In my previous post, I listed four key feelings that clients need to experience in their dealings with us if we want to achieve great client relationships.
In this part, we’ll start by looking more closely at the first of these four feelings – connection.
Foundations
Connection serves as the foundation the entire relationship will be built on. When a strong sense of connection is established early on in our dealings with clients, everything else becomes almost frictionless.
Have you ever experienced the situation where you hit it off with a client, and when the discussion turns to a possible surgical procedure they insist you be the one to do the surgery, even though they don’t know anything about your surgical skills?
For all the client knows, you’re a complete butcher – but because they like you, they trust you will have their best interests at heart.
When someone feels a connection with you, they want to trust you. Hence, the client will be more open to what you have to say to overlook problems.
It’s not logical, but then nothing about emotions is.
Creating environment
So, how do we create the right environment for connection?
What follows are some very practical tips to make it happen. Some of these may seem very obvious – if someone tells you the first step to running a marathon is to remember to tie your shoelaces, you may think it’s too basic to even mention; however, I’ve seen many vets stumble (indeed, I’ve often stumbled) at the starting line amid the chaos of a busy practice because they forget those very basics.
Which is why I’ve created a structured format to help me remember the steps.
Part one introduced you to the CTR-C acronym to help memorise the broad outline. Now, I’ll present you with my silly mnemonic to help me memorise the ingredients that will help you foster connection.
IS IT CHE(ESY)?
- Intentions
- Smile
- Introduction
- Touch
- Common ground
- Humour
- Empathy
-ESY is just to finish the sentence. Maybe you can come up with three more?
- The next post will dig deeper into how to use each of the connection tools.
Leave a Reply