Susan Kramer-Pope, transformational coach & project facilitator » Communication Practices

In Your Customer Relations, Is Your Experience Working Against You?

skp57 — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 01:15:59 +0000

Many of us have been in our respective lines of work for so long, we easily forget that others don’t know what we know. We have been inside our experience so long, we unconsciously make assumptions that can wreak havoc on the road to building trusting relationships.

When it comes to building or remodeling a home, trade jargon and assumptions can cost you big time! Construction law journals are filled with cases of misunderstandings. So what are you doing to make sure you & your customer understand one another? Here is the short list of things to consider:

1. Inquire right at the beginning about the extent of your customer’s previous experience with your trade. Have they built or remodeled before? If so, what was their experience like? Pay very close attention. Their response will tell you volumes about what there expectations will be. If they haven’t built or remodeled before, you would be well served to do an orientation to help them understand the process of doing business with you, what your role is and is not, the typical demands of the process and your recommendations as to how to best deal with them.

2. Make sure to verbally review your bids or contracts with your customer, line by line, along with all the inclusions and exclusions. Frequently ask them if they understand or have questions. Many contractors don’t want to be bothered and feel that it’s the customer’s responsibility to read the contract and raise questions. Well, I say, ‘Yes and No’ to this response. Both you and your customer share this responsibility, but only you can be responsible for your expectations. My own assumption here is that your interest is to build a good reputation and create happy customers. If you care more about just getting the job without making clear and mutual understanding a priority, your frustration and stress are indicative that it’s time to do something differently or die blaming your customers. Do yourself a favor, make it easy for people to understand you, your process and paperwork. It’s your responsibility to make sure others understand the jargon you use and your terms & conditions. Since they are yours, you are responsible for them.

3. And while you are making it easier for them to understand you, learn to pay attention to facial cues of doubt, hesitancy and silence. They indicate someone at the table has something to say. Don’t overlook these moments. Often people don’t ask because they do not want to appear uninformed. Persist to uncover what is on their mind. You can bet that what is not being said is what needs to be discussed to assure clear understanding. Also, be willing to say that you misunderstood something, when you did. If you are attached to being right, it will kill the relationship in the end. You are human and,as such, make errors. You’ll get more traction in building trust by being willing to admit your mistakes than being rigid and righteous. Take the lead. Be a proactive listener. Make your communication practices a reflection of your commitment to build a trusting relationship founded on mutual understanding.

4. Be vigilant in giving you undivided attention to your customer so you can catch as much of the ‘unspoken’ as possible. If you are distracted by something acknowledge it, take care of it and return your full attention to your customer.

5. Finally, I strongly suggest recording & documenting your conversations. It will provide a valuable reference should there be questions down the road. This might seem like a burden, but it’s one that will save your butt many times over. Voice recorders are inexpensive and a must to help you get it right the first time, especially if you like to be right!

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Conflict Prevention…Not Resolution

skp57 — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 06:52:56 +0000

In any prolonged customer engagement, as in the custom home building industry, rarely found are preemptive practices for customer conflict prevention. If you are a professional in residential custom building, either in the design or construction side, have you had more customer ‘headaches’ than you’d care to think about? If you are a homeowner who has built a custom home or done a major remodel, did you have more frustration, stress and anger involving misunderstandings than you’d care to remember?

Conflict resolution, mediation or arbitration are the instruments most commonly used in our culture to resolve conflict civilly. Don’t get me wrong, these are useful and potentially transformative tools. However, these are all used after the damage has been done. What about preventing the damage in the first place? Imagine how much money, time and heartache would be spared if we focused on conflict prevention practices to create mutual understanding up-front, rather than mucking through the emotionally and costly post-conflict swamp. Routine and reliable practices that document the exchange of information and decisions while tracking accountability of promised actions are invaluable and often missing in the business models of small general contracting and custom building companies.

The first question that usually arises when considering this new practice is one of cost, given the narrow profit margins in this industry, especially in an uncertain and sluggish custom home construction market. But consider this: How many times have you left money on the table or discounted your fees in compensation for errors due to misunderstandings or wrong assumptions? How many unnecessary phone calls have you received because your business practices don’t effectively deal with your client’s uncertainty about some aspect of the project or your understanding of their needs?

How much time, aggravation and stress could you save yourself and your customer by preparing them each week for what lies ahead? How many delays could you prevent by providing a reliable way for them to make timely product decisions so you have what you need when you need it? The time and money saved from everyone understanding and getting it right the first time will preserve your profit margin, enhance your reputation, reduce your stress and leave you wondering why you didn’t have these types of communication practices in place sooner!

Keep in mind that we remember experiences because they involve our emotions. It’s the emotion that sticks. Make sure your business practices are creating an experience that will serve your success and long-standing reputation. Creating and implementing communication practices for mutual understanding and stress reduction are not only invaluable conflict prevention measures but best practices that will distinguish you in your market. Profit margin protection, reputation enhancement and customer satisfaction versus conflict resolution. You choose!

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Custom Builders like to Build, Not Hand Hold Homeowners

skp57 — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 21:47:57 +0000

A Communication ‘Best Practice’ from Listening Arts

As a custom builder, do you find yourself complaining about how much uncompensated time you spend helping your client in matters best left to design professionals? Are you feeling resentful? Are you finding yourself wanting to throw in the towel rather than build another custom home!

There is hope. After listening to these kinds of complaints, the first thing I evaluate is what business communication practices are needed. Complaining is a symptom of a policy that the builder is failing to communicate in a clear and concise way. It’s indicative of a business relationship boundary that needs to be established.

Many of us are people-pleasers. If you are one, you are most at risk for finding yourself in the above predicament. If so, it’s time to learn how to communicate what your role is and what it is not. Only when you can clearly communicate, both in writing and verbally, what your role is and what it is not, will the old pattern begin to change. Even with this, you can bet you will be tested to hold to your boundary. You will need to remain watchful throughout your client meetings to catch yourself sliding back into the old pattern of wanting to please and overextend yourself. You’ll need to listen for being wishy-washy in how you speak, thinking it’s easier to be the nice guy to avoid conflict. At these times, just simply remind the homeowner of your policy. Ask them to seek a designer’s assistance, rather than yours.

You are undertaking a re-patterning of your previous behavior to reap a corresponding new result. Homeowners like to know what to expect and from whom. They like, and are seeking clarity. It brings certainty and certainty brings peace of mind. Just lead them in a pleasant, respectful and no-nonsense way. They will follow and you will be a lot happier.

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Be an Educator Too! Custom building, client relations and communication

skp57 — Wed, 12 May 2010 00:47:16 +0000

We each have a reaction to uncertainty. Some find it exhilarating. Some find it terrifying. In all cases there is an element of stress. If you are a custom builder, you are intimately involved with managing stress-your own as well as the effects of your customer’s stress upon you.

As the builder you come to the table with years of experience in a field your client usually knows little or nothing about. Without addressing this disparity in the way you communicate, you are setting yourself up for almost certain misunderstandings throughout the life of the project.

Consider wearing the hat of an “educator” when interacting with your customer. Educate them about how you do business. When it comes to the contract, create a summary sheet with bullet-points of the most critical pieces that you need to stress, and make sure to use stories from your experience as examples.

Educate them about why you prefer the subcontractors that you use. Educate them on the implications of delayed decision making on the project time-line, their budget and your business, especially if you have other jobs in the pipeline ready to start.

Continue to be an educator to minimize misunderstanding all the way through the project. The worst thing you can do is assume the customer knows your business! If you are stumped as to what topics to cover in this education effort, look no further than the communication breakdowns in your past and ask yourself, ‘What did I learn from that situation that will make a difference for me and this new client?”

This stance may seem elementary to some or bothersome to others. But the question remains the same. What are you doing to create mutual understanding and reduce uncertainty throughout your projects? Your reputation depends on it.

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Accountability in action…the way of personal effectiveness

skp57 — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 23:41:06 +0000

Admitting our mistakes can be a bitter pill. It takes courage and fortitude to own our errors and then do what it takes to make good on our promises…again and again. Doing the ‘right’ thing is not usually expedient or convenient, but it sets one apart from the crowd, builds personal integrity and self-respect. The inner rewards are proportional to the difficulty of the practice. Being willing to practice accountability also means being willing to make peace with our anger, embarrassment or shame rather than continue to be consumed by it with our relationships, both personal & professional in tatters. It takes courage…moving forward in the face of all kinds of fear, especially of ‘loosing face’ and feeling shame.

Consider that if communication breakdowns happen frequently in our life, at home or on the job, the common thread is us. These situations are messengers trying to get our attention to look within, not blame other people or circumstances. There are untold gifts from each and every opportunity taken to practice accountability. However, these gifts of self-respect, integrity and truly loving relationships will forever elude us until accountability becomes a practice.

Where in your life are you stuck in unsatisfactory patterns, feeling ineffective and no longer willing to endure the consequences? If you’re at a crossroads and want to shift your ability to move your life forward dramatically in a short period of time, check out Landmark Education. It’s some of the most effective personal development training on the planet.

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