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

Social Media's Three Rs

What are they? Reading, Writing, and Relationships. And by recycling the recycling logo itself, we even have a fitting graphic for the 3 Rs of social media.

I've spent several posts on writing blogs and reading content from others online, but the most important R of all is relationships. It's what makes social media social. From the comfort of your own home or office, you can build real relationships with customers and countless other stakeholders anywhere in the world. You can share ideas with the terrifically smart individuals you'll discover and build lasting friendships with people whom you may never meet face-to-face.

It's actually amazing how well you can get to know someone online. To illustrate the point, one of my former learning team members in Seton Hall's MASCL program is a dentist. He told me that he got to know his online classmates better than he did the students he sat next to everyday in dental school. It's kind of like the difference between staying in a hotel and taking a cruise; there's something about everyone being in the same boat that promotes an entirely different level of interaction and sharing.

Social media provides a plethora of reading, writing, and relationship resources. Let's face it, the three Rs of social media and the three Rs of PR are two sides of the same coin. Now you just have to convince the rest of your colleagues.

Client Service and The Relationship Toolbox

Bryant Hilton writes a blog called Great Communicate. In his post It's All About Networking, Bryant talks about online and offline persona and touches on the relationship tools available to us today whether it's blogs, Linkedin, Facebook, Twitter, etc.

In my comment to Bryant, I briefly explained that several years ago I participated in a client meeting and when the subject of social media came up I was really at a loss. I left the meeting believing that if I didn't learn about social media soon, I would be left behind. (Mowing lawns in 5 years is what I muttered to myself). So I took the plunge. What I soon realized is that to learn social media you've got to engage in it. In the same way you couldn't learn to play golf by reading a book, social media can't be taught, it must be learned.

With the help of Niall Cook at H&K, I started a blog and have been learning ever since. As PR professionals, we're in the business of building relationships. To serve our clients well, we need to understand and avail ourselves of all the relationship tools necessary to be successful.

Over the next several posts, I'd like to share what I've learned and invite you to share your experiences as well. We're all learning. Let's do it together.