How to build strong relationships

Deliver on your promises time and again. No good or strong friendships are just based on the first impressions, they have to be built up over a set period of time; certainly it’s not going to happen overnight.

You have to be able to provide your customer with something that they feel they haven’t as of yet seen from someone else. Again, when you’re in a commoditized world like we are, that’s not easy. I would think the only way to do that is to develop that relationship, and again, time is the only way that’s going to work.

You’ve got to be able to say, ‘We’re going to do this,’ whatever this is. ‘We’re going to make sure it happens that way,’ whatever that is. And then once you make that delivery, make sure you follow up and say, ‘Did it work that way; did you get what you wanted?’

Then after two, three, four, five, six times, however many times it takes, you hope the customer then says, ‘OK, I know practice makes perfect; it’s not just a fly-by-night operation. It’s somebody that will give me that consistency on a every time I need it sort of basis.’

In my opinion, it’s probably going to be more than likely something that evolves, as opposed to just happens.

Maintain an honest relationship. If you’re going to say, ‘I’ll have it there Friday’ … make sure it’s there Friday. If you can’t have it there Friday, make sure you follow up on the original commitment and say, ‘OK, I know I said Friday; it’s now going to be Monday.’ Don’t just walk away from the commitment you made and cross your fingers with the hope that it goes away.

If you’re going to make a commitment, live and die by it. If you’re going to miss that commitment for whatever reason, be honest about it.

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