November 13, 2005

In my last article I wrote about marketing your business.  This month I would like to focus in on establishing positive relationships with your current clients, customers, and others.

I am currently working with a client who is embarking on a quest to transform his industry.  The traditional approach to his market is to control the customer and limit their options.  His unique approach stems from the belief that people will pay a premium to be treated with respect and trust, offered a diverse set of services, and to belong to a community instead of just a patron of a service.  Included in their Core Values are the statements:  Relationships are our Highest Priority, We Communicate Openly and Honestly with Compassion, and We Maintain an Equal amount of Humility and Ambition (Humbition).

Humbition refers to an individual’s ability to suppress his or her ego in order to make the client feel comfortable.  This enables the employee to create a bond with the client as well as build a trusting relationship.  When there is mutual trust between client and service provider, conflicts, which are inevitable are solved through compromise versus ultimatum.  Both individuals feel the other is their peer.  Both parties are more likely to take the other’s word as truth and forgive, rather than embellish the other’s flaws.

Changing an existing business culture is tough enough, but imagine trying to revamp it completely.  Sometimes it’s best to start fresh with a new group of employees.  A former employer of mine did just this when opening a new call center.  This allowed the employer to select those employees who were most likely to buy-in to the new culture from the very beginning.  But whether or not you decide to keep the existing staff or recruit new staff members, it’s important to ask the right questions during the interview process that will allow you determine the competency level and service orientation of each employee.

It’s also important to reinforce the new culture each hour of every day.  Start out with a comprehensive orientation that proves ample opportunity for the staff to hear the mission and vision from the leader of the company.  They should also be allowed to work through what the new culture feels like while actually doing their job; “to walk the talk.”  And finally, they should be able to test strategies and behaviors.  Remember practice makes perfect and as the organization’s leader, you need to think about how you’ll handle bumps in the road on the way to a new business culture, especially when people relating to people is involved.