5 Things to Bear in Mind When Speaking with Clients

Last week, I had a chance to speak with many of our live Client CEOs and executives. I do my very best to connect with the senior leaders of all of our Clients on a periodic basis. For new Clients, that is every three months. For our more stable Clients, that is a minimum of twice a year. Despite the fact that we communicate like crazy (in our opinion, anyway) and have multiple established feedback mechanisms, it is always surprising to me to find out how much our communications don’t always reach everyone we intend. When I make these calls, I really have five objectives: 1) Build relationship. It is nearly impossible to rely on a relationship when you need one if you haven’t taken the time to invest in it before you need it. All too often, we find ourselves needing a relationship when it is too late to build one. If you wait until something urgent comes up to build a relationship, it will be based on circumstances that are, shall we say, less than optimal. Relationship is defined as: the way in which two or more people are connected, or the state of being connected. So if the "state" of being connected is always under the heat of an issue, then it stands to reason that the relationship will be characterized by this. [eventpdf] 2) Listen. This is a big part of why I invest in these relationships. I (and we) need to be able to listen without reacting defensively or offering explanations. One thing I have learned over the years is that when you really listen, you discover what the other person’s reality is. When I listen to the frustrations of our Clients, I sometimes really want to interrupt and share how much we have done or are doing to improve. I force myself to listen, though, and let the other person share their Voice. There are several really important parts to this: It doesn’t matter what I think. Their reality is literally truth to the person sharing. It’s like this … If you call McDonald’s hotline about a bad experience, and they started minimizing the gravity of the experience you are trying to share, or telling you about average satisfaction levels, or quoting the billions served without an incident … what would happen? You would continue to heat up, right? This is one of those times when there can be no adjustment. Your experience was your experience. Period. Nothing that anyone can say to you will change that and when someone tries, most of the time, it just serves to fuel your frustration. Others are often unable to hear what you have to say until they are really clear that you heard them. That doesn’t mean you hang on the line, silent, waiting for the other person to stop talking so you can get your bit out there. It means really listening. Not always for facts, but for how it is/was for the other person. It is their reality. It is also totally clear to the person sharing whether you are just hearing what they are saying or listening to how it was for them. There is a huge difference. We are in the business of delivering Service. Regardless of all of the things we think we have done to make our Service great, it is irrelevant if the other party has a different experience. This is one of the toughest things for those of us that serve. I mean, truly, no one wakes up the morning and says to themselves, "I am going to go in today and deliver some really crappy service". That doesn’t mean that the service experience is always what we want it to be. Only when the other person has a clear indication that you have listened are they in a position to be able to hear anything you might want to say. This applies in all of life by the way, not just our work! If you give people an opportunity to share, you will learn something new. I have learned something powerful about listening. Simply put: if there is a disconnect between what the other person’s experience is and what you think it should be, there is a reason for this! Seems pretty self-evident, but … umm, it’s not. That is really worth listening for. We often can’t conceive of the diversity of situations that can arise and that might lead to a service experience that isn’t what we have worked toward. Not coincidentally, this act of seeking to understand, of asking questions, is often a cue to the other that you are listening. As I have applied this in my life (professional and personal), I have found that there is a lot to learn here. This is where the juicy bits are, that give clarity to the experience and help you make it better in the future. I will tell you, though, that sometimes it is hard to listen, most particularly when you have been working to improve something. I keep asking myself: what is it that I am not understanding? What have I failed to consider that has led to this? 3) Apologize. Once you have listened, apologize. How hard is that? Well, sometimes really hard. What I focus on in my heart is what I am apologizing for. It is just like when you are listening to a loved one tell you about some horrible thing that happened, and you say, "I’m so sorry". When you say that, it often has nothing to do with you! The apology is simply empathy for how it was for them. When you can deliver a really genuine apology, the person receiving it knows that you have really connected to how it was for them; regardless of whether you contributed to the problem or not. I find that when I listen for that, I can lose my defensiveness. I realize that I am not apologizing for my failure (sometimes that is a part of it though), but really just as one person to another. 4) Connect. All of this is really intended to make a connection. I will bet that every one of you can think of a time when you had some really frustrating experience and talked to someone about it and really felt listened to; what happened is you could feel a connection. There is something deeply human in this kind of exchange. That connection is a foundation of relationship. 5) Affirm our commitment. After listening, seek to understand, apologize and connect; then it is time to share our commitment to making it better next time. Then it is time to share all we have done, are doing, and are committed to do in order to make it better the next time. Try to deliver that before the rest bounces off like a golf ball on concrete. Again, no one got up that morning committed to mediocrity. We are committed to delivering service excellence. Yes, it doesn’t always go the way we intend. Regardless of our intention, though, we have to truly listen to learn what needs to be done to make it better the next time. The commitment is not about a specific action we will take, but about never stopping to work to make it better. This last week punctuated that for me. In every call, I heard something like "ok, great. That is really good to hear. We weren’t sure anyone knew about this and was doing anything about it". So, last week I got to practice all of the above a bunch. I hope I did it well, but regardless of how well I did, I am committed to hearing how well I did, what that experience was like, and learning how I can do it better the next time. NOTE: Lee heads Ascension Health's Ministry Service Center, which is in the third year of a six-year implementation for all healthcare entities in Ascension, the largest not-for-profit health system in the United States. By the end of calendar year 2014, the Ministry Service Center will support 150,000 associates as clients across the US. MSC is also in the early stages of supporting other key initiatives within Ascension, such as the creation of a unified travel services division and physician back-office services. The Ministry Service Center was the winner across two categories in SSON's 2014 Shared Services Excellence Awards: once for "Culture Creation", and a second time for "Improvement and Innovation." About Lee Coulter: Lee Coulter has had an impressive career, and is broadly considered one of the leading Shared Services practitioners in North America today. Now in his 8th industry, Lee was previously Senior Vice President of Global Shared Services at Kraft Foods and a leader of Kraft’s corporate wide "Organize for Growth" transformation initiative. In this role he implemented shared services in nine global functions, delivering support across more than 70 countries and completing major outsourcing transformation "mega-deals" in IT, HR, and facilities management. He created and led the Shared Services Center of Excellence and the Outsourcing Center of Excellence at Kraft. While there, he also received Chairman Roger Deromedi¹s CEO Award for his efforts. Prior to joining Kraft, Lee served as Vice President of Infrastructure Services at AON Corporation, where he implemented ITIL and shared services, reduced costs by more than 35%, and integrated legacy infrastructure from a long acquisition strategy, finally outsourcing IT to CSC. Lee spent 15 years with GE in a multitude of roles culminating in VP of GE’s outsourcing business. He also spearheaded the Company’s global Y2K initiative and served as a technical and operating executive in its Healthcare Services business, including as an expatriate in China. He received the President¹s Award from GE CEO Jeff Immelt. ?Lee holds a BS in Electronics Engineering from DeVry University and has completed all course work for a BS in Electrical Engineering and a Masters Degree in Biomedical Engineering at California State University at Long Beach.? When not leading MSC, Lee can be found in his workshop, making sculptures out of wood and stone. He will be writing a weekly column for SSON's website in which he will share (nearly) everything that comes across his desk these days. More from Lee next week...

5 Things to Bear in Mind When Speaking with Clients

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