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View Full Version : Tired of the 'friendly' attitude?



flamontagne
09-01-2009, 09:42 AM
My associate recently posted something on hackernews that I thought was really funny (Hacker News | I thought I was the only one bored of those "friendly" company that use cool exp... (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=796398)).

Do you also think that this 'friendly attitude' is not appropriate for a business (small or not)? We tried going this route with our potential customers in the past because this was (and still is) the most common way of doing things in the web2.0 world. It didn't last long because we never felt comfortable with this and it felt so fake to us... so we swore to never try this ever again.

I'm interested to know what others think about the 'too friendly attitude'.

vangogh
09-01-2009, 11:37 AM
It depends what you mean by friendly. The post you linked to mentions a phrase like "we kick ass at what we're doing, woot!" which I wouldn't categorize as friendly, but rather an attempt to sound young and cutting edge. That kind of phrase just says to me the company lacks professionalism, though it has worked for some.

To me a friendly attitude is more about going beyond the typical client or customer relationship. It may be as simple as being polite when someone walks in your store or reach a point where you get to know who your clients are outside of their business. I think that kind of friendly can be a good thing for a small business. People like to do business with people they have some kind of relationship with. It's why networking is such a powerful way to build business.

So it depends on how you define friendly. The "kick ass" stuff I agree is not the best thing, but friendly by it's true definition absolutely can be a good thing.

flamontagne
09-01-2009, 12:05 PM
Hello vangogh,

I agree that being 'friendly' with your customers and the general public is without a doubt a good thing. In fact, a more accurate expression to describe what I am refering to is the "cool while trying to be funny attitude". I will prefer a less talkative company who will only tell what the customer wants to know : "Here is what we're doing. These are our pricing options. This is a FAQ if you need help. Here is our phone number and our email address if you want to contact us". However if I call often at the company and that I always speak with the same persons... then I will appreciate their sense of humor or the fact that they use a more personal approach with me.

Thanks for your response!

vangogh
09-01-2009, 12:17 PM
"cool while trying to be funny attitude

That's a good description. I know it's worked for some companies, but to me it just comes across as unprofessional. It really depends on who your market is. If your market is younger and the type to think those kind of things are indeed cool and funny then maybe it could work well enough. But even then you'd probably have to be careful. Cool has a funny way of becoming less than cool as maturity sets in.


However if I call often at the company and that I always speak with the same persons... then I will appreciate their sense of humor or the fact that they use a more personal approach with me.

Agree again. That to me is more what's meant by friendly. Harder (though not impossible) to do if you have a large number of customers as you probably won't be able to get to them so well, but with a handful of clients it's pretty easy and I think clients really appreciate that personal touch.

KristineS
09-01-2009, 01:23 PM
I think you have to be able to judge the proper tone for your audience. For some audiences the "we're too cool" attitude will work. For others it just comes off as fake and silly.

There is also a danger in being too friendly too soon. As you so rightly pointed out Francois, once you get to know someone and work with them for a while, humor and being silly becomes more acceptable. You have to take the time to establish a relationship before you can be a little less professional and a little more friendly.

I think where a lot of companies go wrong is trying to create an image that just doesn't suit the company. You have to know your audience and know your product. Many companies just try to jump on the latest trend, even if that trend doesn't suit their business at all. That can cause a lot of issues and give the company the exact opposite of the result for which they were working.

Harold Mansfield
09-01-2009, 01:24 PM
If you are in your own little world and don't need clients, or advertisers to survive, you can pretty much do what ever you want, and project any attitude that you think best speaks to your audience.

However, if you do want clients and customers, "cool" only goes so far and is only noticeable as such to a very narrow age group of people in the business world, generally consumers, not prospective business associates and clients.

There is a certain amount of common courtesy, respect, and tact that is expected from people who are spending money for your services, and if you don't project that, you will not be getting their money. It's not being "fake friendly" it's handling yourself with class and professionalism, and treating your potential clients as such,

"We kick ass" may work for a skateboard company when marketing to consumers, but it won't work when you are trying to get a nationwide chain to carry your product because 22 year olds don't run Walmart or Sport Authority. Even if your contact is in that age group, they will not take "we kick ass" to their boss who makes the decisions.

There is a fine line between attitude and "shaking things up" and professionalism. Contrary to popular belief , tech wiz's and internet giants may look like they skateboard around the office and wear cut offs when you see them on T.V (Entertainment) but i can almost guarantee you that they don't go into multi-million dollar business meetings with adults that way.
The only people that "seem" to get away with that are entertainers, and I am sure on more than one occasion we have all looked at some of them and wondered what world they think they are living in. Of course we don't see the team of lawyers, managers, and accountants that actually handle their business in a professional manner, we only see the image.

Even some of the most successful rappers and producers like Jay-z, Ice Cube, and Dr. Dre' know how to "clean up" and handle themselves when it comes to business.
Don't confuse image marketing with business and professionalism, they are rarely the same thing.

billbenson
09-01-2009, 06:01 PM
One of the basic rules of sales is make friends with your customer and they will buy from you all else being equal. I talked with a know it all lawyer on the phone one time. He was a real ass. I used his competition.

Know your market, act professional as eborg said and make friends out of your customers. Cool may work with some customers as was mentioned above, but...

Harold Mansfield
09-01-2009, 07:03 PM
One of the basic rules of sales is make friends with your customer and they will buy from you all else being equal. I talked with a know it all lawyer on the phone one time. He was a real ass. I used his competition.

Know your market, act professional as eborg said and make friends out of your customers. Cool may work with some customers as was mentioned above, but...

..and that's the possible trap. Your attitude may very well come off as self involved, arrogant, immature, and unprofessional to the right person at the wrong time, and you can't get that first impression back once people have made you out to be an idiot.

"Better to have people think of you as an idiot, than to open your mouth and remove all doubt"..I don't know who said it, but it applies.
You never know who is watching, or who you are dealing with and it can make or break you.

Dan Furman
09-02-2009, 09:54 AM
There's a definite middle ground here. There's no need to sound totally robotic / corporate, and there's no need to use "we kick ass, woot". You can be professional, and casual at the same time. In fact, I've called my writing style "professionally casual" for years.

flamontagne
09-02-2009, 11:26 AM
Thanks for these great insights everyone. Very helpful... keep them coming :)

Dan, I like your expression "professionally casual" to describe your attitude towards your clients. I think this is what we are aiming at in our company as well.

KristineS
09-02-2009, 01:28 PM
I think professionally casual is a great phrase. I like it.

I also think it helps to have some emotional intelligence ( I hate the term, but I'm not sure how else to describe it.) You have to be able to read your customer or potential business partner and understand what method of address and behavior will elicit the reaction you want. I'm not saying be something you aren't, but you can make small tweaks to your presentation and behavior based on how the customer or client reacts.

flamontagne
09-03-2009, 10:36 AM
Kristine, that's a pretty good point. As long as it doesn't look fake, making small adjustments to your behavior to fit with the behavior of your customer doesn't seem like a bad idea to me. While I think of it, I think I'm already doing this without even noticing it

KristineS
09-03-2009, 02:46 PM
As part of my job I oversee the CSRs for one of our companies. One of the things that I always tell them is to listen to tone of voice and how questions are answered. Do they get short, strictly to the point answers or is the customer willing to talk? Do they sound cheerful or annoyed? Based on the clues they're given, I tell the CSRs to respond accordingly. Taking an extra minute to try to determine mood does seem to help with the outcome.