Over the years through my own, and my father’s, experience, I’ve learned that there are various types of companies and organizations, but at the end of the day, relationships are perhaps the most determining factor for their success, or demise.
Photo Credit: 2 Much Caffeine
Whether it’s with your customers, or your co-workers, you want to make sure that both sides get along well. If colleagues don’t get along, that hinders the progress and overall quality of the work. If your customers don’t appreciate doing business with you, they simply won’t.
You can learn a little bit about every company you work with, simply by the way their people address each other, not by the way they address you. If you come in an office, and no one cares about your arrival except for the exaggeratedly-polite receptionist, it’s definitely a clear sign that something is wrong.
Ask yourself, what message do you get from it. And then ask yourself what message you’d take if you entered the same office and everyone noticed your arrival and smiled or greeted you. If you can get past the receptionist’s smile, the business conversations, then you can get a glimpse of what each company is like, and why you should or shouldn’t be doing business with them.
Do they have toys on their table? Personal things? Or is everything tidy and barren, as if it were a pretty picture? The less personal the spaces the employees work at are, the less comfortable they are with the place they are at.
You have the money, and you’re about to pay a company for services. Why should you care if the team gets along? Why should you care if they seem happy about what they’re doing?
It’s so easy to tarnish a reputation that it’s scary. The more work I do, the more involved I get with people, the more I realize that if everyone’s agenda is against yours, your life will incredibly worse for it. Whether it’s delays, lack of quality or, in extreme cases, insubordination.
The spokesperson for the company will have to play his role: make excuses, use all his bargaining chips… And you want your work done, you want what you payed for. You’ve entered the point of no return where you won’t give up until you squeeze your money’s worth out of them, and that always ends badly.
And you can avoid all that, just by getting to know the company a little. Get involved, not just with the spokesperson. Insist on speaking with the people doing the work for them. If you show appreciation for everyone’s work, they’ll feel more motivated to give you a better product.
As nice and convincing as any salesperson can be they aren’t the people who will be doing the work for you. Keep that in mind next time you pay for a service.