Is it possible to be too friendly with customers?

Last year, I got an email from someone looking to do business with Buildicus. The person who wrote the email, someone I’d never met or spoken with before, closed with, “By the way, happy early birthday!”

My reaction upon reading this looked something like this:

[caption id=”attachment_4796” align=”aligncenter” width=”678”] via memekid.com[/caption]

Despite all my social media accounts being private, there are probably a thousand ways this person could have found out when my birthday is. But it still made me pause.

This was a stranger using semi-personal information to try to endear me to his business. And it freaked me out.

Familiarity is a Good Thing

Familiarity when talking to potential clients is a good thing. Really. It’s why companies address emails to you using “Dear [Your Name].”

Showing clients that you know a little about their work or their business needs shows that you’re attentive. It shows that you understand their problems, and can offer a solution.

The email I received last year started strongly by praising a recent post I’d written on the very public Buildicus blog. This praise said to me, “I am familiar with your work, I know what your company is about, and I feel I can bring something to it that you need.”

All good stuff.

It’s when the focus shifted from my business needs to my personal life that things got a bit sketchy for me. Instead of thinking, “How nice, this person is attentive and kind,” I started wondering how on earth they knew when my birthday is.

And that’s a problem.

But It Can Also Be Too Much of a Good Thing

It’s a fine line between being friendly and personable, and freaking out your customers.

If folks stop thinking about what you can do for them, and instead are wondering how you discovered certain information about them, you’ve crossed that line, and have probably lost their business.

It’s possible I over-reacted a bit about my birthday email. But that was the natural reaction I had.

If you don’t want your clients or customers to have the same reaction, really think about what personal information you include in your communications with them.

Being too friendly with customers could just cost you their business.