In my last post I was talking about the importance of developing social relationship with your customers. In this post I would like to elaborate on the concept of social relationship development.
Say for example, in a fine morning, you get a call from a bank representative! Do you really listen to what he or she is saying with your full attention! Perhaps you keep your lips tight not to divulge any sensitive personal information. You are busy in protecting you rather than concentrating on what he or she is telling. Even if you need that product, you focus to understand the authenticity of the person on the other end of the phone.
Does the same thing happen when a bank representative meets you in person! I don’t think so – the physical appearance of the salesman or salesgirl makes you somewhat assured. You feel more comfortable when he or she shows the identity card (it can be fake too but still it wins some trust). The end result is a better communication.
And once you buy something from that person, a social relationship is developed. If the service or the product is good, you do not have any problem in referring his or her name to another person. And if the product turns out to be of poor quality, you may do it more but in the negative sense.
Anyways, in mini websites, we try different things to win trust of the prospective customer. For example, we put our pictures and introduce us in the “about us” page and in the “contact us” page we provide our actual physical address. Some websites walk a few steps ahead and displays their office space (virtual tour via photographs or videos) with actual people. Some websites invite the customers to visit their office or workshop too.
All these things take the relationship beyond cyber space and breaks the primary communication barrier (when you had been busy understanding the authenticity of the caller from the bank). And now, if you can actually bring the customer in your workshop, this would take you a few steps ahead in relationship development. I have seen a lot of mini websites announce that they are participating in a specific event and take a proactive step to invite prospective and existing customers to their booth.
There you actually develop the social relationship even if the customer does not come to the booth. He or she is sure that you exist and you care.
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