The Emotional Bank Account
Think about your customers.
Do they think about you? When do they think about you? What do they think about when they think about you?
Hmm.
Now, consider your Emotional Bank Account with each of them. Where does it sit? Maybe you’re earning interest on the volume of deposits you’ve made, or maybe you’ve taken so much from the relationship (ie. It’s been mostly take rather than give), that you’re heavily overdrawn. Either way, take stock of where each of your key relationships are at.
The way you show up will either make a deposit or a withdrawal, and you want to make it your business to ensure there are enough deposits in the Emotional Bank Account because when things go wrong (as they will), it won’t impact too severely on your relationship with your customer. Sometimes these withdrawals will be because of factors entirely outside of your control such as late deliveries, stock going missing, an accident on the freeway that has traffic banked back for miles….and so on.
And because of your stacking the Emotional Bank Account at the other end, it will be okay because it’s a “once in a blue moon” occurrence.
When things happen regularly and consistently that are within your control, it starts to set an expectation that has the potential to strengthen or destroy a customer relationship…
Things that make withdrawals from the Emotional Bank Account :
- Dishonesty
- Frequent lateness
- Excuses
- Reasons
- Blame
- Denial
- Saying one thing and doing another
- Doing the bare minimum required
- Gossiping
- Lying or not telling the whole truth
- Download listening
Things that put deposits into the Emotional Bank Account:
- Trust
- Honesty
- Confidence
- Punctuality
- Going beyond your role
- Doing more than what’s expected
- Empathetic Listening
- Dignity in the face of adversity
- Factual Listening
- Connecting them to other experts for no direct gain for you
- Alignment between thoughts, words and actions
- Consistency
- Meaningful communication
- Results
The way you show up, the intention you bring to each customer contact will do one or the other, so be deliberate with your actions.
Everything we do and everyone we meet matters.