“If you believe business is built on relationships, make building them your business.”
– Scott Stratten
I want to discuss the foundation of how a business grows with relationships. One of the reasons that I think we are most successful at Your Employment Solutions when it comes to being a rockstar staffing agency is the relationships that we create and how we make our client businesses feel.
How did we make them feel valued? It’s the simple things that count in strengthening relationships – and this stays true in business. We decided to make random visits to see how they our clients were doing. We then started to bring the crew donuts and pizza to show them our appreciation for their business. Small acts like these go a long way.
I have also noticed that one of our biggest downfalls is talking too much. Everyone likes to talk about themselves and some can go all day doing it. I’m sure each one of us can think of someone that has impacted our lives because that person “listened” and “focused” all their attention to us. Ask a few genuine questions about what the supervisors are going to be doing over the weekend, or vacations planned, etc. If we want to really knock their socks off, we can follow up with them. Show them that we care.
Here is what a few of our co-workers here at Your Employment Solutions had to say on the importance of how our business is built on relationships with our clients.
Sandra Clark | Shoot the Breeze
I would like to share the relationship on two small accounts that I manage. Both of these accounts are small, yet they are more old school when It comes working with them. I have grown with them over the years. The two supervisors are old farmer guys and they have been doing animal feed and running mills since there were kids.
I meet with them both on a regularly basis during their busy season. We shoot the breeze and talk about the year to come and what they are going to need moving forward. I walk around the mills with them and by doing this it helps me understand the type of person that will best fit their job positions and stay working with them.
They are a family company and consider all employees and temporary workers a part of their family. Not only have they been serving the farmers of downtown Ogden for over a decade. They take pride in helping people with work. I believe getting to know the people behind your accounts and the supervisors face-to-face is key to a great relationship.
Brigham Yates | The Art of the Lunch Meeting
Personalizing relationships are so very important in our industry. If a client can get to know you they’ll learn a little about your background and also about what type of person you are. This goes both ways though. If we can find out a little more about who they are and how they think, then we can approach them in very different ways.
Recently, with one of my clients we had been struggling to break through with a supervisor. Every time we wanted to sit down with him he was always too busy. He would only give us couple seconds of his time. I decided to take him out to lunch where I would get more then just those couple seconds.
Now, what he didn’t know is that he would be running the entire conversation and talking about himself. I like to call this the (eating ice cream while playing ping pong effect). All I did was ask a question and get him started talking. See, once you get someone engaged on something that they like that’s all they want to talk about.
So I would just ask a question…
“Oh, really? Tell me more!”
…and he would continue on talking. It wasn’t soon until I had eaten all my food and he was apologizing for taking so long. He hadn’t even realized that he was the one doing all the talking. By that simple, casual lunch meeting he was able to open up. He now casually makes it into our office almost weekly to give us updates on not only our employees but his full-time employees.
Catherine Bryan | The Phone Relationship
I currently manage an account where I always work with the supervisor. I normally call him on the phone and talk directly to him about most issues. The phone calls have strengthened our relationship dramatically vs. email as we are able to get know each other and learn more about our individual roles.
Talking to the supervisor directly has personalized our experience more so than an email ever could. I have noticed that by strictly sending emails, I miss out on opportunities to connect with our clients and learn more about them and their roles. For example, there are supervisors (from accounts I do not manage) that I have never had an opportunity to speak with directly and there is a huge difference relationship-wise.
I am glad for the opportunities I have to connect with our supervisors on a more personal level.
In Conclusion
Im sure that everyone has their “own” method on building a synergistic relationship with their prospective clients. It can be Brigham’s method of “eating ice cream while playing ping pong”, or Sandra’s “shooting the breeze” or just Catherine’s approach of a phone call.
Reed Laws, the president of Your Employment Solutions, puts it this way, “You can’t help someone if you don’t know who they are. Also, do something for someone else just because. Expect nothing in return and you will see the true strength of a healthy relationship’s power.”
Truly, business is built on relationships and if we can build our relationships stronger, our success as a staffing agency will grow exponentially.
Jordon Cissna
Account Manager
Your Employment Solutions
