Our relationships with our customers aren’t what they used to be. We used to run stores, and exchange real cash for goods and services. We knew our customers faces, their significant others, if they had kids, even what kind of pizza they liked. They became our friends.
I remember when my father ran a golf course pro-shop and I worked there for many years. Our customers came in through a door, often happy to be done with work so they could play this game of theirs, or sad because they just played this game of theirs. We served them coffee and hot dogs, and chatted about their lives. We knew who was retired. We knew who were the firefighters and let them play for free. Some of our customers even had our personal phone numbers so when the teenage version of me, slept too long past 4am to open the place, they knew who to call.
But today, most of us work with our customers simply and always over email. If we’re lucky we get an occasional phone call or short in-person meeting, but most of the time it’s quick, easily forgettable bursts of text. Our understanding of our customers’ emotions is replaced with the rare emoticon. What do they really care about? We have no idea.
We work on Highrise to try and capture just a little bit of what we lost from those relationships. We work on Highrise to create more meaningful interactions with those around us: with our customers, with our employees, even with our friends.
We work on Highrise to get back that feeling that someone just walked through our door.