How Much Do You Care?

This may sound a bit trite, but the more I learn about client service excellence and great leadership, the more obvious it is that it's all about caring. Combine all the practical experience with all the scholarly theories one can assemble, and it comes down to who cares the most.

When I say caring, I mean caring about everything and everyone - results, relationships, employees, clients, vendors, media, etc. Caring fuels passion and an indomitable will to win. Sometimes when I watch attorneys preparing and defending a client's innocence in a court of law, I think about the stakes. It's often about whether a man will spend the rest of his life in prison or go home to his family. The stakes don't get much higher than that, so if you're not prepared to do the work it takes to prevail ( to care enough), then the defendant needs another lawyer. In the communication business, it's when the client needs a new agency.

A few years ago, I worked for Mullen for a brief time. I participated in a new business pitch one day, and the CEO Joe Grimaldi closed the presentation by stating to the prospect: "You won't come across another agency who will "care" more than Mullen about your business and your success!" I'd had been at the agency just long enough at the time to want to stand up in that moment and say, "he's right, you know!" I had worked for a number of agencies over the years, and it was the first time in my life I had ever heard those words from a CEO delivered with such sincerity. What's more, I knew the words were backed by a culture that he, Edward Boches, and others had built over the years that could actually deliver on such an assertion.

At Mullen, everybody cares! Fortunately, the client was astute enough to believe him and Mullen won the business. I would imagine the agency continues to serve that client today with the same level of caring that was demonstrated during the pitch. That's because it's who they are.

We're still in the midst of a difficult economy, where the stakes for most enterprises are higher than ever. If you believe in the premise that whoever cares the most wins, then it may be time to ask, how much do I care? And is it enough?

Client Service or Client Relationships?

I was struck by two posts recently that make me feel I (we) have this whole client service terminology all wrong. The first post was from Terry Morawski where he talks about the arc of his relationship with social media. He realizes now of course that social media is A tool, not necessarily THE tool when it comes to marketing communication because it's the relationship, not the tools that matter most. Edward Boches also wrote a terrific post about three new business presentations delivered by Mullen interns that showed incredible promise - not just for their social media prowess, but more for their understanding of building relationships and employing all of today's tools to do so.

Let me add that last week I read Marshall Goldsmith's book, What Got You Here Won't Get You There - a fitting title included in my Carousel of Recommended Books. Marshall talked about the need for many leaders to improve their listening skills, and while he offers some great advice, at the end of the day I thought, you'll never be a good listener unless you care enough about what the other person is saying to pay attention. I believe the model for client service excellence is similar.

The idea that we "service" our clients and, by doing it well, hope to build a relationship is backwards, and the young people coming up in the world today are about to prove it. Their perspective will offer us a model for building great relationships on multiple levels and doing right by the people with whom we do business - ensuring this notion of customer service excellence.

You won't offer truly excellent client service unless you care, and you won't care enough unless you have a strong relationship with your client and a true passion for their business. Build a relationship to improve service, not the other way around.

*Image from jkvirtualoffice.com

Relentless

In the 300 or so posts I've written about client service (combining Season 1 and Season 2), I've mentioned a number of key concepts that are crucial to achieving client service excellence. They include trust, communication, leadership, relationship, etc.

Today, I want to talk about being relentless - as in relentless advocates for your clients. It's not only a great word with a terrific onomatopoeia quality to it, but also a concept that's important for your clients to know regarding your commitment as an agency. That in addition to being a highly skilled, trusted partner, you're absolutely relentless about being successful on their behalf. Ask yourself whether you believe your clients would describe you as relentless. And if not, why not?

When I was interviewing with Mullen, I noted its tagline which included the words "Relentless Creativity." At the conclusion of the first major agency presentation with which I was involved, our CEO Joe Grimaldi ended it by saying (and I'm paraphrasing), "You'll never find an agency partner who cares more than we will about your business."

After having been at Mullen for several months now, I can tell you that I suspect he's right. I see how the act of being relentless simply comes from caring enough. They're two sides of the same coin. If you care enough about the work, one another, and your clients, you won't give up trying to be better or more successful. You won't relent. Show clients you care, and you're likely to keep them for a very long time.

Starting Monday May 19th, our PR team is getting together to launch relentlessPR. It's a team blog covering a broad range of topics that will illustrate the integrated lens with which we see our business and the way we approach our work. Even though we don't start officially until next week, feel free to visit, read our introductory post and About page, and add it to your RSS feed!

In the meantime, think about the words relentless and caring and what they mean in your agency.