💐 The Persuasive Power of the Personal Touch
In 2019, Yelp analyzed hundreds of thousands of restaurant reviews.
For every 5-star review that mentioned "great taste" or similar, THIRTEEN reviews mentioned "great service" or similar.
I derive two lessons from this.
1️⃣ Competency doesn't create
conversation
You typically anticipate the food will be good at a restaurant you selected.
The food matching that expectation isn't often a catalyst for writing a review.
But excellent service in a restaurant is the exception, not the rule. Thus, when it occurs it exceeds expectations, and indeed can become the kindling that creates a
word of mouth moment in the form of a review.
As I talk about in my keynote presentation about word of mouth, we discuss what is different and we ignore what is expected.
2️⃣ We are entering The Reality Revival
This new era will be dominated by automated digital interactions between people, and between people and companies.
In this AI-first existence, genuine human touches will STAND OUT even more than they have historically - because of their scarcity, and because of their emotional impact.
This is a huge opportunity for you.
You will embrace AI and automation. You won't have a choice, if you want to compete.
But, if you actually ADD EMPATHY alongside automation, you can outperform competitors who are simply trying to build the biggest mound of efficiency.
Mangoes Matter
I was reminded of the power of the personal touch, the empathetic gesture, the human connection when I recently interviewed S. N. Subrahmanyan, who leads a multi-billion dollar Indian industrial conglomerate.
He said that despite having massive corporate resources, sometimes the key to business is to meet customers face-to-face, share a nice meal, and actively listen to their needs.
He said his secret weapon is his delicious, rare mangoes which he brings to all key customer meetings.
Mangoes?
Billions of dollars.
More than 100,000
employees.
Massive technology and R&D budget.
And the key to making deals happen is.....mangoes.
In The Reality Revival, the impact of personal, human gestures will skyrocket as they become more scarce.
Get started now. Begin thinking about how you can ADD empathy alongside automation.
What's your version of mangoes?
