Client Interaction Activities

Coaching to the ideal client definition is important. Skills and knowledge need to be highlighted and practiced. Practice is necessary for improvement. Active listening and paraphrasing are essential skills. Coaching should not be left to chance. Active listening shows attentiveness and effort. A story about a waiter highlights the importance of writing things down for better client experience. Coaching is necessary for ideal client interaction. Questions and practice are important. When you're coaching to the ideal client definition, that will serve you very well. I go back to your definition. I go back to the attributes, active listening, paraphrasing, kindness, thoughtful, consistent product, knowledge, dissemination, whatever it might be. And I would highlight in two pens your definition. In one color, I would highlight the required skills. And then in another color, highlight the area that represents knowledge. Knowledge, they need to be able to teach it back and maybe define it or paraphrase it back. To know something is to have the ability to teach it. And then the ones that are highlighted in skill, you have to practice. One of the biggest flaws that we have in the training, the learning, the leadership world, and we all know that we're busy. If your people are not practicing, they're not going to arbitrarily get better. So think about how you want people to sound. Let me give you a really quick story. We had somebody who was at a recreational boating company. Phenomenal employee, great attitude. But when she talked, her tone, she sounded angry. It was really interesting. And somebody said, well, you can't really coach to that. And I said, well, sure you can. And what we did is we had her practice conversations standing up. And then we would have her take two-minute walk breaks every maybe 30 minutes between calls. And what she ended up sounding was more energetic. She sounded friendly. Her jaw was up. She didn't sound as rough. And so if you don't practice things that facilitate the ideal client interaction, the ideal client interaction doesn't arbitrarily get better. Now, let me give you another one, active listening. When was the last time somebody said to you, well, here are the three things that I've heard you say. Is there anything potentially I'm remiss in bringing up? So, again, when you are coaching, when you are coaching, don't leave it to chance. So, again, active listening is the ability to paraphrase back. Most people don't practice that. Yet when we do it, when we actually perform active listening, it is the greatest thing we can show someone that we're listening, we're attentive, and even when we get it wrong, people still love that we make that effort. Let me give you another example. As I'm recording this audio, last night I had dinner at a great place. We had an awesome waiter, and my wife and I went out, and we're sitting there, and the waiter's just staring at us as he's taking our order. He's not writing it down. He walks away. Now, keep in mind, great guy, phenomenal server. We knew we were going to tip him well, and I looked right at my wife, and she goes, I know what you're going to say. I said, he's going to come back with something wrong, and it's going to get me angry because he's just better off writing it down. Sure enough, wrong salad dressing. Happens all the time. And I said, when he came back, he said, is everything okay? I said, absolutely everything is fantastic. You are a great waiter. He said, oh, thank you. I said, do you know you brought me the wrong salad dressing? I said, I want to let you know I'm not mad, yet I'm curious. Help me understand. Why don't you write things down? And he said, it slows me down. I said, oh, okay. So he wasn't mad. We weren't mad. He came back. He said, you know, that's a really good question you asked me. He said, why did you ask that? I said, I'm wondering if you're doing that for your own purpose at the expense of the client experience. He said, you know what I am. About two minutes later, my wife and I pay our bill, and we tipped him while he was a great young man. We walk away. All of a sudden, we see him with a pad of paper. That's why we coach people, everybody. That's why we coach. The ideal client interaction, especially when it comes to activities, requires questions and practice.