Let's say that the values of the speaker in the passage above
are:
❏ Effective use of time.
❏ Openness and honesty.
❏ Up-to-date ideas.
❏ Initiative.
The depth of the rapport you build will depend on your ability
to match these values in what you say and what you do. If you
start to ramble in the way you respond and if you wait to be
asked the next question, you probably won't be very successful.
If, on the other hand, you answer concisely and openly,
telling the other person frankly what you can and cannot do,
and if you take the lead in asking questions, then you will
probably make good progress. This will only ring true, however,
if they are values that you also hold.
At one of our open evenings I was talking to a manager of a
computer call center. He was explaining the problems they had
been having with their computer system. He also explained that
when he raised these problems with the software suppliers they
poured people on to the site. I also happen to know the software
suppliers and I know that when they did that they believed they
were satisfying the customer’s needs. They didn’t have a surplus
of staff, so it was a big decision to put so much resource into one
place. How sad, then, that it wasn’t what the customer wanted!
They had made a judgment about what to do based on their own
values and evidence of fulfillment for customer satisfaction, not
those of the client.
What was in fact important to the customer was personal
one-to-one reassurance, not only that the current bugs in the
system would be fixed but explanations of what the supplier was
doing to prevent any similar bugs appearing in the system in the
future.
Everyone has their own way of satisfying their needs, their
evidence of fulfillment. It is crucial to know your customers'
evidence of fulfilment and to find ways of meeting this if you
want to succeed in business.
DEVELOP A CLIMATE OF TRUST: RAPPORT 303