In my last blog post I wrote about how were are living in a disruptive world. As things are changing and changing quickly. Technology has had a lot to do with disruption in every business market. Having more information, faster and easier enables our clients to be well informed, savvy consumers….and that is great!
There is more to it than that however, with more information often times comes more choices and studies indicate that more options often makes it hard for consumers to make a decision, which can lead to no action.
So the demand for professionals to be personally interactive with their clients to help clear up the information overload and be able to distill it into useful knowledge is becoming more and more important. However, when we focus on the task and not the people, being personally interactive in this faster than a speeding bullet society, small but important things may be overlooked.
The deepest need your business client has is the need to be important. Your ability to personally interact with excellence will elevate your value in the client’s eyes.
So how do we make them feel important?
Here are just a few quick thoughts on the subject:
- Use you client’s name (with title when appropriate)…often. The sweetest words to someone is their name. People like to hear their name and using their name gives them honor and importance.
- Communicate with a method that they prefer. Ask “How is the best way to communicate with you telephone, email, text, in person?” Realize your favored way may not be theirs. This could a generational difference or just a preference, but communicate using the method they prefer.
- Respond in a timely manner. Responding to people is important and even though we have all the technology in the world, people still do not return phone calls or emails at all or in timely manner. 24 hours for telephone and 48 hours for email is the generally accepted etiquette suggestion. Texts are acceptable, but considered to be less formal and for quick messages only in business.
- Listen. When you listen to someone you are pushing the pause button on your life and giving the person you are listening to importance. Listening is such an important skill and it is interesting that only two percent of people have had any training on this interpersonal skill.
- Show appreciation to your customer or client and thank them for their business. There are a wide variety of ways to show appreciation and thank someone in business from a simple thank you note to thoughtful verbal words or a number of small acts of kindness.
These are just a few quick suggestions on letting your clients know they are important to you. These often overlooked thoughts are part of the one percent you are doing better than anyone else that will set you apart from the many competitors in your industry.
These small things put together make up the excellence you deliver and can make you personally disruptive in a professional way.
