This is my second year that I meet Caroline Curik at the ARPIN booth. The ARPIN staff manning the booth always have a great smile, know them as a great international moving company and have many “doggy-friendly” gadgets as give-aways.
Back to Caroline… in her spare time she is a coach in a discipline called NLP (Neuro Language Programming). So, I asked Caroline if NLP can help our staff tackle changes in the Company so as to best service our customers. We were fortunate because Caroline agreed to come to Italy for a week and give sessions to our staff and furthermore spend some time with management. Our clients needs are changing and the way that we offer services is radically different than even 3 years ago. Also, the margins are lower and the question is how to maintain quality at the lower level of pricing with this every-changing client base that nevertheless expects service.
There is a lot that we have learned in the past week speaking with Caroline and one of the most important gems that we partook in our conversation is that the service provider, should change their perspective rather than asking your client to change theirs whilst under incredible stress, with new job, new country and new language. You cannot further ask them to change their expectations! And, this new outlook does not cost anymore! So, how do you do it? Focus:
- With Whom Are you Speaking?
- What Do you Want to Say?
- What Are you Trying to Achieve?
Everybody lives in their own world and to complete the “puzzle” you need to understand their frame of mind, where do they want to go and how can we help them to achieve these goals.
If you are open enough to their perspective you can tailor the journey.