customers smell it when you treat them like a cog in your system. Here’s what I’ve observed: If you can make a simple personal connection, you will blow some customers away.
I think it’s because so few take the time to do it.
Good luck.