Sorting out the difference: Personalized versus personal

I recently had a coaching session with an entrepreneur who is a former chiropractor. He told me this story that provides a great illustration of the difference between personalized versus personal.

When he was a chiropractor, he was treating three children in the same family for a chronic pain problem. Over the course of months he got to know the family well and learned that the family loved to read. Every night the mother would read stories to her children.

He learned that there was a printing service where you could buy customized books that inserted the child’s name into the story. He thought this would be a meaningful gift for these children who had been his long-time patients, and of course the family was very touched by the gift.

“I’d say those books cost me about $50,” he said. “But the gesture moved the family in such an emotional way that it brought me many referred clients. They passed on the story of the books I bought for the family for many years. I didn’t buy the books to get more business, but it turned out to be a smart business move.”

Personalized versus personal

Many businesses claim that they get personal with their customers but what they really mean is their connections are “personalized” because the…