• A personal touch in an impersonal world

“It’s ironic, but true, that in this age of electronic communications, personal interaction is becoming more important than ever.” – Regis McKenna

More and more, people are coming less into personal contact with each other. The more you can create a personal connection, the better. Even if you are dealing with a client remotely, its far better to be a voice on the phone to

someone who knows what you look like than a faceless voice on the phone.

 

Relationships that stand the test of time are built by people doing business with other people. Yes, you can buy something off a website and never talk to someone, but then you have no emotional reason to buy off that site again, there is no connection other than a completely transactional relationship which is easily disrupted by another website offering a better price.

A transactional relationship is where you give something to another person and in return they give you something back. In a one-off sales business, this may be appropriate, but as a Mortgage Broker you are trying to build a Trusted Advisor relationship with your client where you are providing them value throughout their lifetime of borrowing. In a later chapter I will discuss this concept in greater detail.

  • It shows you are standing by your business

It expresses integrity to have your face as the public image of your business. If your face and name are what your clients see and the public sees, then you have no choice but to provide a good service and look after your clients — your good name depends on it. Alternatively, if you plan to steal your client’s money and run off to Majorca in Spain, then keeping your name in the background of your business is probably a better option.

As I have said in previous chapters, presenting as an individual holds you personally accountable for your dealings with clients in a way that a company fayade cannot. We’ve all had experiences of problems with a large company where we have just wanted a single person to take ownership of the issue and fix it.

When dealing with a company, clients know that if there is a problem people within the company may pass the buck, they are not personally invested in finding a solution. In Psychology, the term is ‘diffusion of responsibility’. This is where people in a group situation are less likely to take ownership of what is going on because they can assume someone else will deal with it, often resulting in no-one taking action.