Visualize this scenario: You publish a printed catalog. Someone asks you to send the catalog and, because of ZIP code demographics, you suspect the individual will be a logical customer. So out goes the catalog, in an envelope that includes a rubber-stamp message: “This is the catalog you requested.”
No. Don’t do that.
We’re in the 21st century and two rules militate against “This is the catalog you requested.”
The first rule is generic to the early years of this century. Informality is the rule, because informality is the key to rapport. Oh, exceptions exist, but not when you’re fulfilling a request for a catalog. So instead of “This is the catalog you requested,” it’s “This is the catalog you asked for.” (Yeah, I know it ends with a preposition. So does conversational speech.)
Now another trend: increasingly emphatic persuasion. We add that to the mix and replace “This is the catalog you asked for” with: “You asked for this.” The difference? “You asked for this” is a sure-fire guilt-generator, and guilt is one of the great motivators.
In today’s brutally competitive marketplace, successful customer relationship management walks the third rail. We don’t treat customers with arrogance and contempt
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