Don’t Oversee Introverts
Since a few days, I am working as a freelance brand ambassador for Oculus Rift. What I do is I offer people the possibility to experience the world of virtual reality for the first time.
I realized that many people are very interested in VR and that a majority of people want to try it. There is only one problem: most of the time only extroverts are doing the demo. Oculus is already handling this issue accidentally in a great way: we are offering people the possibility to make an online appointment for a product demonstration.
I give approximately 80-90% of all product demos to extroverts. The remaining percentage is either actively addressed by me or a tiny percentage made an appointment online. While only a tiny minority of my customers are setting online appointments I still think that it is an important way to communicate with shy customers.
Offer shy customers a barrier-free way to communicate with you. What I mean with that is electronic communication or scheduling tools. I have the feeling that customers loose a tremendous amount of customers every day just because they don’t give introverts an easy communication tool.
Low-Barrier Communication Tools
I think that speaking with foreigners is a big barrier for many introverts. Some are afraid of calling strangers. Others are too nervous to confront somebody personally. The easiest was for them to communicate with the world are familiar electronic communication tools. Emails and messaging are probably the most common tools. It’s easier for introverts to type a message than to dial a number. Other tools are appointment or call scheduling tools. If you are offering product demonstrations make them available on an online scheduling platform where people can book appointments without calling. If your service requires a phone offer a call scheduling tool. I have the feeling that for some it is easier to accept a call than to dial a number. For salesmen, it sounds ridiculous because scheduling a call probably takes longer than to actually make the call. But if you are an extrovert change your point of view and think what an introvert might think.
My thoughts of the day are the following: offer your customers an easy and low-barrier way of communicating. I think that instant messaging by using the Facebook Messenger or WhatsApp is already very powerful. Think about scheduling tools or other tools which might help your shy customer overcome his initial shyness.
