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JJ Ramberg

JJ Ramberg is the anchor of “Your Business,” MSNBC’s weekly show on small business. In addition to her extensive television reporting experience, Ramberg has a background as an entrepreneur and co-founded GoodSearch.com. She has an MBA from Stanford Business School.



Don’t forget to remember your customers

Posted: Thursday, June 04, 2009 3:29 PM by JJ Ramberg
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I'm terrible at remembering names.

I was never great. After having my children, my pregnancy brain did not completely go away (for those of you who have never been pregnant, when you are, your memory is shot!).

So I've gotten used to writing a person's name down after meeting them.

My best friend, on the other hand, has the memory of an elephant. We've run into people who she played volleyball against once when we were 12 and she remembers exactly who they are.

I've always been terribly jealous of this skill, so when I came across an article written by Ron White, the 2009 USA Memory Champion, I didn't skip a beat before inviting him on our show.

(By the way, if you're wondering what he had to do to become the USA Memory Champion, bear in mind that he memorized the order of a deck of cards in less than 1 minute and 30 seconds and then organized a second set in the same order -- amazing!).

We just taped the show, and Ron gave me a test. I won't give away whether I passed or not, but I will tell you what he told me -- that anyone can learn to have a good memory. It's just a matter of practice.

Why is this important in business? Well, if you don't know the answer to that question then you have to work on your customer service skills. So much about keeping your customers is making them feel important. There's nothing worse than someone who you've met before giving you a big smile and saying, "Hey, you!"

So, don't forget to tune in to the show this Sunday morning at 7:30 a.m. ET on MSNBC (or you can watch the show on our Web site after Sunday).

Ron's tips are easy, and they could save you and your business some embarrassing moments.

 

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Comments

Now you've got me really intrigued.  I, too, have a terrible time remembering people's names which happened when I was pregnant with my first child.  People told me my memory would improve after she was born.  Well, that was 23 years ago and there has been no improvement!  I will definitely tune into the show.

Maureen O'Boyle, Milwaukee, Wisconsin (Sent Thursday, June 04, 2009 5:53 PM)

I've got to see this!  I used to have a photo graphic memory even after having kids however when I started having thyroid problems I began losing chunks of memory.  For the last five years, I have been trying to improve my memory retention skills. It has been a slow process so I'm definitely going to watch this program.  

Deanna Gonzalez, Moorpark, California (Sent Friday, June 05, 2009 3:57 PM)



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