I didn’t really get a chance to mention it here, but recently I read “Thank You Economy” by Gary Vaynerchuk. Quick note – the book is fantastic, is an easy read, and the principles are great for anyone who will be selling anything or running a business into the future (this includes you, church people!).
If I can sum up the basic premise, it’s this: Years ago, you needed to have great relationships with your customers. If you were the butcher, you screwed something up, didn’t make amends, you lost the business. It was almost impossible to get back. If you were extra nice to people and built the relationship over time, people could and would stay loyal. Then came the big corporate, Wal-Mart type stores. They were big enough to not have to be nice to people, they had a huge client base, and cheap prices. Customer service began to matter little. Then came this thing called the internet that leveled the playing field. It was basically one-way. We now have 2-way conversations on the internet (commonly called Social Media. Gary hates that and calls it Web 2.0). Now, personal is beginning to matter again. If you want to relate, you’ve got to get on these platforms and actually connect with people. The “Thank You Economy” comes from the fact that now, once again, “nice matters.” If you’re not catching this, people will easily take another option, and they have plenty to choose from.
Gary says all this much better than I do. That’s why I write a small blog for free and he gets tons of money to write books. It’s definitely worth picking up. Do yourself the favor and spend the $10-$15. I’ll even loan you a copy if you want. There’s a lot to learn about how we do business and interact with people.
If you’ve read it, please let me know what you think!
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