Good morning it's a happy Tuesday here in Houston Texas. A little bit gloomy this morning but I'll take it. It's not pouring down raining and it's not snowing and all is good. So I hope you're having a great day.

I want to talk to you today about humanizing your business and why this is so so important.

What do I mean by humanizing your business?

Well, what I'm talking about, is the fact that people do business with people. I have said this a number of times before but it bears repeating. People do business with people- not with companies.

Think about it. Think about the companies that you have done business with? Why are you doing business with them. Is it because of the company? Or, are you doing business with them because of somebody in that company? Whether it be the owner or marketer or a sales person somebody that you've formed a connection with has caused you to want to do business with this company. It could even have been a spokesperson for the company.

Here is an example:

I'll give you a for instance. I used to go to a dry cleaners that was close to my house but they weren't very friendly. I never seemed to make a connection with them. And one day I stopped at one that was a little bit out of the way.

And they were so nice and friendly.

So we kind of developed a relationship. If you can imagine that. Just from me dropping off my dry cleaning couple times a week. In fact these people were so nice and so customer service oriented that if I drove up and it was raining... they came to the car with an umbrella.

So I went out of my way to use this business. I had that connection with them. And all of you that I'm speaking to are in service related businesses.

You're there to serve people. You're there to help others.

And if you are giving great service that's the first step to humanizing your business. Good customer service. It's not something people get every day anymore. So when they get excellent service people are wowed. They really want to stick with you. And that's what we want.

Getting Those Long Term Clients

We want those clients that stick with us and give us referrals right? Because referrals are king! Most business owners that are successful that I talk to they tell me that the majority of their business is coming from referrals. Now some of those referrals happen directly. Some of them happen indirectly. They may happen because of your social media presence. And it is so much easier to recommend a company on Facebook, right? You can send a link to someones Facebook page to your friend. Click, click...that easy!

Is Your Connection Broken?

So you need to have a connection. But let's talk about how that connection sometimes gets broken. I'll give you another for instance. Yesterday I had somebody that reached out to me. They sent a message via my Web site my Find Houston Senior Care.com Web site. And it was a business owner that was interested in my services. I saw their Web site, of course I immediately went to the Web site to check them out and see who this person was because he didn't put his name on the form. He just put his business name and that's okay.

I Couldn't Find His Name Anywhere?

So I went to his Web site. Well lo and behold even in the About section I could not find out who the owner of this company was. I didn't see a picture of a team. I didn't know who worked there. I knew nothing about the people that actually work for this company.

It was a faceless company in my opinion that didn't sit too well.

I Like to Do Business With People.

Not with companies and I think most people are going to be that way. Then I went to their Facebook page thinking surely here. This is a social place. I'm going to find the name of this owner. Well I found a picture that I think was the owner or maybe the owner and his wife. I'm not really sure but I got the impression it was the owner but still no name! Nothing in the About section !! Nothing anywhere.! I couldn't find his name. I googled to try and find who was the owner of this company. Again it was a franchise. So I got all the franchise information and again I did not know who the owner of this company was.

So I Called Him Blind- And It Was Awkward

So I had to call him blind. I didn't know who to ask for because I didn't know his/her name so I called the company and I let them know that somebody had reached out to me but I didn't know who it was because I didn't have a name.

So that was kind of awkward. It was very awkward and I don't know that the owner really got that. That was a problem. But it is it's a huge problem.

People Do Business With You

Your business is an extension of you and people do business with you. Not your business. They do business with you and with your sales team not just your sales team. Everybody on your team is an extension of your business and how they show up on social media. How they show up on your Web site. Wherever you are, that's going to reflect on your business.

Have A Whole Team Presence

So it's really really important to make sure that you and your whole team have a presence. You need to have a presence and you need to have pictures of you and your team both on your Facebook page on your Web site. You need to make sure people know who you are.

People Like To Research Before They Call You

I'm not going to hire somebody to take care of my mom without knowing who they are. And I usually look, especially if it's a service business ,whether it's in the home care industry or the assisted living industry or maybe even another industry. I look. For that person. On social media.

Who Am I Going To Do Business With?

So I will google their name and see what comes out. I want to know who I'm doing business with. And I think the more we move into this next this next few years you're going to see more and more people doing that because there's just so much competition out there.

Competition is Thick

There's tons of competition out there. People have lots of choices. So who are they going to choose with I choose you. I hope so. I hope so because I know that you care and you want to be in business for a long time caring for people because that's what you do.

So make sure you personalize your business. Make sure you humanize it. We don't want to just deal with a bot. We don't want to just deal with a faceless Web site. We want to deal with people and we want to know a little bit about who they are. So tell us who you are. I would love to hear about it.

Join my Facebook Marketing Group for Senior Care Professionals.

This group that we're in is a great forum for telling us a little bit more about who you are and how you are humanizing your business. If you haven't joined, we would love to have you. Helping you to combine your passion for helping seniors with an online marketing process that really works.

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