Customers are people too

Trudging through the data, adapting our web strategy, and creating split test options that call on our primal instincts; it's easy to loose track of the fact that customers and visitors are people too.

In high school, I felt like I was always getting pulled over by the cops and issued a ticket for one traffic violation or another.  My brother on the other hand, never got a ticket.  He didn't get pulled over less or drive better (I learned to drive from him).  He connected with the cops better.  Where he would always end up having a conversation with them, I was scared and short (but polite) with my answers.  

The difference between my brother and me is that I treated the cop as an authority figure giving me a ticket, he treated the cop as a person.  

We are all people.  We all have families and hobbies and aspirations.  If you forget that your visitors and customers are people, you will skip over the most important part of business and sales.  Our businesses are set up to strengthen a weak area for our customers.  Our sales help our customers fill a need.  We are in business for our customers, not to make sales.

Try it out.  The next time you are scared or don't know how to respond to someone, be it a sales negotiator, a traffic cop, or hostile customer, take a moment to remember that he/she is a person too (and first).  Your interactions will become more cordial and your results will be overwhelmingly more positive.