Why have social networks proliferated, and what does that have to do with bankers, bicycles and your business?
Why is there a social network for everything? Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, Twitter, YouTube; and those are just the catch-all ones. If you like something more niche, like trying to outsmart a fish – there’s a social network for that too.
The fish bites, you reel it in, you hold it in your hands – and then, what do you do?
Take a photo, of course.
Forbes
Why? Why are these social networks everywhere?
Why do so many people use them?
What’s going on here?
It’s not rocket science; it’s because humans are tribal creatures and we want to feel part of a close human community; we crave real human connection.
And what does this have to do with bankers, bicycles and your business?
If we all crave real human connection so badly that our lack of it has sprung multi billion dollar connection networks businesses, what do you think happens to your business when you and the people you employ give your customers some real human connection?
Not a well staged photo of a social network for digital thumbs – actual human connection.
What happens when the bank teller knows that their actual job is to have a human interaction, and that stamping the form and clicking the buttons are just props on the ride that delivers that interaction?
What happens is that you give people a hit of one of the most powerful drugs our culture craves at the moment – real human connection. And when you do that, when interacting with your people becomes a desirable experience, not only will the customers come back, they’ll tell their friends.
And when they have to choose between the loan they can get from any bank, and the bicycle they can buy from any bike shop, and the thing you sell that the guy down the road sells too, they’ll come and buy it from you instead.
We’re in an experience economy now, and human connection is a very powerful, positive experience. Almost all businesses mistake this as a sub category under customer service and thus think of it as an adjunct to the the thing they actually sell. You can get a big competitive advantage by elevating the importance you place on human interaction as a part of the experience you’re inevitably actually selling.