‘High Tech’ still needs ‘High Touch’!

By Julie Cross

We live in a ‘High Tech’ world… no doubt about it and that is OK. Yes, we should embrace it, we should learn how to use it, we should celebrate it and we should be excited about how it can add value to the services that we give everyday.

BUT, we should always remember that we need some ‘High Touch’ with that! You see you can spend thousands of dollars upgrading your computer systems to assist you in serving your customers better, you can spend thousands of dollars on it, you can spend more money training your people how to use these great new high tech systems and you can excite them about how they are going to improve service in your organisation and make everything more efficient… But if when that customer walks in nobody looks up from that computer and smiles at them then what was it all for? You just missed out on connecting with the client, you just missed the ‘High Touch’ moment to impress, delight and win your client… no system required, just some genuine human touch.

You can spend thousands of dollars on all of those fancy pieces of equipment that you have to assist you in providing world-class treatments for your clients. They may be the best of the best and there may be nothing else like them in your area. BUT, unless you communicate all of that with me as your client, unless you dress up all that stuff that equipment does in language and a story that takes me on the journey of understanding what the benefit is to me, as your client, then it was all a big waste of money.

You can spend more money on fancy products that have the best ingredients with proven results, the most innovative, break through research, the most effective. BUT, unless you first connect with me and let me feel that you actually care about me, because I don’t care what you know until I know you care, and then unless you can take all the knowledge you have in your head about those products and present them to me in a way that I get why I should, use them and own them then they just look like really expensive products to me.

You can send your team to all kinds of product training events (and you should), for them to have their heads filled with all kinds of information about advanced ingredients and techniques, BUT unless we also inspire them to take that information, fold in their passion and purpose and delight and inspire the clients about the direct benefits for them then all of that high tech information is of no use and so often just stays in their heads.

You can employ the best business coach that helps you develop the best ‘Policy and Procedure’ manual ever! And you should. BUT, be careful that you don’t policy and procedure the personality out of your business. Your team still need to be able to ‘think’ and ‘feel’ beyond the policy and procedures.

Your team still need to know how to connect beyond our ‘policy’ to touch people’s hearts. I can’t tell you how often I have heard. And as leaders we need to know how to do the same to our team members. us to buy with her passionate knowledge about the menu… and when we finished she bought us our ‘High Tech’ computer generated bill. Now you may have noticed that computer generated dockets often have a ‘Thank you’ typed at the bottom… now do any of us look at that and feel our hearts touched but that thank you? No, I think not. However when Pamela flipped over that bill and wrote a personal message of thanks on the back… well that sure did touch our hearts and inspire a tip!

It is not rocket science, it doesn’t necessarily take any more time to do and is not hard to do, very simply it is about always adding more of ‘us’ into each interaction. Because you see, our winning service advantage looks at us in the mirror each morning, it is without a doubt … YOU!

As we negotiate business and service post Covid, there has never been a better opportunity to stand out from the crowd, and exceptional customer service will help us do that now more than ever. So, let us never forget, people buy from people, and people want somebody to solve their problems not something… in a ‘High Tech’ world it will be those staying in touch with ‘High Touch’ that will come out winners!

Julie Cross Inspirational Entertainer and Professional Speaker. Juliecross.com.au