What’s Happened to Our Relationships?
The other day, I witnessed something that made me realize just how much our society has changed since I was a child, and how little attention we pay to our everyday relationships.
I was out for a run in my neighborhood, and I saw an elderly woman approaching her mail carrier to give him something. Instead of a letter to deliver, she gave him a bag of home-baked cookies.
The look on his face went from confusion, to joy, to something like a new appreciation for humanity. That one little gesture made his day, or more likely his week, and changed his relationship with that woman forever.
You can bet that he’s going to take a little extra care with her packages, and go the extra mile for her. Not because he feels he owes her, but because he wants to be kind to her, as she was kind to him.
There was a time when such a gesture would have been appreciated, but not so out-of-the-ordinary that it sparked awe in the mail carrier’s eyes. People used to do things for each other, like share their cookies, or send over their kids to shovel snow from a neighbor’s sidewalk. Perhaps that’s still going on in some places, but I think it’s safe to say that those places are not representative of America today.
And that attitude seems to be reflected in far too many web sites as well. Site owners don’t pay much attention to users, and certainly don’t go out of their way to give their readers or customers something extra.
But what if you did? What if you could go the extra mile to make people feel good about coming to your site, or shopping at your store? It’s likely they would have that same feeling of wonder as the mail carrier, and the same feelings of loyalty as well.
So the next time you’re looking for a way to get an edge over your competition, think back to a simpler time. A small gesture of genuine respect can go a long way in changing people’s attitudes. By humanizing your site, you set yourself apart from the competition, and give yourself an edge that they can’t take away easily.