How to build productive relationships - Part1

Whether you're a businessman or an employer or an employee, pleasing your customer is a sure way to gain their trust and building a sustainable, long-lasting relationship, which leads to better rewards. And when I say rewards, I mean a lot more money for the effort you put in. In this session, we'll be discussing three simple questions you can ask your customers that can help you understand their needs, meet their needs, and make sure they leave you happy. Stay tuned for the next part as you dive into this. Welcome to the Unleash Podcast of Femia Kiami, the podcast where we explore how to unleash your potential in the workplace, your hustle, and life in general with practical real-life steps. Sometimes I used to use my past, and trust me, I have got some stories for you. And sometimes I'll just say stuff I've learned. And other times we get people who know a lot more than I do, we get them into the studio and we break it all down. By now, you know what I usually say. I have become a believer that Don is better than perfect. So, with that being said, let's get right into it. And by the way, don't forget to like the podcast, share with your friends, family, and anybody else you want to get unleashed. Let's get into it. Who is my customer? Who is your customer? If you're in business, your customer is the person you sell your product or your service to, the person you plan your marketing around. If you're an employee or you work for someone, your employee your customer is anyone who you're serving at any given point in time. Your manager is your customer. The person in the other department that you meet regularly is your customer. Anybody at any time who you are delivering your service to is your customer. So it doesn't matter who you are, you always have a customer. Pleasing your customer is a sure way to gain trust and building a sustainable relationship, which leads to the rewards which we all want. This is why we go to work. We go to work so we can have a satisfied life, but more importantly, we can pay those bills. Now it's important to pay those bills with a smile on your face, but critically, we want to pay those bills. In this session, we'll be discussing three simple questions to help you ensure you understand the needs of your customer, you meet the needs of your customer, and when they leave, they leave with a smile. Okay, let's get into it. Now we go for me, it all came down to this. I looked at the calendar and it's February 21, and I'm thinking, oh no, the quarter has almost come to the end. When I say quarter, I mean it's almost March, and before you know it, it's the end of March, it's Easter. We get round to the middle of the year, it's summer, or it's um it's June, July, and another year is done, and you haven't achieved everything you want to achieve. So if you're someone like me, there's probably a chance that you're beginning to panic and freak out that all these goals and plans you had in place, you've not achieved them. Now, I know you have lots of personal goals, but one of the goals you certainly have, and I'm sure, is you want to please your customer, you want to achieve your revenue, you want to make sales, you want to get the bonus, you want to get a promotion. Whoever you are, you want to do better, and one of the keys to doing that is making your customer happy, and your customer will typically come back to you and say, I like it or I don't like it. So, in this session, I want to give you three simple questions that can totally transform your relationship with your customer. These three questions hit the heart of what it takes to build a relationship, and if you use these questions the way I prescribe them, it can make all the difference. It's literally like turning the light on in your room. You will start to hear things from your customer, you will start to get responses from your customer. If you have a relationship with your customer that you're struggling to break down, this is it. If you have a relationship with your customer, which you think is beginning to grind down, and you guys are beginning to be at each other's necks, this is it. If you have a relationship with your customer which is doing great, this will simply just remind you of some of the things you're doing well and help you do it again. Now, Dale Carnegie has this book called How to Make Friends and Influence, How to Win Friends and Influence People, and I love this book, and it's made a big difference in my life. And I I encourage you, wherever you are, do try and read this book. And some of that has informed the way I think about customer service, but some of it is also just just being nice to people. So that leads me to my first question, really. And when you meet up with your customer, a lot of times, one of the things we all do is we are so focused on business, we are so focused on getting down to it and showing how good we are at our jobs that sometimes we lose the humane side of the whole thing. And when it comes down to it, we are all people people trying to interact, people trying to do business, and when you think about it, they have fears, you have fears, they have families, you have families, they have challenges, you have challenges. They fall sick, you fall sick, they breathe the same air, you breathe the same air. So it's easy sometimes to just want to get down to business and forget some of these things. So that leads me to my very first question: get your pen, get ready for this. The very simple question you can ask that you can always ask your customer is, How are you? And how are you doesn't always have to be that. You can mix it up, you can just show some spice to change the variation. So you could say something like, How was your weekend? and they'll tell you, Oh, my weekend, I did this, I did that, and you just listen in. What I want you to do is make sure you pay attention because if you don't pay attention, it looks like you're just asking just to tick a box, you're asking just to for a perfunctory reason, just so you can get it out of the way. But you need to ask how their weekend was, and most of the time, they'll say something you can jump on and use it to lead on to the next thing. Sometimes you just need to be observant. Sometimes I have it a lot. I have meet customers or colleagues I work with who would call in sick or be sick the day before. The next time I see them, I'll ask, How are you feeling now? and they'll say, Oh, I'm feeling better, and they'll start talking about themselves again. You listen. Sometimes, how are your kids? How is your partner? You need to start to listen to understand their lives. Here's the key: you only it's when you win their hearts that you they give you their hand. You win their hearts, they give you their hand, and that's the same thing with customers. You get to win their hearts by asking about their lives, asking about personal things just to make sure and let them understand that you really do care about them. When you care, they start to open up and share more things to you. Now, the trick is to this is learning more about them. But what I will say to you as well is that make sure you listen attentively and you remember and you look them in the eyes, or you actually acknowledge so when they give you answers, you play it back to them. Now, I know for some of us this feels like this doesn't help me make my sale, this doesn't help me get my requirements signed up, this doesn't help me get my per the person I'm working with in the office to give me exactly what I need. This doesn't make them buy my product, but you are laying the foundation, you are making them understand I value you as a person, I love working with you, I appreciate working with you, I understand what you're going through, and you know what? Sometimes don't even worry about being vulnerable. Sometimes it's okay to share yourself. Oh, I've been through that, I struggle with that. I'll give you an example. I was working with there was someone I was working with, and she happened to have an issue at work where she was dealing with a manager who was really giving her problems, and she didn't know how to get through it. And I was honest with her, and I said, I've worked somewhere like that with someone like this, and this is what I did. It was really stressful, I was really getting stressed. I had I had to go home at night thinking about my work, which is not good. And she said, Oh, I feel the same way, that's how I feel. And immediately we built a connection, there was a shared understanding, something we could both hold on to that built a relationship. So I encourage you, ask how you are, how was your weekend? How are you getting how are you getting on? How's your family? Just a question that can lead to something else. So that's my first one. Make sure you remember how are you? Question number two. We're beginning to get into the meat of it now. How may I help you? The first thing you need to notice as with the first question is the use of the word how. It's an open-ended question. We don't like code closed questions. When you ask closed questions, you get close answers. What are you doing? Nothing. When you ask what they're doing, they'll tell you nothing. So that's the same thing I want for you to ask an open question. How are you? Um, how may I help you? It's an open question which allows them to answer freely and can help you dig deeper. But more importantly, it's a question that says, I'm here to help, I'm open for business, I'm listening to you, but also it makes them understand: look, you're a nice guy, and your hands are open. How may I help you? Because when you say how may I help you, they'll start to answer with so many different formats, they'll come from so many different angles, they'll say anything, and your job is now to start to ask the right questions. But one thing you should try to do is make sure you ask for urgency, importance, and when. So, how urgent is it? How important is it, and when do you want it? And the last question: how are you feeling? Now, how are you feeling is a good one because what you're asking is how are you feeling about the plans we're making, how you're feeling about the products I'm offering you, how are you feeling about the services? This allows them to give you an insight into how they're feeling about whatever it is you're doing. Because when you say how are you feeling, they can tell you, I'm not feeling great, I don't feel confident, I feel nervous, I feel a bit worried, I'm not sure you guys can give me what I'm asking for. So it gives you the value, valuable information to take a heat check of your relationship with that person, it gives you the valuable information to start to understand their fears, their challenges, and any concerns they have about your product or services. My one tip to you on this one though is not to challenge them. When you ask how are you feeling, be ready to take it on the chest. So they will download everything and they will tell you the great things you're doing, but more than likely, they'll tell you some of the things you are doing they do not like. Please, please, please do not say but but and don't challenge them, don't try to challenge them and justify them or prove them wrong. Your job is to listen, okay? Take it on board with an intention to resolve any concerns and also to move them from being unhappy to being delighted. I'll give you a good example. I recently remember I was on a conference call with a lot of my stakeholders, people I work with, and I asked that question. Now I've been under the impression that things are going well, but then I asked, How are you feeling? and it turns out there was anger, frustration, and there was a feeling which needed to be resolved. And I had to spend the rest of that call just quietly eating humble pie. But it was important because I had a long list, a shopping list of things I had to resolve. And as I ticked it off, I said, I just wanted to let you know the complaint you made about this, I resolved it. And as I ticked it off, they said we're really happy, things have improved, and it's because I listened. Okay, so if you're noticing by now, you notice that this is all about listening, it's all about understanding what your customer has to say and listening. Okay, so here's my big takeaway: don't panic. I know the first quarter of the year is coming to an end, but it's not about how you start, it's about how you finish. And taking these questions, these feedback, these tips I've given you are gonna make you finish strong and with power. Number two, providing world-class and thoughtful customer service builds loyalty and sustains relationships, which leads to increased money in your pocket. And number three, ask these three questions How are you? How may I help you? And how are you feeling? Okay, these are the three questions that can make all the difference in your customer service, and they give you an insight into your customer and they empower you with the information necessary so you can start to win their hearts. And when you win their hearts, what would I say? They give you their hand. Listen, guys, success is important, but we have to enjoy the journey, and your ability to increase your revenue is based on your ability to build sustainable relationships with customers who are delighted. The key word is delighted, so you have to make sure they're delighted because when they're delighted, you're relevant. When you're relevant, you get paid. I hope you've enjoyed this episode of You Unleashed, where we share ideas on how to rock it in the workplace and life. Don't forget to share and like our podcast with your friends and all your families and anyone else who you think needs to get unleashed. We're not where we want to be, but we are definitely better than we used to be. And like I said, done is better than perfect. So this episode is in the books. Get unleashed and stay unleashed. Have a great week.