When it comes to making a big purchase, the kind of thing that you spend money on and then you have that buyer's remorse. Then a couple of days later you remember that you really wanted the thing that you bought in the first place so you do not feel as bad. When it comes to those kind of purchases I believe that the most important thing to keep in mind is customer service.
When I went to buy a new phone I went to the Apple Store (everything I own comes from apple). Apple provides great customer service. When things break with Apple you just go in and tell them that it broke. As long as you have all of your stuff in order, they either hand you a new device or they fix yours.
The important part is that their customer service is great. When you go to other places, not so much. It leaves a lot to be desired.
Service relationships are a lot different than friendships, family relationships, and co-mate relationships. It boils down to this. You get to pick the people that you serve.
When I mean by that is that you are in control of who you are serving. You are in control of what you are serving. You get to decide. Not only that, but it is also an unbalanced relationships.
Balanced relationships mean that you are providing the same as somebody else in the relationships. As a service provider, you should be the one that is providing a majority of the value. You get value in a different way.
Maybe that value is monetary, maybe it is status. Whatever it is, you are definitely not on even footing with the other person in the relationships.
That is okay. That is how things are supposed to be. For the rest of this blogpost I am going to talk about things that you can do to increase your intentionality as a service provider. I want to help you develop your relationships within your service circle.
Over the last couple of weeks I have been meeting a lot of people that have their own businesses as a part of the community with seanwes. Like I told you in a previous blogpost, these are all people who believe in making really good things. Not only that, but they also believe this:
We believe that you should provide value first and foremost; and it should be free.
Now, I don't mean that your work should be done for free. You should be compensated. You should get what you deserve for the things that you make. I also believe this, if you provide something for somebody else and they see the value in it then they are going to give you value back.
Let me explain. I talked a couple of podcasts ago about my new motorcycle. It's not new by any standard, in fact it is pretty old! This week I had something go wrong with my motorcycle, and if I was back at home I definitely would have fixed it myself. Because I am away at school I figured that I would take it to a shop.
I called around asking if shops would be available to fix my bike and if they had the parts necessary. Only one shop said that they were willing to do it. When I asked having it done, the guy told me a bunch of great value seeking things to think about first. I could have sworn that a part could have gone out on my bike, but I hadn't even checked yet.
The guy recommended that I check the fluid levels to make sure that that wasn't the problem. Lo and behold, he was right because he is the expert. In this case, you are the expert.
Just as Bill from Bill's Sport Shop in Spring Lake Michigan offered value to me over the phone, you should be offering value to your customers, to your clients. The reason is that they are going to repay you for that value. I did not take my bike to Bill's shop because I did not need to, but I want to go to his shop the next time something is wrong with it because I know that he believes in providing value for his customers.
If you want to be intentional with your service relationships then you need to provide value. This is how people know that you care for them when it comes to service.
On the other side of this coin, when you do not provide value, your customers clearly get the message that you do not care. When I called another shop to see if they would be willing to look at my bike and work on it, I got a flat out, "we do not work on bikes that old."
There was no value in that statement whatsoever. The way that you provide value for free gives customers an understanding of how much value you have to provide for them. If you are a service provider then you should always aim first for customer service.
Yes, you are selling a product, but you are selling that product to a person and that is what the important thing is in this relationship.
That second shop that I talked to brings up the second point for developing intentional relationships with your service circle. The first point was to provide value and provide it for free. The second is this:
There are going to be people that you are not going to be able to work with. You have to be able to filter out who you are or are not going to work with. We talk a lot about this in the seanwes community.
There are no bad clients, there are just bad designers. Bad designers take on the kind of people that we would call "bad clients."
When you are filtering out, you are making a decision as to whether or not you are going to be able to provide value for this customer in the way that they need value provided. Let us be truthful here.
Not everybody is going to want your solutions. It is not that your solutions are bad. It is just that some people are not going to want to get on board with your process. The way that you do things is to provide value for people. If they are not going to be playing by your rules then you cannot provide solution for them.
Yes, that shop could not fix my motorcycle. I could not fit through their filter. But at the same time they also broke the first rule, provide value first and foremost and if you can do it for free. Even if that shop had given me the exact same advice as Bill did, I would have seen value from what they were saying.
When you provide value even when you cannot provide full value, you give the client or customer the understanding that you care about providing value. When you are filtering out you should be able to provide value for your clients even if they are not going to be getting full value from you. Let me explain.
Just because you are not going to be providing their solutions does not mean that you cannot help find a solution for them. If you are able to advise that they go to somebody else then send them that way. If you are able to help them figure out what their problem is then do that. That provides value by identifying what needs to be changed.
If you are not the person for the job then that is okay. You provided value for the customer.
That is what is important. In order to be intentional, you have to be providing value when it comes to your service circles.
If you haven't notices, these podcasts that I am producing are free. This is the part where I talk about me. I am providing these for you, this blogcast, for free. You are paying absolutely none of the value for the content that you are receiving yet this content is valuable. I am providing this content because I believe that you will see value in it. My hope is that in response to that you will provide value in return.
Being intentional means that you are caring about the other person and that you show them that you care by providing value for them. Without that value, there is nothing in your service circle.
When it comes to service relationships, you get to pick the people that you serve. You should be the one that is providing a majority of the value.
Provide Value First, and Make it Free
You should be offering value to customers, to your clients. The reason is that they are going to repay you for that value. The way that you provide value for free gives customers an understanding of how much value you have to provide for them.
Provide Value Even When You Cannot Provide Value
Not everybody is going to want your solutions. It is not that your solutions are bad. It is just that some people are not going to want to get on board with your process. When you provide value even when you cannot provide full value, you give the client or customer the understanding that you care about providing value.
Being intentional means that you are caring about the other person and that you show them that you care by providing value for them.
How can you provide value for free?
How can you provide value when you cannot provide full value?
Who do you need to filter out so that you can provide the value that you want to provide?
