When’s the last time you felt like a truly valued customer? When was the last time that a professional or brand you’ve worked did something that stood out and affirmed to you that they cared about you as a client, but more importantly you as a person? It doesn’t happen to me often.
I get the occasional holiday card that I open and it makes me think about the person who sent it, but I wouldn’t say that it makes me feel like they really care about me. I love getting old fashioned handwritten cards, but those are few and far between. With emails in general, it’s just too noisy out there. I have unsubscribed from almost all of the marketing emails because I just don’t have time to read them and many e-cards seem too mass-produced. There’s nothing about them that stands out to me, it’s all just more of the same.
I was taken back not too long ago by a friend of mine who’s a real estate agent. I gave her a referral several years ago. When the couple sold that house and moved, she sent me another gift to say thank you for the referral that she had already thanked me for years earlier. That act made me feel valued because it showed me she saw the long-term value in the act I did and not just a simple one-off transaction. Even though I haven’t sent her a new referral recently, she values our relationship enough to acknowledge it on an ongoing basis.
As the options for services become more uniform, I will always lean towards the person with whom I have a better relationship. I want to surround myself with professionals I enjoy working with and who I know value me not just as a client, but as a person.