Hats off to Harry's

When we wrote our best-selling, five-star rated book, Recommend This!, JT and I thought a lot about what it would take to establish trusted human relationships with people you've never met (and never will) using only online and digital communication. 

We're both big believers in Zig Ziglar's approach - sell yourself first, help first, build trust first. In fact, we wanted to title the book, 'Help First", but the book marketing folks thought otherwise.

At the time, we were enamored with Dollar Shave Club's online use of video, friendly quirky approach to build a tribe, and have some fun. We wrote a lot about DSC in chapter two.

Well now, DSC has some tough competition in the let us ship razor blades to your house business. Harry's is hitting it hard with promotion, tie in, and tribe-building.  
We can't tell for sure, but both JT and I are betting the folks at Harry's read Recommend This! because they are doing a bang-up job following the advice we gave in the book.

In our research, we discovered 9 characteristics that create or destroy human relationships - in person or online. One of these critical tenants is authenticity, which we wrote about in Chapter 12. Bottom line - you can't fake this stuff up - we can smell phonies a mile away.

A great example of digital authenticity arrived in my email this am. I recently won a Harry's razor for donating $25 to Movember. Katie at Harry's emailed me as a follow up.

Hi there, (OK, would have been better personalized, but we'll give her a pass)

My name is Katie and I’m a member of the Harry’s team. I just wanted to reach out and say thanks so much for supporting Harry's.You are important to us and I am here to personally help you however I can. Please don't hesitate to reach out with any thoughts or questions about our products (or shaving or life in general.)
Also, if you ever want more blades or other shaving supplies, I'd be more than happy to take care of that for you. You can just email me back or call me at (888) 212-6855 and I'll place your order for you. And, of course, you can also always order more on harrys.com.
Thanks again for your support and I hope to speak soon!All the best,KatieHARRYS.COMLike: Facebook / Follow: @harrys-------155 Avenue of the Americas New York, NY, 10013To opt out of further emails click here.

Nice right? 
I'm going to keep an eye on this one, but my instincts tell me that the folks at Harry's get it, and I'm rooting for them as they learn to build digital relationships one at a time to build their business.
If you want to learn more about how to build, manage, and measure the impact of online relationships, you owe to yourself to read Recommend This!  Get yourself a copy here.