Meeting Your People ;)

I've been watching programmes about the Queen for her Diamond Jubilee, one of the things I've often noticed is that she always looks pleased meeting people and more so meeting members of the public than fellow dignitaries.

I just love this picture I found, via http://www.koconnellfish.com/news.

I've mentioned before that my parents were shopkeepers, whilst my mum was perfectly friendly my dad enjoyed nothing more than chatting with customers, he was friendly, nosy and cheeky all at once. He had an amazing ability to say things that would sound rude from anyone else and get a laugh. I still occasionally try it and usually end up with a dirty look! He also remembered names and if he didn't know them he'd make one up, again no one was ever bothered. My dad spent his first 8 years in the East End of London and then in Manchester and was always around market traders from being a small boy. When I say market traders, I mean the fun type that you rarely see nowadays, when I occasionally visit markets I often want to tell some of the sellers to smile a bit, they do seem lifeless places. Anyway I'd guess my dad's bonhomie (he wouldn't have known what that meant!) came from the markets and from a couple of his uncles, who were the funnest and warm people you could ever meet. Hopefully some of it rubbed off.

A lot of my trading has been online or when I had some interaction with the public I was in a role that kept me at a distance a lot of the time. There doesn't seem to be many environments now where there is a personal touch. In the massive supermarkets you will rarely see the same person checking you out, banks rarely have one manager you will see, if they ever allow you to see them, even most of our postmen (they are all men too) are lacking in any kind of interpersonal skills. The sad thing is a lot will have been trained in customer relations.

As I started writing these blogs to coincide with an attempt to add something personal to our Facebook page, I realised that this is interaction. It may be different and most of my customers are sadly nothing more than a name and address, but I can interact more if I like and if others like.

So I'll add a joke or two to the page, will gladly chat about anything you like and add a bit of fun to the proceedings, and if I try to be rude like my dad was I can just add a winky face ;) and get away with it!