Take a number, press 1 for technical service, all of our service representatives are busy. Does this sound familiar? If your like me I've had to succumb to the inevitable world of technological advancement but somewhere along the way I (a person) have got lost in the shuffle. I (we) have an inert need to be special, important, noticed. We're all human beings, not machines. We're designed to experience life daily as a new, fresh and invigorating experience of interactivity, relationships, and comparisons and yes maybe even to just talk about the weather for a sentence or two. We're sharing life, together.

Having to deal with auto menus and robotic web sites to place an order or ask a question has become a matrix of sterile graphics and personless decision making. The need for speed in our ever changing, pick up the pace, get it done as fast as possible, society has left an empty vacuum in a lot of us. Yes, I do need the product or I do need the technical question answered but there's more to a day than just the product or the question. We all need the touch and feel and value added of interaction with people just like us. Something is amiss if we've lost the touch with others whether it's good, bad or even plain old everyday commonplace, we still need it.

Maybe I'm bragging a little but we really like to touch customers at our company. Yes we accept faxed, mailed and even orders submitted through our sterile web site but we jump at the chance to help our customers. They're not just an order number. They are a person, with real lives, issues and problems. Quite possibly, we can help them solve some of those problems but even if we can't, we want them to remember us. Cordial, honest, bend over backwards those are the characteristics that make partners out of customers.

How many times have you ordered something over the telephone and a week later haven't the foggiest who you spoke to. I'd bet you a dollar to a doughnut that if that order taker had invested in you as a partner, you would remember.

Developing customer partnerships is an investment. Touching people in a way that says 'We really care'. Investing in people never goes unnoticed. Sure the phone call takes a little longer, a couple of seconds, maybe. What is that worth to the person on the other end? Priceless, I bet.