"People don't care how
much you know until they know how much you care." This is one of my favorite quotes. I especially love it in a business
setting. When you run a company, I
believe caring is possibly the most important lessons you can learn. Empathy is a critically underrated
characteristic of business leadership. Whether
we're talking about your customers, your employees or even your vendors, showing
how much you care is how you become relevant.
Customers
Customers want to know
how much you care because when you are in buyer mode, the mindset is "what's in it for
me?" Demonstrating care instantly
creates a less stressful buying atmosphere and begins to answer the "what's in it for
me" question. In fact the pandemic
created such a low customer service atmosphere that research showed customers
willing to pay more for better customer service. Customers don't care how much product
knowledge you know until they know how much you care about them as a customer.
Employees
Employees really want
to know how much you care before they could give 2 flips about what you know. In fact, most employees feel like they know
more about their jobs and possibly your company than their boss. For this reason,
you had better show them that you care about them first or you will never truly
break down that veneer and if you can't bread down the personal veneer you will
never get the best that they can offer. You
want employees and a workforce that will go the extra mile? Walk through walls
for you? You must show them how much you
care and they will then care about how much you know.
Vendors
Finally, even your
vendors want to know how much you care about them. Most of us would rather do business with a
partner rather than a pure transactional vendor. The best vendor relationships are born in
relationship first. Whether its pricing,
customer service, better product recommendations, response time, all of the benefits
we seek from a vendor, they're all made better when we have relationship.
The Joy Of This Blog
The Joy of this blog is that in every aspect of
business leading with empathy, listening with intention, and showing how much you care opens the door for you
to show your customers, employees, and vendors just how much you know. That's what leads to better opportunities, increased employee engagement and ultimately greater profitability.