Busy.

Yesterday someone in my professional network, whom I may see once a year, ordered 20 booklets from me. In my emailed thank-you for her order, I said I hoped she and her young daughter were having a beautiful summer. I used her daughter's name.

 

She wrote back, "Thanks! I am so impressed you remembered my daughter's name :-)."

 

Confession: I did not remember her daughter's name. I had recorded it, along with her date of birth, in the notes in my Outlook contacts.

 

Having recorded it rather than remembering it doesn't make the gesture any less meaningful. After all, I want to remember her daughter. I want to have warm relationships with customers and others in my professional network.

 

It's an easy win--keeping track of the personal milestones in people's lives and mentioning them in the natural flow of business communication. It just takes the discipline of recording those events when they happen.