In a busy world it’s easy to forget about the little things. I don’t mean the details of work, but the details of people. After all, regardless of the amount of automation our new world systems create it’s still about the people.
We work for people. We market for people. We sell for people. We plan for people. We must put people first.
Today email and text messages, Facebook messenger and other digital tools afford us mass communication interfaces but very little personal interaction. Time it seems, is always too short and often so are conversations. With these tools we’ve lost the niceties of more personal relationships.
I contest that regardless of your generation, or your communication style, we all have time to get a little more personal and build deeper relationships. Personal relationships also help us understand changes in that might create new dynamics in business. Is a personal problem or health issue causing issues that backburner your projects, is an internal political issue changing strategy. Personal conversations reveal these changes and allow you to offer support and counsel when appropriate.
Here’s a few of my top tips for building better relationships in a digital world.
- Pick up the phone no less than once a week and check in. This is not a planned conference call or business update. This is a “Hi, how are you doing, what’s up, what’s new” kind of conversation. New business ideas or opportunities are rarely first populated in email. They come from personal conversations.
- Get some personalized stationary and write some personal notes. The art of a well written thank you note or thinking of you card has power. This personal connection is a small and unexpected gift during anybody’s day. It’s not a bill, it’s not some piece of actionable correspondence or even junk mail that needs to be dealt with…it’s a personal sentiment from a friend or colleague.
- Provide recognition of life events. Birthday cards, gifts for new babies, flowers, wine or other goodies for milestones all say you were paying attention. Yes- paying attention. In a busy world we often forget to pay attention to the small things or we think if we click like on social media it’s meaningful and it’s enough. It’s not. It does not help you know that person better or build a deeper relationship. For example, we sent a baby gift to an avocado client to recognize the birth of his son. It was not just any onesie – it was avocado specific and the client loved it, sharing photos of his son in this onesie with lots of other industry friends.
- Do the unexpected. It’s easy to send gifts for Christmas but what about surprising a client for no reason at all. Sending cookies for a Monday or stopping in with ice cream on a Friday. These moments help solidify a personal relationship and build real camaraderie.
- Be authentic and share your own life. Understanding a client, vendor or colleague’s life is important, but it’s equally important that they have some insight into who you are as well. There’s no need to be unfiltered, but you also need to be unguarded sharing some personal insights into your life that help them know you better.
Personal one-on-one communication is critical to successful relationships and I encourage you to use every communication tool available, but don’t forget the most important one of all – you.
