In business it pays to be friendly. I’m talking about the kind of friendly that leads you to talk to a stranger at the grocery store will picking up milk, for example.
Being friendly in life has many benefits—as Rachel Bertsche mentions again and again over on her blog and in her book, MWF Seeking BFF—it decreases your stress levels, has been shown to boost your immune system and can even help you sleep.But it can do more than that too. Being friendly can help you find answers to your biggest questions.
I stopped at Hardee’s yesterday after my workout and when the drive thru girl handed me back my debit card she asked me about my bank. She wanted to know if I was happy with them. Now I have nothing to lose or gain by giving her my honest opinion, so I did. Her friendliness paid off in an objective point of view from one of the company’s current customers.
Being Friendly Can Benefit Your Business
And when it comes to your business, being friendly can be just as useful. It can help you gain new insight into your own business, or even that of your competition. It can earn you customers or referrals. After all, that’s the secret behind social media, right? Building relationships.
But often, even though we’ll invest time in our social profiles, we forget about what happens in real life. We neglect to treat make each person we meet face-to-face the way we might treat someone who we stumble across online. In New York—that PR Mecca—it’s relatively rare, for example, to hear someone just toss out a compliment on someone else’s outfit even though if they tweeted about their new haircut we wouldn’t hesitate to reply with a resounding, “So cute!”
A Real Life Example
I was reminded of this just yesterday. Prior to stopping at Hardee’s I stopped for gas. My car still has New York plates on it, even though I’m no longer living there. A stranger stepped up and asked me where in New York I was from. We chatted pleasantly for a few minutes about the area I used to live in and he shared that he had a family member who was also from the state. Personally, I would never think to strike up a conversation with someone just because I had a family member who was from their home state, but the guy is clearly better at being friendly than I am.
Before we parted ways he shared that he tiles showers. “Just in case you know anyone who needs on done,” he said, handing me his card. I couldn’t help but think how brilliant that was. I now have his contact info and, as it happens, someone I know is thinking about retiling a shower. I’ll be sure to pass it along.
That’s the power of being friendly.
Have you ever struck up a convo with a stranger over something trite? Found business in an unlikely way? Or maybe you’re just working to bring your social media networking into real life—tell me about it in the comments.
