7 minute read
See and Be Seen: The Key to Lasting Customer Relationships
By Bob Ferrari, Director of Education, National Chimney Sweep Guild
Many of you know that, generally speaking, I’m not much of an animal lover. I’ve had plenty of pets over the years, and I’m not afraid of them—I just don’t enjoy the care and cleanup that comes with them... not to mention the occasional wet, sloppy “kiss” from a dog while I’m trying to work on a pellet stove.
Dog-loving customers noticed this about me when they answered the door. Before I even came into the home, they would say, “Oh, you don’t like dogs. I’ll put them out back.” Essentially they were saying, “You hate my babies.” That was not my intention. Instead, I began taking pictures of their dog right at the door. Later, I’d send a card to the dog with its photo, thanking them for the warm greeting and asking them to “take care of that nice person who feeds you.” For bigger jobs, I would also include treats. Sometimes, the following year if Fido had passed away, I sent the customer a card from their dog in heaven, thanking them for the shared life. Nothing changed, but everything changed.
People started saying, “Oh, you love dogs!” right at the door! The whole vibe shifted.
All I was doing was acknowledging what the customer valued. The unexpected benefit? These dog owners chatted with other dog owners – at the park, during walks. Instead of saying, “That guy installed my chimney cap,” they’d say, “That guy sent my dog a card!” They called us back the next year, and so did their friends. Trust grew, making it easier to sell needed repairs – all by simply saying, “I see you.”
Measuring Value
I took a group of university students on a leadership training class in the wilderness. Before they were allowed to participate, they had to write down the outcome of their relationship with the other participants in the group ahead of time. This gave a baseline by which to measure the efficacy of their stated intent.
The most common response was, “I’m going to love everyone.” The follow-up question to that was, “How will anyone know they are being loved by you?” In the end, they had to come up with actions measurable by the others: “I will give two foot massages for 15 minutes each night.” “I will carry extra weight for those who are lagging behind.” “I will praise each person every day for the beauty I see in them.” And so forth.
We measure success in business with numbers – gross revenue, units sold, hours filled, profit columns, marketing conversions, positive reviews. It’s all about us
Why don’t we measure our value by the depth of the joy we created in the families we serve? Why not measure by the gifts we’ve given to others? Or by the power of the words of encouragement that someone needed in a difficult moment? These are harder to quantify, yet these are the actions that make the biggest difference.
I’d always felt like I was a good communicator. People, in general, liked me – why wouldn’t they want to do business with me? I figured I was at about 70% repeat business. I hired a company who went back in my accounts six years and measured my repeat business. It was absolutely shocking to see the result at 14%, which they said was twice the chimney industry average!
That means 3,000 invoices per year at 14% is 420 repeat customers. This number felt larger than it was because of the warmth in our friendships and the fact that I was usually the one going to their home. But the hard cold facts were that I had to buy 86% of my business each year with marketing dollars. Worse still, it showed that few of my customers were loyal enough to care if it was us who came back next year.
Measuring success can be scary, but it’s necessary.
Showing Customer Appreciation
One of the ways we articulated our values in my business was by giving an “Ounce of Joy” 52 times each year.
We sent a bit of our weekly income – $50-70 – to someone who had done business with us that week via a random drawing. We sent cash – no marketing write-off. It was “to provide a tiny piece of joy, whatever that looks like to you: a date night, a red purse, a block party, a partial day off work to spend with kids, to pay a bill, etc.”
Zulu is a nation of Nguni-speaking people in KwaZulu-Natal province, South Africa. The primary Zulu greeting means, “I see you.” It conveys the importance of recognizing a person’s worth and dignity. It is interpreted as, “I see the whole of you, including your experiences, passions, pain, strengths, weaknesses, and future. You are valuable to me.”
If you’ve ever had someone love you – and I’m sure that all of you have – then I bet you also felt them notice you. They pay attention to who you are; they know what you value; you feel important in their presence. When I took a few seconds out of my day to notice my customers’ dogs, it was like I was saying, “I see you.”
Happy Employees = Happy Customers
You might be thinking, “That sounds great when I’m in the field, but how do I ensure my employees are trained to recognize client values and show genuine care?”
There is a lot of training available regarding personality types, mirroring, and relational sales skills. Ideally, you’re already providing these resources to your team. But if you want these lessons to truly resonate, you need to model them yourself. Do you notice the invisible weight pressing down their shoulders when they arrive on Monday morning? What depth of tiredness is etched on their face by Friday? Will the weekend be a refuge full of fun recreation or just another battle to wear them down?
Do you know their love language? In the 1992 book The Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman, he talks about the primary ways each of us prefer to be noticed:
Affirmations
Quality Time
Acts of Service
Gifts
Physical Touch
In analyzing the results of 10,000 people who took his online quiz in 2010, Words of Affirmation led by a small margin, followed by Quality Time. However, these are nuanced – conditional by gender, culture, and customs. For example, in some cultures, direct praise is very uncomfortable and not well received. Instead, praising that person to someone else is more highly valued when they hear your esteem through the grapevine.
Speak their love language.
The Navajo throw a party at the first laugh of a child. They believe that, at birth, the child belongs to two worlds: the spirit world and the physical one. The first laugh is the sign of the baby’s desire to leave the spirit world and join her earthly community.
It happens at about 3 months. That’s a customary probationary period for many workplaces. Do you mark this transition with laughter? Creating workplace traditions that celebrate your team members can be a powerful way to build camaraderie.
The goal is to create a workplace where your employees feel cared for and valued in the way they need it most. Model this behavior and incorporate it into your training. When you equip your team to think relationally, their home life improves, your work environment becomes more harmonious, and sales naturally increase.
It directly translates to strong, lasting client relationships. ■
