Way back in the 1970s, I stood at a fork in the road: should I go to college, or begin trudging down the path to a lifetime career? I did neither. Instead, I spent the winter teaching skiing at a popular ski resort just to get the adventure out of my system.
As a full-time ski instructor, I taught two classes a day, each with twelve to fifteen students. That meant learning over a hundred new names a week… and remembering them. While other instructors caved into assigning deprecating monikers like, “Ms. Can’t Turn Left,” or “Mr. Sits Down When He Goes Too Fast,” I chose a more complimentary approach by learning my students’ names. As it turned out, it was one of the most effective marketing tools I practiced. When skiers returned to our ski school, who did they request? Why, the guy who remembered their name!
Regardless of what business you’re in, the key to impressing new clients and landing their return business is to remember their name. In his old (yet still applicable) article, Philip Guo reminds us that, “A person’s own name is the single most important word to him/her; it is intimately tied to his/her identity as an individual. How you deal with people’s names can have a profound effect on their impressions of you.”
Five years later, I guarantee the people who took ski lessons from me couldn’t remember the name of the hotel they stayed at, the names of the restaurants they ate in, but they remembered MY name. Why? Because I remembered theirs.
Here are eight incredibly simple, yet effective tips for remembering people’s names. Start using them today and watch your reputation and integrity grow:
1. DO remember someone’s name the FIRST time he/she tells it to you
2. DO make extra efforts to learn foreign-sounding or unconventional names
3. DON’T make any remarks about people’s unconventional names
4. DON’T call people by nicknames or alternative forms of their names if they haven’t first sanctioned it
5. DO use people’s names occasionally in conversation, and especially when saying hello and goodbye
6. DON’T ever call people by the wrong name
7. DON’T misspell someone’s name in writing
8. DO try to learn the names of important people surrounding your conversation partner
