People want to feel important either for who they are or at the very least something they have done.
If you ask me, personally, we live now in a day and age where everyone is a winner. Everyone gets a colorful ribbon for their participation. Making someone feel important if you are in the customer service or telecommunications industry can be more challenging than you think because we live in a society where it is seemingly conveyed in our social structure that everyone is special in some way.
While I sit here and type this, I can’t help but to allude to thoughts of watching Mr.Rogers on the television during my childhood. He puts it best with this quote:
“If you could only sense how important you are to the lives of those you meet; how important you can be to the people you may never even dream of. There is something of yourself that you leave at every meeting with another person.”
- Fred Rogers
This perfectly describes the approach that a Conversational Marketing™ Expert (CME) at Incept strives to take with each blood donor with whom we speak. By now you might know at Incept we specialize in having productive conversations that produce meaningful results for our clients. A big portion of those conversations occur while recruiting blood donors all across America.
When it comes to actually speaking with these donors, I firmly believe that providing excellent customer service is my number-one priority, as I am the human link between the blood center and their donor.
Remember the last time you helped someone? Remember how good you felt afterwards, or how important you felt your impact was that day on the person you helped? That is the feeling we want to try to convey to the donor.
Here are some techniques and things I personally do to make sure the blood donors I talk with feel a sense of importance:
- I openly start the call with a “thank you”. For me personally, I start off each recruitment call with a friendly hello and ask how the donor is doing. Before immediately jumping into a pitch, I pull open the donor’s history and see how many times they’ve donated, verbally thanking them for coming in as much as they have – even if it is only one time. This usually gives me almost complete control of the call and sets a very positive and friendly tone between the donor and myself.
- I verbally state why we need their blood type. I really love doing this because it educates a lot of donors I speak with and makes them specifically feel good about donating with their blood type. If a donor has donated previously, I can see their blood type and number of donations on their profile. If I’m speaking with an O+ donor, for example, I tell them the reason we could use their help so much is because O+ is the most common blood type in America and because so many people have it, it tends to be used more often. That is just one common example. The idea is not only to make them feel good about donating, but to make them feel specifically important for the type of donor they are.
- I thank the donor for more than just their blood donation. When people donate blood, you aren’t only giving up your bodily fluids, but you are also giving up some of your own time. I always try to convey that I appreciate the donor for more than their donation, but the fact they are willing to schedule on top of taking my phone call at that time. The ultimate goal is to create a solid appointment but also to constantly build a positive relationship with the donor.
At the end of the day, a little verbal praise and showing of appreciation can go a very long way towards making successful recruitment calls.
What are other ways that you can effectively convey importance when talking with a blood donor?