dispatches from the new world of work

"We are now allowed"

I was conducting a workshop yesterday with hotel industry salespeople. We were discussing how to have meaningful encounters with customers, and had arrived at a section of the workshop that focused on getting beyond the facade of business roles ("salesperson" and "customer") to see each other as unique, special people.

One participant commented: "We are now allowed to talk about things beyond business, to ask about our customers' personal lives, so we can get to know them as people."

I loved how she articulated that. Her belief—which I share—is that we have arrived at a point in time where genuine human encounter in business is more valued than ever. It is accepted and expected to go beyond the strict bounds of business to create meaningful business relationships.

And, of course, this means that it is not only appropriate to seek to know a customer as a real person, it is important for the person who is selling to reveal his or her humanity. Salespeople playing the role of salespeople is out. Salespeople being themselves is in.

Steve Yastrow posted this on 10/26/06.

Comments

Maybe the next giant cultural step is to understand front line staff are in fact the same wonderful people with the same wonderful ideas as they are when they are not at work. It irritates me that some people might promote using the inherent skills of our front line people as some sort of radical new thinking. I deliver customer care workshops for front line reception staff in healthcare settings and it never ceases to amaze me how managers just do not â€˜allowâ€™ their staff to open up and share feelings and thoughts with the customer. The concept of having a â€˜checklistâ€™ for customer care that front line staff have to follow mechanically is another irritant. Feelings are feelings â€“ since when did we need a checklist to be nice? This is not rocket science. Great post Steve - thank you!

Posted by Trevor Gay at October 26, 2006 9:42 AM

"TAKE all the money from front line staff ..." as Trevor mandates - AGREE 1000% ....... :>]

Posted by seanistan at October 26, 2006 10:59 AM

Dear Steve:

Really great post.

Humanity have lost that approach to be what all we are...Humans.

Successful companies today and in the future will be only those who respect people for what they are.

And this was proved by the Nobel Prize Mr. Muhammad Yunus.

Best regards

Juan Miguel

Posted by Juan Miguel Robles Vargas at October 26, 2006 11:31 AM

"We are now allowed to talk about things beyond business"...What is interesting is the word "ALLOWED" ...When you do something because you are "ALLOWED" to do it and not because you genuinely "WANT" to do it, I think you are still a ROBOT.

This is definitely an encouraging trend .But i think the first thing we need to overcome is that "ROBOT" mentality.

Posted by namith at October 26, 2006 12:18 PM

While I believe this is a good trend in general, I think also cultural and personality issues can make intimacy seem excessive.

There is a higher proportion of introverts out there than the group of people here at TP reflects. And not all extroverts are always anxious to share their personal lives at all times. I'm very outgoing, but I've been inconvenienced by excessive chattiness at places where all I wanted to do was get to my room and put my feet up after an airport-airline Festival of National Security & Craptastic Customer Disservice.

I love that staff are being invited to consider personalised interactions, but it requires sensitivity on both sides, and not everyone is good at recognizing when it's okay.

When it works, it's brilliant; it doesn't always work.

Posted by jeff angus at October 26, 2006 12:55 PM

Creating great service can only be done through the diligent, everyday efforts of real people. Building a business or a brand is about building relationships, the more powerful the relationship, the more powerful the brand. When we remove the rules and allow people to be smart about the business, good things can happen. When we try to orchastrate service from the "corporate" chairs we tend to stop the personal side of service. Train people on goals and results not on activities.

Posted by Jack Dillon at October 26, 2006 12:58 PM

One of the things I see young sales people struggle with, is building "business relationships". I believe that there is a difference between a business relationship and one you might have with a friend. There is absolutely nothing wrong with some personal interaction in a business relationship, but its knowing where "the line is" that can prove challenging. Getting to know a client is smart, telling them all your personal problems probably isn't! With that caveat I like, and agree with, the principles behind this blog posting.

Posted by Kevin Dee at October 26, 2006 4:42 PM

Thanks for the comments ... a few points.

To Trevor's comment about front line staff: This sales workshop was one of many for this client over a number of days. We had similiar conversations with front line people about being themselves on the job, and letting their personalities show through. I'm happy to say that they and their employer both value this.

To namith: Clearly, "allowed" doesn't mean that people are robots looking for permission at every turn. What it means is that our cultural norms now "allow" people to engage in business encounters in ways that would not have been kosher in the days of Darren Stevens or Peter Keating. (Extra points for people who place both references.)

To Jeff angus: I agree that different people have different skills at engaging, and different willingness to be engaged. My experience is that the unscripted, natural employee who is acting like himself will more naturally want to engage and will know how much the other person wants to engage. After all, even relative introverts are pretty good at interpersonal engagement on the weekends.

Jack - the more powerful the relationship, the more powerful the brand. Amen. Major theme in my upcoming book, which I'll share more on later.

Kevin ... I agree, and similar to what I said above, I think that people acting in a natural way and not playing a fake business role will better know where that line should be drawn. After all, we're all pretty good at being ourselves!

Posted by Steve Yastrow at October 26, 2006 5:23 PM

Agreed Steve BUT a word of caution: Many high profile people (guests) wouldnâ€™t like to reveal their personal (dark secrets!) â€˜hush hushâ€™ to a bunch of frontline staff working in the hospitality sector. Therefore, it is pertinent for the frontline staff to know their limits in dealing with a customer who always has the right to feel & believe that you are invading into his privacy! But, I definitely agree with what you say â€˜Salespeople being themselves is inâ€™â€¦you have no choice now!

Posted by K.Sriram at October 27, 2006 2:07 AM

K. - you're totally right, but the good news is that you don't have to reveal deep dark secrets to have a human encounter. It could be something much subtler that helps the front line person get an insight into how to engage with this person. Maybe the guest feels comfortable enough with the front desk person to talk about his rough day, which enables the employee to personalize the response. And ... if you're truly engaged with a guest it's much easier to know what's appropriate. Scripts are inflexible, conversations are informed.

I did a really interesting exercise with bellmen/doorman/front desk/concierge people during this series of workshops where I asked them what it would take for a guest to know you as "John ... the bellman," vs. "the bellman .... John." May sound a little corny, but they loved it. And, most importantly, they didn't respond with theory; they actually told me what they did. If a company lets its front line people act naturally, they can do amazing things.

Posted by Steve Yastrow at October 27, 2006 7:11 AM

We need to stop bitching about front line workers and realize this is a management issue and not a front line issue. We need to do a better job in the hiring process, a lot better job in the developing process and a heck of a lot better job in the recoginition process. Time and attention is all there is. That is from Mr. Peters!

Posted by Jack Dillon at October 27, 2006 7:55 AM

We all know that in this day of technology, the front line already has a lot of personal information about each one of us compiled from the series of transactions we have had with the company to date. If they use it to help the customer be better served, then everyone benefits. In the hotel case, the customer is happier since the company already knows their preferences, and can feel valued if the hotel knows and honors their past requests.

Posted by diana at October 27, 2006 9:39 PM

Jack - you're totally right ... it's a management issue. Front line people are just as interesting at home as CEO's are. Management just has to give them space to be that interesting at work.

Posted by Steve Yastrow at October 28, 2006 8:06 AM

Front LINE can EAT Cake - I think I have that right from Trevor - TAKE ALL from them [even the thin ones they plan to smoke on break] >:] ...

Posted by sean at October 28, 2006 6:04 PM

I'm writing from Italy. In Italy doing business is often a question of personal relation. You know somebody and then you go to present your business. Often we are very beyond business. I think that it is important for a salesperson to develop the skill to introduce himself to a new company without having a prior relation. This is what we have to learn to do in our country. It is important to consider the humanity of our customers, of course. It's also important to remain focused on the fact that the relation has to be profitable for our companies first. I mean, I can think that the vendor A or the customer B are not nice, but I do have to develop the skill to run business with little regard of my personal preferences. This is professionalism!

Posted by Adriana at November 27, 2006 8:24 AM