BALANCING CUSTOMER AND COST

Customer Relationships

The behaviours in the table below show how you can demonstrate the skill of Customer Relationships at each of the competency levels in which it appears. Click on the plus sign to show the behaviours at that level.

Click here to read more about how the competency levels work.

Resources

Below you will find learning resources to help you develop the skill of Customer Relationships. Click on the links to access the resources.

PDFs
The Power of Empathy
Empathy is one of the most powerful tools you can use to build productive relationships. It is fundamental to building collaboration. This PDF explains what empathy is, how to demonstrate it, and the impact it will have if you choose (or not) to use it. It will help you to defuse conflict, connect with and motivate others, and improve efficiency.

How Do Values Work?
This PDF explains what values are and why they are important, as well as how they impact behaviour and relationships. Values underpin a lot of beliefs and attitudes, and can often be a source of conflict. Understanding how they work will enable you to tap into a person’s motivation and lead them more effectively.

Assert Yourself
If you find yourself habitually too aggressive or passive/non-assertive, or have someone in your team who is, this PDF will help you to consciously shift towards a more productive balance of self and others, and/or help others to do so, as it explains what assertion is and how to achieve it.

Understanding Rights and Responsibilities
This PDF covers the difference between a right (something you have the freedom to do taking only yourself into account) and a responsibility (something you are required to do to take other people into account) and how to maintain a fair balance between the two. It will help you reach a constructive outcome if there are problems and disagreements.

VIDEOS
The Power of Empathy
This video explains why and how empathy is one of the most powerful tools you can use to build productive relationships. It is fundamental to building collaboration. Learn if you are already demonstrating empathy effectively, how easy it is to stop doing it, how to be alerted to using it effectively and realise the benefits it brings.

How Do Values Work?
This video explains what values are and why they are important. Values underpin behaviours, beliefs, emotions, motivations, and attitudes. Learn how to recognise and find out your own and others’ values and build them into how you understand yourself, how you understand and approach others, and how they enable you to motivate, lead and manage more effectively.

Assert Yourself
This video provides an explanation of a fundamentally important approach and mindset, being assertive, and how you or others might adopt a less helpful one of being non-assertive, aggressive, or avoiding. You will learn how to recognise the different approaches, if you need to adjust how you behave and what you say to project a more assertive/collaborative stance towards others, especially if they are using an unhelpful approach towards you.

Phone Tones

In conversations with customers it is important to make a connection, so that you can exchange information appropriately, and maintain constructive emotions. Your voice is a fundamental tool to do this, especially when you are holding conversations on the phone. In this webinar, Jacqy Munro explains:

  • How building rapport using your voice opens up the connection.
  • How showing empathy is critical to creating constructive emotions.
  • How structuring information well matters.
  • How to change tone of voice for different purposes, and the effect each one has on the customer.


A Good Customer Interaction

It is important to make a connection with a customer so that you can exchange information appropriately, and maintain constructive emotions. In this webinar, Jacqy Munro explains:

  • A logical structure for understanding how to engage positive emotions.
  • How to discover a customer's values and goals and why these matter.
  • How to link what you are doing or providing for the customer to their values and goals.
  • A four step process for ensuring that the interaction achieves a positive outcome that reinforces customer satisfaction.


An Upset Customer Interaction

It is important to manage an interaction with an upset customer in such a way that you can exchange information appropriately, and restore constructive emotions as soon as possible. In this webinar, Jacqy Munro explains:

  • A logical structure for understanding how to re-engage positive emotions.
  • How to discover a customer's values and goals and why these matter.
  • How to understand quickly why the customer is upset by the specific situation and bring the customer back to a common understanding of their values and goals and an agreement about how you can resolve the situation.
  • A four step process for ensuring that the interaction achieves a positive outcome that minimises dissatisfaction and restores customer satisfaction.

ON THE JOB ACTIONS
Customer Awareness
Read and/or watch The Power of Empathy and think about the situation, thoughts, and feelings of your customers in any situation where you are providing a service. This skill underpins all successful outcomes in interpersonal situations, so you won’t be wasting your time.


Respect
Wanting to feel respected is a natural human instinct. Wanting to show others respect is a sign of decency. How to do it needs some thought. Reflect on what makes you feel respected. This will be specific actions by others e.g., making eye contact with you, or being asked for your input. Also, think about what makes you feel disrespected (often the opposite.)

Your ‘specifics’ may not be the same as others so don’t make assumptions about how to treat others. Ask a colleague who knows the customer specifically what you can do to show respect to the customer, and what would they receive as disrespect. This shows consideration and is of practical use.

Be Assertive
Read and/or watch Assert Yourself and this will be a platform for all your interactions with customers. Review how you think about and respond to customers. Is it assertive, aggressive, or non-assertive? Is it consistent or does it vary with whom you are interacting?

If you want to adjust your approach generally e.g. to be more assertive or less aggressive with a customer, read and/or watch Understanding Rights and Responsibilities. When you review and adjust these, they will change the balance of your unconscious thinking towards an assertive mindset and behaviours. Even though you may think a customer has more rights than you because you are providing a service, a supplier does have rights. Discuss your ideas with a colleague who may have greater awareness of the organisation’s relationship with that customer, e.g. is there a Service Level Agreement or contract in place? What does it say?

Values
Read and/or watch How Do Values Work? so you can recognise how fundamental they are to a person’s wellbeing. Pay attention to what customers tell you or show about their values. Get in the habit of asking “What’s important to you about that?”

Differences
When a customer disagrees with you look for their positive motivation behind the behaviour even if your first instinct is anger or frustration. For example, they may be anxious about their rights, or worried about their internal reputation. Use the ideas in The Power of Empathy. Then vary your response appropriately.

Customer Surveys
If it’s possible, use customer surveys to gain an insight into how you are perceived as an organisation.