Customer relationships are like love
Gagné has discovered that there is a tendency to eulogise the qualities of our loved ones and this increases at crunch times in our relationships.
It is proposed that the benefits of a love partnership are very similar to those in a business relationship in that the outcomes of collaboration exceed the ability of an individual's achievements. Of course relationships never run smoothly and so any strategy that keeps a relationship going is potentially useful.
It has been discussed in “Mating Intelligence: Sex, Relationships and the Mind's Reproductive System” edited by Glenn Geagr and Geoffrey Miller, that there are some self delusional strategies that play in both sides of a relationship that keep them going. The strategy runs along the lines of, “maybe I am deceiving myself, but that's how it feels to me” – and this can work just as well in business relationships.
A supplier to a customer needs to have strategies that make the customer feel positive and rewarded by the existence of a relationship. This will involve various strategies to make the person feel good which is just as important as delivering some of the outputs required in the relationship.
Of particular importance is to build the esteem and status of the customer and this is done by talking about their achievements to other people and giving them feedback on how they compare to other companies who are undertaking similar but not as successful initiatives.
For example, people are more likely to lie to avoid making a partner angry and provided the lie is never discovered, or in fact never of significant consequence, the lie will be made and believed by the recipient provided it has a shred of inherent believability.
As partners in an emotional relationship will lie about their virginity, it is positive for a supplier to also talk about some of the unique achievements that have been borne by the business relationship.
So a successful supplier to a customer needs to talk about the benefits of the relationship, the amount of time they will spend working on activities that provide benefit for the relationship, conceal any failures and exaggerate the outcomes of the work – just little white lies that go to maintaining a successful relationship.
What do you think? - you, as an outstandingly attractive and successful individual!