How would your clients feel if they saw how you operate on their behalf?
If every piece of communication was transparent and available for clients to see…how would you feel? More importantly, how would they feel?
I’m a believer in an organisation’s Customer Experience (CX) starting deep within the business. It’s something I’ve touched on – and learnt a lot about – through my work with 6 Degrees Consulting.
Cultivated as part of organisational culture, CX can shape and guide the way we communicate with each other within the business, influencing our external behaviour: how we then communicate with clients, potential consumers, suppliers and stakeholders.
In short – your actions behind the scenes influence how you interact with others.
So when I get an email like this, it always amazes me.
Hopefully you r working?
Cheers
A genuine email, genuinely forwarded by an agency on behalf of a genuine client. With an email chain to follow to find the actual request, and decipher any action required.
How should a paying client feel if they saw how their business was handled?
And this informs my approach to any written communications involving work for clients. I write any peripheral detail in emails and responses attached to work, pitches, quotes or responses as though a client will see them.
As seen above, there’s plenty of professionals who will simply forward emails. Not reading them thoroughly could mean flippant or uncharitable remarks going to a client and potentially causing all kinds of damage to relationships and reputations.
There’s nothing to lose by treating everything you do as though it will be seen by everyone. It’s another facet of Customer Experience, demonstrating the respect you show to those you work with and for.
Because the thought of Hopefully you r working? – as client or service provider – is quietly terrifying. And in this digital age of instant communications, we’re not in Kansas anymore.