One of my favorite books is Getting Naked by Patrick Lencioni. Spoiler alert… there’s no pictures. It’s all great words about nakedness in the customer service sense.
“At its core, naked service boils down to the ability of a service provider to be vulnerable—to embrace uncommon levels of humility, selflessness, and transparency for the good of a client”. Patrick M. Lencioni – Getting Naked: A Business Fable About Sheeding The Three Fears That Sabotage Client Loyalty
We always want to do what’s right for our clients. But at times that can be difficult. Being naked can mean that you need to be so vulnerable that profits are the last thing to be considered. And at times you don’t always win even though you want to.
At Coolphase our up-front nature is our way of being naked, and honesty which at times to our detriment is our number 1 priority. For example, we’ve had great practical ideas or money saving initiatives presented to and then whooshed away by a prospective client. The so called future client takes our pitch and presents them to their cheaper “Bob the Fridgy” mate down the road, and bam, the work is gone. Does that stop us? No never, we would prefer to do the right (unclothed) thing.
So what to you is success? A million dollars, or the knowledge that you have helped someone or a particular business reach their full potential. Everyone is different, everyone can be motivated by what best suits them. For me, for us, we are are here to serve, we take pleasure from doing what’s best for others. We want our customers to know that we are helping them, not just looking after our bottom line. I guess that’s why being naked really works at Coolphase.
Ultimately if you are honest, up-front, vulnerable and consistent your clients will trust you. You will develop long standing relationships. You will achieve high levels of customer loyalty. Your peolple will be successful and they will appreciate the ease and freedom of being naked.
GRAVITIC 