It’s all about connecting

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A couple of days ago, I wrote about a writer’s purpose and today I want to expand on that a little bit. But this doesn’t apply only to writing – it applies to business in all forms. No matter what business you’re in, customer service is one of the most important aspects of your company. And it should be a major part of your focus.

Because, in reality, it’s all about connecting.

Developing good relationships is the backbone of any business, whether online or off. As markets become unstable, buyers get more picky, prices go up, it’s going to become even more important to connect with clients and potential customers on a more personal level.

You’ve heard of social networking, right? If you’re online at all, you likely have. It seems that everywhere we turn, it’s all about social this, that or the other thing. We have websites to connect with each other such as myspace, linkedin, facebook and myriads more.

And their whole theme is all about connecting – new relationships, old relationships, changing relationships. Some are business, some more personal but they all share a common goal – to connect with others.

When I was training agents and investors in real estate, this is one of the key concepts I taught – that no matter else is going on, no matter any other circumstance, you must connect with people. It’s not about helping them or selling them something – those are secondary. If you can make that connection, you’re nearly there.

What does take to connect?

It starts with knowing what people want.

How do we know what people want? We listen, we ask questions, we dig a little deeper when necessary. We interact with them, show we care. We’re polite, yet assertive when need be. We leave the door open and allow interaction.

This is one of the things that make blogs so beneficial – it’s an open door that allows people to feel comfortable. It allows people to glimpse inside and get a feel for what’s going on before taking the proverbial plunge.

The whole goal of any business or relationship should be to connect. And then to keep that connection open and strong through communication, sharing and a sense of community.

What do you think makes customer service good? And what do you think customer service should be?

I’ll share some more thoughts on this later but I’d like to hear your thoughts to these 2 questions first. Please feel free to post in the comments. I love hearing from you!

In the arena,

Make $10k in a weekend – “Too good to be true.” That’s the first thing I said when
I heard of http://tinyurl.com/5lq2g4. You can’t REALLY make $10K in a weekend. But I quickly bit my tongue once I saw the content. . .

Annie Anderson is a freelance copywriter and graphic designer specializing in the small business and real estate markets. Her tagline “Making your business, my business” means that she’ll take the utmost care when creating words and images for your business – just as if it were her own.