Steve Yastrow

You can’t multi-task

Last month I wrote a newsletter article called “We are not multi-taskers.” We are really only capable of doing one conscious thing at a time, and this tendency to glance at the Blackberry or surf the web while talking with someone ensures that none of those actions will be done well.  My point: One of the key ingredients of a relationhip-building encounter is being 100%, fully engaged in the moment you are sharing with your customer.

I just read this article on multi-tasking from the website of Dr. Joseph Mercola, who I always find interesting.  How about this statistic Dr. Mercola quotes: Workers distracted by e-mail and phone calls suffer a fall in IQ more than twice that found in marijuana smokers.

One of the greatest challenges to creating relationship-building encounters with customers is actually just being there, fully-engaged with your customer.  Attempting to multi-task doesn’t mean that you are successful doing it.

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Newsletter: Moments with Presence

Today’s issue of my newsletter is called Moments with Presence.

The basic idea:  Your customers live half a million minutes each year, and remember only a few of them.  Will they remember the moments they share with you?

Please share your comments!

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Warsaw Walking Yoga with Joni Mitchell

A day in Warsaw by myself helps me practice one of the key skills needed to build customer relationships …

(The video is actually only a bit more than six minutes.)

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React vs. Respond

Last week, in a workshop, an attendee said that his company is ‘reactive.’ The word didn’t sound right, so I asked him to explain. I quickly realized that he meant that his company is ‘responsive,’ not ‘reactive.’

I forgot about this exchange until last night, while I was having dinner with my friend Gene Hensley in Seattle, as Gene coincidentally mentioned the contrast between the meanings of these two words. “‘React’ is to re-act,” Gene said, “meaning that you act in a way you have acted before in the past. ‘Respond’ is to act in a way that is based on what’s going on right now, in this 60 seconds.”

Imagine that you complain about the way your meal is cooked in a restaurant. A server who ‘reacts’ to your complaint will pull a canned rejoinder from his inventory of past experiences, treating your situation in a routine, recycled way. A server who ‘responds’ to your complaint will not base his response on past customer interactions, but will respond directly to what is happening to you at this moment.

I don’t think this is a subtle distinction. Your customers can easily tell if someone in your company ‘reacts’ to their situation, treating them in a routine, rehashed way. They can also tell if someone in your company ‘responds’ to their situation, treating them in a genuine, personalized, unique way.

What is better for your business, reactions or responses?

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Could have only been with me

Here’s a relationship-building-encounter thought for today:

As you interact with a customer, consider what it will take to have your customer think, “This could have only happened with me. I am not getting the ’standard treatment.’ I am being treated in a way that recognizes and honors who I am.”

Customers have very sensitive antennae that tell them when they are getting a cookie-cutter, scripted, pulled-from-inventory sort of treatment. Yes, it’s more efficient to treat customers in a standard way. But, when it comes to building relationships, it is much less effective.

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Your un-media plan

“Marketing media.” Did you ever stop and think about what that means? “Media” = “In the middle.”

Every good little ad agency always makes sure that a media plan accompanies each recommendation they present to a client. It is assumed that all marketing communications must have some media in the middle, bridging the way between buyer and seller.

Why?

There’s no good reason. In fact, the most effective marketing doesn’t have mediation. It is when the buyer and seller are in direct contact, sans media.

Certainly, there are times when media are necessary. If you have a lot of customers, you may not be able to talk with them all directly. If you want to reach people you don’t know, you may need to delegate customer communication to some magazine or billboard. But, here’s my question: What do you build first into your plan - rich, personal, unmediated encounters, or mass, impersonal, mediated transactions?

Instead of building your media plan first, try this: Build your un-media plan. Start conceiving of your marketing by focusing on interacting directly with your customers. And then, use relatively-inefficient, less-productive marketing media for what’s left over.

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Improve your business - today

Today, you can make this positive impact on your business: Improve your relationship with one customer.

Customer relationships are your best source of competitive advantage, and the true driver of value in your business.

Every time you come in contact with a customer, you have the opportunity to improve your relationship with that customer. And, when you improve your relationship with one customer, you are keeping the competition away from that customer … and increasing the value of your business.

So … make your next interaction with a customer a relationship-building encounter. I am offering my ebook, Encounters: The Building Blocks of We Relationships, to readers of this blog for free. Take it. Use it. Lose it and then download again. Use it as a coaster for your coffee cup and then download it a third time. I don’t care, as long as you improve one customer relationship, today. (And another one tomorrow)

I’m sure you’re busy today. So am I. But, can you think of a better use of time than improving your relationship with a customer?

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Why I don’t believe in the “Elevator Pitch”

The concept of the “elevator pitch” has become popular in recent years. An elevator pitch is what you would say if you were lucky enough to find yourself in an elevator for 30 seconds with the CEO of a prospective client company.

The biggest problem with an elevator pitch is that you may actually tell it to someone.

Why do I say this?

The Next 30 Seconds

I am much less interested in the 30 seconds you are in an elevator with a CEO than I am interested in the next 30 seconds, after you say goodbye in the building’s lobby. What happens during this subsequent 30 seconds? Is the CEO totally mesmerized by his encounter with you, unable to stop thinking about this incredible person he just met, or does he grab his cell phone and make a call, as the memory of you quickly fades away?

Monologue vs. Dialogue

If you want to create a memorable encounter with someone, don’t expect a 30-second monologue to do the trick, no matter how well it is crafted. You will have much better success if you focus, instead, on creating a 30-second dialogue.

The worst thing we all learned about marketing that it is mostly based on one-way communication … “getting the word out,” “telling your story,” “making your pitch,” “cutting through the clutter,” and, my personal (un)favorite, “capturing eyeballs.”

Humans don’t connect with monologues the way they connect with dialogues in which they are engaged. If you want to communicate with someone, don’t talk at them. Talk with them.

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Ask yourself this question: Did our relationship improve?

Try this over the next few days…

Each time you interact with a customer, whether it is on the phone, in-person or through an email exchange, ask yourself this question: Is our relationship better at the end of this interaction than it was at the beginning?

What do you think you will find? Are you improving your relationships with customers most of the times you interact with them? Or, are many of your interactions transactional, not enriching your relationship?

We all know what this feels like; we interact with a customer and, after meeting, we can tell that our relationship has improved. We also know what the opposite feels like, when your relationship actually takes a step backwards during an interaction.

Relationships with customers don’t pop into existence spontaneously. They are built one interaction at a time. If you want to build a relationship with a customer, it is important to move your relationship forward – sometimes by inches, sometimes by miles – each time you interact.

Here’s how I classify these kinds of interactions with customers: An interaction with a customer in which your relationship improves is called an “encounter.” An interaction with a customer in which your relationship doesn’t improve, or actually degrades, is called a “transaction.”

To build a relationship with a customer, you need to string together a series of encounters over time. These encounters are the building blocks of your relationship.

Stay tuned on this blog for more information about creating encounters. Additionally, you can have a look at my free ebook, Encounters: The Building Blocks of We Relationships, which you will receive for subscribing to this blog, or see chapter 2 in We: The Ideal Customer Relationship. (If you don’t want to subscribe to the blog or buy the book, send me an note and I will email you a copy of Chapter 2. I’m happy to do it as long as you it helps you create encounters with your customers.)

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